Austen(s) on the Screen: An intertextual reading of Becoming Jane, Miss Austen Regrets, and her Biographies

The cult of Jane Austen has extended well beyond literary manifestations and criticism, into the realm of the cinema. Besides all the filmic adaptations of Austen's novels and the whole series of Austen-themed adaptations, the famous English writer has become the protagonist of two recent biographical films: Becoming Jane (2007) and Miss Austen Regrets (2010). These two cinematic attempts at portraying Austen's life for the screen investigate two different periods of her life and appear to be very different in their approach. Beside making use of published material about the author such as biographical accounts, letters and memoirs, both try to reinvent the writer's life, as well as re-imagine and give voice to some of the most crucial and formative periods of her life. Austenian critics and enthusiasts recognize the fact that Austen is a notoriously problematic figure, whose biography brims with gaps and hazy details. In order to contribute to the ongoing debate on the biographical information on Jane Austen's life, this essay aims to outline the ways in which the cinematic medium has helped re-imagine the life of the author, and to assess whether such representations have opened up new perspectives or have merely recovered and recycled older, and already familiar, materials.