Research Symposium

BIO

Zoe Rue is a senior from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a major in Editing, Writing, and Media and a minor in Communication. Her research interests include nineteenth century British literature—specifically novels by Jane Austen—as well as popular genre fiction, romance novels, adaptations/remixes, feminism, and the way that these topics intersect. She hopes to pursue a career within the publishing industry.
Zoe is a content editor and former staff writer for Her Campus at FSU, where she leads a team of writers. She has interned with FSU’s Museum of Everyday Writing, performed archival work, and curated her own exhibit centering around book annotations. She is also a part of FSU’s Honors Program and has taught Honors Colloquium to first-year Honors students.
She is involved with her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, for which she is the Song Chair and has previously served as the Director of Senior Experience; she is also a member of Order of Omega, an honor society for leadership in Greek Life. She performs as a soprano 1 with Levana, FSU’s treble choir.

Jane Austen and Twenty-First-Century Romance

Abstract

“Jane Austen and Twenty-First-Century Romance” explores the connections between Austen’s novels and the modern romance genre. This thesis analyzes Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) and two twenty-first-century retellings—Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Eligible (2016) and Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding’s novel Elizabeth of East Hampton (2024)—which remix Austen’s original text in the form of modern romance novels. My research shows that many of the tropes, plotlines, and character archetypes popular in modern romance novels were established and popularized by Austen.
The ties between Austen’s novels and twenty-first-century romance novels have remained largely unexplored. The romance genre is often overlooked as a scholarly subject, despite its prominence within the publishing industry and its emotional resonance to its readers—particularly women. Moreover, my research is significant because much of the recent scholarship about adaptations of Austen’s novels focuses on films rather than books. This project bridges gaps in scholarship to showcase the lasting relevance of Austen’s work and how today’s romance genre is often inherently inspired by Austen’s writing, continuing her feminist legacy.

Keywords: fiction, literature, Austen, romance, remix