Digitizing the World of Elizabeth and Darcy

Our English 251 class at BYU is currently studying literature in the digital age.  For our semester project, we are going to be creating a e-book that details our findings, specifically relating to the Amazon and Kindle platforms.  To help facilitate this, Dr. Burton (our professor) asked that we explain our concept in terms of a novel that we love.  My concept, thus far, is going to deal with "reconsumption of literature."  Now, "reconsumption" is a term that I completely made up, and I talk about it more in this blog post.  Hopefully, as I delve further into my topic, I will be able to find others who agree with my point of thinking.

Basically, I have noticed that platforms such as Goodreads and Amazon have allowed users to come back to literary works they had not perviously liked, cared for, or just not shown an interest in.  I would like to discuss my topic in terms of Pride and Prejudice, because I truly love that book.  I was skeptical that it would work for my topic because it is such a well-loved novel, but after looking at reviews on Goodreads, I realize quite a few users had hated it before and were posting a review because they gained a new appreciation for the novel.

I would also like to focus on Pride and Prejudice because it is a classic, and it can be accessed in many places under the Creative Common's license (I think).  I believe that the novel's accessibility adds to people's desire to "reconsume" the novel.  One can certainly access the novel by typing it into Google, but one can also download a free copy from Amazon to Kindle with additional resources included.  The same is true of many other once-hated-now-beloved novels.

To align the text of the novel more closely with my ideas, I could possibly discuss Elizabeth and Darcy's initial displeasure with one another, and then their ensuing love after time had passed, which could represent my "reconsumption" idea.  Because Darcy and Elizabeth made themselves more "accessible" to one another (wink, wink), they increased their desires to be with one another.  I could also discuss other relationships in the novel that follow a similar pattern.

Pride and Prejudice was written to comment on the society of the day.  One of Austen's main points in writing the novel was to bring attention to the lack of education and representation that women had during that time.  This is more of an abstract thought, but maybe greater access to classic works online is creating a better educational atmosphere?

Anyway, these are my thoughts.  Feel free to comment.