Jane Austen and Her Diverse Daughters: Muslim Women Re-reading and Re-writing Pride and Prejudice from South Africa and Beyond

Abstract

Jane Austen and her depiction of courtship during the Regency Period is particularly relevant to South African Indian Muslim women due to the similarities between contemporary Muslim engagement rituals and Austen’s representation of courtship. This can be seen in Riding the Samoosa Express (eds Jeena and Asvat 2014), a non-fiction collection of essays by South African Muslim women, relating to courtship and marriage. In examining some of the essays in that anthology, as well as the novel Ayesha at Last (Jalaluddin 2018), we explore the continued desire of Muslim women not only to re-read Austen, but to read culturally adapted versions of her classics as well. Revisiting Pride and Prejudice and its adaptations provides a window into some of the issues surrounding re-writing the canon for diversity and the representation of specific cultural contexts. These adaptations expand Austen’s universe to allow for inclusion of varying types of complex identities, inviting different types of readers to engage in the original and its adaptations in a meaningful way.