Literature major Maggie Fromm '06 has been awarded third prize in the 2005 Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest. Her winning submission, Liminal Letters: Writing Between the Spaces in Emma, was prompted, she says, by JASNA's efforts to promote new scholarship about Austen's own letters to her sisters, as well as the letters of her fictional characters.
Fromm focused on the writings within a single Austen novelEmmarather than a broader examination of the author's many correspondences. As part of the essay contest, she also was asked to write about a professor who had influenced her studies of AustenFromm named associate professor of literature Audrey Bilger.
"Let's just say I never really was an Austen fan," Fromm says. "I had tried, earlier, to read Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, and I couldn't get through either. I didn't get the dry wit. But Professor Bilger introduced me to Northanger Abbeya satire on the gothic novel. I thought it was hilarious. It was complicated just enough to keep me on my toes, but not so dry as to turn me away.
"Once I completed that novel, I went back and read some of Austen's others," Fromm says. "I thought maybe I needed to give them a second look."
Although she still categorizes Austen as a "developing favorite" among her most beloved authors, her JASNA award is not without the sort of irony that Austen herself might appreciate. Coincidentally, while studying abroad at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, Fromm submitted the very same essay to her then-literature tutor, as part of an assignment. The response was less than luke-warm.
"She felt it was too narrow," Fromm says, laughing. "In fact, her exact word was reductive.' I was stunned because that's a word that no literature major ever wants to hear.
"But I guess it illustrates the difference between the two educational systems," Fromm says.
As a third-place recipient, Fromm, whose post-graduate plans include pursuing a Ph.D. in literature, will receive a year's membership in JASNA as well as a certificate, presented at the group's annual conference. She also hopes to publish her essay.
"Maggie is a remarkable student with a gift for both analytic and creative thought," notes Bilger. "Her intellectual curiosity and genuine interest in literature have earned her the respect of every member of the literature department with whom she has studied."
Fromm will assist Bilger in her research this year as a Dunbar Fellow. "It's a rare opportunity to work so closely with the caliber of professors that we have in the literature department," Fromm says. "I am excited by the fact that I will be learning so much, while at the same time offering my own strengths to the project. And to top it all off, Professor Bilger is just plain fun to be around."
An avid reader at a young age, Fromm says she always borrowed the maximum number of books allowed on her card when frequenting the library with her mother and twin sister. Her favorite authors include Dante, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison ("Her new book, Love, is brilliantly wrought") and Julia Alvarez ("Her book, In the Time of the Butterflies is one of the bravest stories I have ever read.")