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KARACHI: An engaging pre-lunch session on the last day of the 17th Karachi Literature Festival at the Beach Luxury Hotel focused on ‘Why Jane Austen still speaks to us?’
It was moderated by Zarmina Raza and the panellists included Faisal Nazir, Aisha Hassan and Laline Paull.
Mr Nazir said a long time back he had a list of reading classics, and the list included Jane Austen’s novels. At the time he just went through her books and did not read them critically. When he became a student at the University of Karachi’s English Department, he read her novel Emma. At the time he felt it against his masculinity to like Austen, and that it was a manly thing to do to say ‘we don’t’ like Jane Austen’.
He said then he became a teacher at the same department and was asked to teach Austen. It was then he wondered why so much critical respect was given to the author. Quoting F R Leavis, he said, “Austen is the first modern novelist.”
Ms Paull first quoted Virginia Woolf and then said her views of Ms Austen have changed over the years.
“As an older woman thinking about and re-reading Austen, I’m struck by the question, if you could choose between a great romance and a very nice private income, which one would you rather have? Which one will you go for first? I think we all know the answer, because Jane Austen’s books, now I realise, are about survival,” she said.
When the floor was opened for questions and answers, one of the audience members asked about Austen being a cheerleader for Empire. Ms Paull rejected the notion saying although she lived in those days, she was not a cheerleader for Empire.
Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2026
