Zoe Karoub (FCRH ’25) Wins Third Place in Annual Jane Austen Essay Prize
By Elissa Johnston
Zoe Karoub, a sophomore at Rose Hill, took third place in the 2022 Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest this last fall for her essay “‘Although We Can Observe You No Longer’: Death and the Dashwood Family.” The publication came out of a paper she wrote for a literature class with Professor John Bugg in the first semester of her senior year. “Professor Bugg recommended that I write my final paper on the JASNA essay topic with the plan of submitting it for the contest,” she told me in an interview. “I’d never submitted to any kind of writing contest, so it was definitely a shock that I got any sort of acknowledgment!”
JASNA’s essay prompt for the 2022 contest focused on family relationships in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and Zoe’s response focused on the relationships between the Dashwood women. In her essay, she examines the complex consequences of Henry Dashwood’s death on his wife and daughters from an emotional and relational standpoint (not just a financial one). She cautions against reading the Dashwood family as an example of a “happy” family, pointing out that the novel portrays the Dashwoods “as a family living with grief and adjusting to a new normal,” a nuance “largely overlooked by critics.” Not that Austen looks only at grief; Zoe argues that Austen is making larger claims about how the loss of a loved one “affects gender roles, family roles, and interpersonal relationships.” She finds Austen’s portrayal of the family unit to be ultimately a happy one, as the Dashwood women keep their family together despite the challenges of their situation.
Zoe chose this essay topic as she pushed into her own emotional investments in Sense and Sensibility. “When I first read the novel in high school, I related a lot to Elinor personally, so I was interested in exploring her especially and her relationship with her mother and Marianne. That’s what inspired the direction I went in.” She successfully turned that interest towards JASNA’s prompt in the essay she wrote during the fall 2021 semester. Before the submission deadline in June, she had to work to make edits after having spent some time away from the project. “I was thinking, do I actually want to submit it? Is it really worth it? And Professor Bugg sent an email with suggestions that spurred my interest again and I ended up submitting it.”
“Even when I submitted it, I didn’t think anything would come of it. I just thought, why not? There’s no harm,” said Zoe. Her decision paid off: her essay was published on the JASNA website in August, and she won a modest cash prize, a year-long membership in JASNA, and a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.
“This was a confidence boost so early in my time at Fordham,” said Zoe. “I’m someone who’s very much a perfectionist, so I always put a ton of effort into everything I write, and I feel good about what I write, but I never expect anything to come from it, and I’m always kind of thinking that anyone who reads my work will think it’s terrible. Winning this prize was really good for giving me more confidence in my abilities, especially starting college and feeling kind of intimidated by some of the people around me.” Zoe’s choice to put her essay forward will hopefully boost her to more success in her undergrad writing career and beyond.
For those who were interested in submitting their own work to JASNA’s contest, Zoe said, “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. There’s really no risk in doing it. And let your interest in the topic shine through as you write.” JASNA’s 2023 essay contest opens for submissions in February, and the official prompt will be posted this November.
