Contemporary Asian re-imaginings of Jane Austen's Persuasion through Britain's Myanmar diaspora and beyond

My re-imagining of Jane Austen's Persuasion with a Myanmar-British cast will be the first Austen adaptation by a Myanmar author. Featuring an underrepresented diaspora during a pivotal political period, the novel approaches Austen's world through the lens of minority experience. My critical project analyses gender, race, and class in contemporary Austen adaptations by Asian authors, exploring how they "destabilize the legacy of colonialism" (Harner 2021). Edward Saïd stated "interpreting Austen depends on who does the interpreting, when it is done, and... from where it is done" (1994) - my artistic and critical interpretation innovatively combines the who, when, and where.