1. Contemporary British Fiction: Cool Britannia and After British Literature, Culture, and Society from the 1990s to the Present Session Five: Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’ Diary

2. Agenda Reflection and Representation

3. Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary 1995-1996: Weekly columns in The Independent 1996: published as Bridget Jones’s Diary 2001: Sharon Maguire, Bridget Jones’s Diary

4. First UK edition

5. First American edition

6. Sharon Maguire, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

7. Post 2001 edition

8. BBC, Pride and Prejudice (1995)

9. Second Time Around Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 1997-1998: weekly columns in The Daily Telegraph 1999: published as Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 2004: Beeban Kidron, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

12. Third Time Around??? 2005-2006: weekly columns in The Independent Bridget Jones novel nr 3? Bridget Jones 3 Film in the works Bridget Jones, the musical

13. Reflection ”A brilliant evocation of life as a single girl in a certain time” (The Times) ”It captures neatly the way modern women teeter between ’I am woman independence and a pathetic girlie desire to be all things to all men” (NYTBR) ”’Bridget Jones, c’est moi’” (TLS) ”Bridget Jones is satire, a sassy spoof of urban manners” (NYT)

14. Contextualism: New Historicism, Cultural Materialism Representation rather than reflection. Art is a cultural construct and ideological product of historically specific conditions rather than a mirror held up to life Art is like other cultural constructs and ideological products. Historically specific conditions: cultural norms, values, ideas, beliefs, institutions, practices, relationships, products.

17. Women’s Fashion Early 19th centuryMid 19th century

18. Women’s Fashion

22. Contextualism schools Libraries Marriage Politics Sports Literature: Books, Readings, Prizes, … Music The Arts Hollidays The Internet: Surfing, chatting, Blogging … Cars Fashion Nature

23. Contextualism: New Historicism, Cultural Materialism Representation Embedding Negociation Commerce Exchange Transaction Circulation

24. Working with contextualism ”Tuesday 21 March: Birthday” Identify the anomaly What’s the point or effect of the anomaly? What does it do to our image of Bridget? How does it relate to historically specific conditions: cultural norms, values, ideas, beliefs, institutions, practices, relationships, products.