Junior Kiri Kenman Talks All Things Awards, Austen, and Autonomy
Jane Austen Society of North America Awardee Kiri Kenman, FCRH Class of 2025
By Allison Schneider
The lasting significance of Jane Austen’s novels is undeniable. Her work continues to have unparalleled commercial success with thousands of books purchased every year. Her most popular novel, Pride and Prejudice, has sold over 20 million copies since its first edition in 1813. The six complete works in her collection have been adapted into movies, television shows, parody novels, and other forms of media for modern-day enjoyment.
Still, Austen’s relevance doesn’t stop with casual readers; novels like Mansfield Park and Persuasion are staples in academic settings. From high school classrooms to doctoral theses, the intimately personal politics of Austen’s cast give teachers and students alike a critical glimpse into a world that is both chronologically distant and all too familiar.
Fordham University’s English Department is no stranger to the academic opportunities that Austen’s novels present. Over two dozen courses historically offered by the English Department feature Jane Austen in some capacity, while a handful are centered entirely on her work. Professor John Bugg’s British Romanticism Seminar is one such class as it requires students to examine various authors from the Romantic period, including Austen.
Last spring, Fordham junior Kiri Kenman reaped the benefits of Bugg’s class when she turned her final paper into an award-winning essay. Her piece, “Love, Convenience, and the Pursuit of Happiness for Austen’s Spinsters,” took first place in the college division of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA)’s annual essay competition. With each year’s competition, JASNA releases a new prompt for students to consider when crafting their submissions. In 2023, the prompt centered on marriages and proposals in Austen’s novels, and it specifically asked students “to compare and discuss the different types of marriages or courtships found in the novels.”
Kenman’s first-place essay compares the marriages of two of Austen’s famous spinsters: Anne Elliot from Persuasion and Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice. Kenman said that she’s always loved Charlotte Lucas’s character “because she is the opposite of the typical Austen heroine.” The inspiration for Kenman’s idea to write about both Charlotte Lucas and Anne Elliot together came from Professor Bugg’s class. “When re-reading Persuasion in my British Romanticism class,” Kenman said, “I realized Anne Elliot was also twenty-seven at the start of her novel — also lacking money and prospects” just like Charlotte Lucas. “This surface-level connection made me want to look at the two women side by side and compare their romantic arcs.”
In her paper, Kenman argues that both women “end up being quite happy despite their opening circumstances.” Charlotte Lucas opts for a marriage of convenience to the often ridiculous Mr. Collins while Anne Elliot accepts the proposal of her beloved Captain Wentworth. Charlotte finds happiness in stability and pragmatism despite the lack of feeling in her relationship, while Anne sacrifices a degree of her autonomy in order to indulge in the love-driven happiness of her relationship. “Austen deals with each situation of ‘spinsterhood’ very differently,” Kenman said. Anne’s spinsterhood is a result of insurmountable heartbreak, while Charlotte’s is a result of her social status and lack of property. As a result, both women must seek different types of security in their marriages. Although similar, Kenman admitted to her partiality toward Anne’s arrangement: “I would absolutely choose Anne’s marriage over Charlotte’s. I’m definitely a romantic, and Anne and Wentworth’s love story is one of my all-time favorites.” Anne’s marriage, while making her dependent, also makes her very happy, which is reason enough for Kenman’s favor.
The assignment and contest prompt allowed Kenman to look more deeply at these relatively older female characters. Before assigning the class’s final research paper, Bugg told Kenman about the contest and encouraged her to write her final paper to fit the year’s contest prompt. Kenman said this made the writing and editing process easier. “Luckily, since I knew I was writing this essay for both the award and the class assignment, I could tailor the piece to the contest’s criteria from the start.” The process was long but rewarding. Kenman said she “took about two months to research and write [the] essay and about one month to edit.” After the final paper assignment was due, Kenman’s essay went through a few extra rounds of revisions with the help of Professor Bugg. Kenman said of the experience, “It’s always wonderful working with Professor Bugg. He is a fantastic editor and is incredibly encouraging and insightful in his feedback. He really pushed me out of my comfort zone to enter this contest, and I’m so grateful for it!”
Bugg said that working with Kenman was great. She “has a real gift for literary interpretation. In class discussions, she had some terrific readings of Jane Austen,” which is why he encouraged her to submit a piece for the essay competition. Although the two worked closely together, Professor Bugg also said that Kenman “deserves all the credit” for the idea of comparing Charlotte Lucas and Anne Elliot.
Kenman says that Professor Bugg is one of her favorite professors at Fordham. She was first introduced to him when she took his Composition II class. “After that, I was really hoping to get the opportunity to learn from him again,” Kenman said. Kenman also revealed how she got into Bugg’s seminar as only a sophomore. “Last year, I asked the English chair if I could squeeze into his British Romanticism Seminar. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a class with Professor Bugg again!”
Throughout Bugg’s classes, Kenman has read Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion. She said her favorite of the three is Persuasion. “I love how introspective Anne is, and I think her character development is relatable to a lot of people.” Kenman sees the romance in Persuasion as unparalleled. “I also just love Anne and Wentworth’s story,” she said. “I think about his confession letter a lot. You really can’t beat, ‘You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.’ Wentworth sets the bar pretty high.”
Many of Austen’s novels contain other highly quotable lines. Intense and romantic, Austen’s poignant dialogue and witty prose make for good t-shirt slogans, crafty wall art, and viral social media content. Kenman’s paper even addresses a now-viral line from the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. In it, Charlotte Lucas says “‘I’m twenty-seven years old with no money and no prospects, and I’m scared,’ which isn’t said verbatim in the novel by Charlotte but alluded to by the narrator a few times.” The quote has been used in thousands of TikTok videos and YouTube compilations, but it isn’t the only one. There are over 83,000 posts under #janeausten on TikTok and over 1.2 million posts under the same tag on Instagram. Austen’s popularity among social media-using teens and young adults more than two centuries after she wrote is truly a testament to her lasting influence in both popular and academic culture. From Kenman’s perspective, the “film and T.V. adaptations are a big part of [Austen’s] contemporary relevance, but in the end, it’s her narrative style that makes her so enjoyable. Austen’s books aren’t merely well-written romances; they study interpersonal relationships and human character, and many of her observations are still relevant today.”
Interacting with Austen-adjacent and Austen-inspired media is a great way for people to be introduced to the intricate world of Jane Austen’s landed gentry. Because of its lasting relatability and acute observations of humanity, Austen’s writing has encouraged many young scholars, including Kenman herself, to pursue English studies. “Austen was the first classic literature I ever read,” Kenman remarked, “and I think I owe my interest in English literature as a discipline to her. I didn’t come into Fordham as an English major, and it wasn’t until I took Professor Bugg’s Jane Austen class freshman year that I even considered studying English.” Kenman is now an International Political Economy and English double major.
As Austen’s work remains popular in the mainstream, young readers like Kenman will continue to experience Austen’s brilliance in new ways. Thanks to influential literary organizations like JASNA and encouraging professors like Bugg, scholars both old and young can look forward to the next generation’s contributions to the rich body of Austen scholarship that is already available.
Allison Schneider, FCRH ’26, is an English major from Indianapolis, Indiana.