A Contrast/Comparison of Pride and Prejudice to a 2014-2016 Romantic Comedy

SPECS: 6-7 pages [longer is ok], double spaced, 1 inch margins, 11 point type, back-to-back or single sided,no separate title page, include ?Works Consulted? in any format alphabetical by author?s last name. As we have considered this semester, popular fiction for women often engages with familial relations, particularly between mother (or surrogate mother) and daughter, female friendship, female self expression,intimate relations between partners, relations between the sexes, sexuality, the contradictions and challenges of changing contemporary mores especially with regard to issues of power and gender, and the shifting expectations for women and men in love and work?the ?private? and ?public? spheres. The essay should have a central thesis or argument. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT A THESIS IS AN ARGUMENT THAT TAKES A POSITION, IT IS NOT SIMPLY A STATEMENT. The argument should be supported with specific evidence from the movie or book(s), including discussion of characters/ and or ?situations?? things that happen?and ideas from the readings / class discussions. Choose a romantic comedy from between 2014 and 2016 other than Trainwreck and consider it in relation to Pride and Prejudice. The paper should focus on the movie, but include Pride and Prejudice as a point of departure / comparison/contrast. In class I have suggested that Pride and Prejudice provides a template for virtually everything that follows with regard to romantic comedy. In the conventional Hollywood romantic comedy, a man and a woman meet, are separated, then ultimately end up together because they are ?meant? for each other. Their emotional roller coaster often involves negotiation of differences of temperament, but also of class or ethnicity [which is often code for class]. All this could be said of both Elizabeth and Jane?s ultimately successful quests for love / marriage in Pride and Prejudice. Yet many aspects of Pride and Prejudice call into question its ? happy ending.? While Elizabeth and Jane marry happily and well, they are surrounded by those who don?t [Lydia, Charlotte] or haven?t [Mr. and Mrs. Bennet]. The conflicts / unresolved contradictions in the novel between on the one hand, the need to take material concerns / ?erotics of property? into consideration, and on the other, the importance of the emotional content of marriage yield very different ?fates? for its female characters. How does all this work in your chosen romantic comedy? Are today?s romantic comedies as straightforward as they seem? What are some of the ?trade-offs? or compromises the female characters might be seen to make for love? Do the male characters also compromise, and if so, how? What does the film chosen seem to suggest about status of love / state of romantic comedy today?