JASP 2025: Interview with Megan Poff

In anticipation of JASP 2025 we’ll be interviewing our esteemed staff and speakers. This year’s four-day symposium, JASP 2025: Sensibility and Domesticity, will take place June 19-22, 2025, in historic New Bern, North Carolina. We'll be focusing on Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, and considering the birth of her career as a published author and taking a transatlantic look at the world into which she was born. Program topics include medicine, birth, and domestic arts in Regency England and colonial North Carolina. We’ll be covering the aforementioned topics and celebrating Austen’s 250th birthday through a wide range of activities including workshops, small-group discussions, and workshops. And of course, our Regency Ball is an event not to be missed!

Our next interviewee is JASP 2025 speaker, Megan Poff. She will be presenting her paper 'Understanding the Scoring of Patrick Doyle's Music in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility' for our Adaptations Panel. Megan is a gifted soprano with an academic background in vocal performance

Will this be your first time attending JASP? 

Yes, this will be my first time! 

Are there any JASP 2025 activities you’re looking forward to? 

Laura’s performance, of course! Usually with The Jane Austen Playlist, I’m the soprano. Sometimes I’m able to join her and her performances. I’m also looking forward to the embroidery workshop because that’s something I’ve always wanted to learn how to do. I never really had access to that - so this is an opportunity for me to explore that. I’ll be totally transparent. I grew up learning none of what they would call Regency domestic skills for women with the exception of learning how to sing.  And of course I’m looking forward to the Regency ball! 

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I was a military kid.  I have a charm bracelet of all the states I've lived in. There's nine. So I never had a home base until I turned 18. The first time I had any stationary living for four years straight was the undergraduate schooling that I had. So, my constant companions for me were music and books. They were my home base because I could take them with me. I went to Mars Hill College (now University). I was a double major in voice and English. I decided to drop the English major to a minor and pursued singing. I wound up at Lee University and earned my masters in vocal performance. Since then, I’ve been collegiately teaching lessons for singers and also music literature lectures. I went back to school to finish my neglected English degree. I just graduated in May 2025 with a MA in English with a writing certificate from Millersville University. In the fall, I start my PhD in English studies at Temple University, studying the relationship of music and literature as a form of humanities. 

Is Jane Austen one of your favorite authors?

There's some people who are like, "Oh, she's my favorite author!” - like only Jane Austen…  and I don't have a favorite author. I just have a favorite book. That book is Sense and Sensibility. Being your quintessential English major it would be hard to pick one author.  I love Henry David Thoreau, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, the Bronte sisters. But as far as if I had to pick a book to go to a deserted island with, it'll be Sense and Sensibility. 

Do you see a relationship between music and literature in Sense and Sensibility? 

Marianne Dashwood literally exudes music. Her playing the piano, her obsession with poetry which even in spoken word if it's in strophic form, it's musical. Poetry sounds musical with the different cadencing that happens when you speak it - so for me Marianne is the essence of music in the book. She's actually my favorite literary character as well. I felt growing up as a child that my parents had this hippie kid who loved to sing and loved art and expression - yet I was always on a military base trying to be nice, prim, and proper. They didn't know what to do with me sometimes because I was so emotional and so, to find someone in a novel that I could relate to was such a breath of fresh air for me as a teenager. I always read this novel at least once every two years, if not every summer. I still feel like I very much identify with Marianne Dashwood. I also cry a lot. Anything makes me cry. If I'm angry, I cry. If I'm happy, I cry. If I'm sad, I cry. Like any emotion, I cry. So, I definitely get Marianne on all levels!

Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Can you tell us a bit about your presentation? 

My presentation is entitled 'Understanding the Scoring of Patrick Doyle's Music in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility'. As someone who appreciates music and understands film scoring, the music that Patrick Doyle wrote was very beautiful, although it is not historically accurate. However, that is not the focus of this presentation. I'm focusing on the musical decisions that he made and its relationships to the people, places, and things within the film. 

Portraits of Patrick Doyle and Ang Lee. Images from Spotify and New York University, respectively.

I'm excited to present. When I saw the call for papers, I was like, "Oh gosh, is it too late? Is it too late?" Because I was working on my master's thesis when I saw the website and I was like, "Oh no, I missed the deadline." I reached out and got it submitted in enough time. When I got approved, it just made my day! It really did. It was something to look forward to. It means so much to me. I think because on a personal note, it has a lot of sentimentality and nostalgia attached to it for me. My mom passed away in 2017 from uterine cancer, and this was our favorite movie. I remember going with her to watch it in the movie theater in 1995. So, I wonder if maybe there is that emotional connection with my mom when it comes to this particular film. I feel like in a way she’s with me when I watch it. It was a really special memory that I have with her. If I do my math correctly, I would have been the same age as Margaret Dashwood. So, that element of childhood stays with me. 

We’re so pleased you were able to get it in and that it was approved. It's just amazing how much the novels themselves and the film and tv adaptations have had an impact on people and created special memories for them. Do you have any favorite songs from the film?

My Father's Favorite. I had it at my wedding. I didn't do the historical music that Jane Austen would have played. I had Doyle’s score at my wedding because it was special to me. I also really love Marianne's theme that reoccurs. It's when she's playing the ballad, Weep You No More Sad Fountains. 

Besides your interest in the relationship between music and literature is there anything else that inspired your interest in your topic for the panel? 

If anything, it's communicative. I think art, music, theater, literature are all kind of streamlined together as communicative tools. The humanities as of late have not been given the respect and funding that it deserves.  I think that it's important for human interaction that we take the time to study the rhetorical choices that composers use in film regarding characters or scenes. We should understand the rhetorical choices that Jane Austen is using in her novels with the characters and in the time period that she lived in because it's reflective of the zeitgeist (the spirit of the times) and what she has experienced in her life. Therefore, I think that it would be necessary to take a step back and ask why these choices were made. Why are we talking about this? Why is this relationship the main focus in this novel or why did Patrick Doyle use this instrument for this scene and not the other? These are questions that I am exploring for my presentation. I do find the value in it because at the end of the day, we're human beings with sensitivities and emotions. We're not robots. We think and we feel. Marianne exudes that. Elinor does too in her own way. We see that throughout the novel, we see that in the film, and we hear it in the music. 

How important do you think the music is to Jane Austen adaptations in general and specifically 1995’s Sense and Sensibility? 

Completely essential. It would not be the same movie without it. I truly believe that because the music drives the scene. It drives the character. In my lectures I’ve muted a scene with no music, and it doesn't feel the same as it does when there's music there. There's certain instrumentations that spark feelings that maybe make one weep. It's essential. Quite frankly, if the movie didn't have this soundtrack, I don't think it would have been what it is. I also don’t think it would have stood the test of time without this music. I truly believe that even if it's not historically accurate, for the purpose that it served, it was totally appropriate.

Why do you think Sense and Sensibility is important not only to Austen’s body of work but the entire literary canon?

It is in my opinion her best work, but I know I'll get push back from other Jane Austen scholars on that. I think it's because it emphasizes the importance of relationships and balance in those relationships, especially with the sisters. Marianne and Elinor are very different individuals, but they both compliment each other. So it shows this beauty of being able to be close to someone that's not like you or doesn't respond to the same situations in the same way. You might question their passion or their feelings on the matter like… “Why aren't you upset about this?” -  “You should be upset!” - but they might be internalizing everything. And so, from a psychological standpoint, it gives you a little bit of an understanding that not everybody reacts to the same situation the same. I think knowing that is essential for human interaction. Because we all might experience the same event, but we may all respond to it differently. For Marianne and Elinor, their responses to things that they were confronted with throughout the novel are vastly different. Yet they complement each other, they love each other because they're sisters. We can even find that in friendships as well. 

Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (1995)

I was thinking about Sense and Sensibility as a psychological novel and your earlier point about how music sparks feelings. Music can be psychological as well, can’t it? Like how we respond to a song or relate to its lyrics. Even if a song doesn’t have lyrics the music itself can move us and make us think. 

Yeah, absolutely. My husband loves the cello. It moves him. It's his instrument of choice to listen to because it gets him out of his shell. There's something about the strings on the cello that just gets him emotional. No other instrument does that for him. `I think there's something to be said about that. 

I know you’re a huge Marianne fan, but do you have any other favorite characters? 

My other favorite character is Mrs. Jennings, and that's my nickname for my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law is very chatty. There's never a moment where she's not talking. She's from Alabama, and I've joked that ‘she's the mouth of the South’. And she says, "Oh, I take that kindly." Like, she's totally okay with it. She has a really great sense of humor - loves to pick on people in the best way possible. So calling her Mrs. Jennings is not a diss to my mother-in-law whatsoever!  I love Mrs. Jennings’ character because she has a good nature and her opinions make me laugh. I just think she’s a wonderful chatterbox with a really big heart and doing her best in her own way to help people although it's not always welcomed. Also, if I'm being honest, I really like Colonel Brandon. I wouldn't sit here and be like “Oh he's my favorite character!” - but I do love how he is the opposite of Marianne and how he gets the chance to be with her. I do appreciate how Jane Austen sort of positioned that relationship throughout the novel as well. I like Elinor's approach to being a responsible sister. I have a lot of respect for that. I was an only child growing up, so reading this book, and identifying with Marianne more than Elinor, I thought, "Wow, what would it be like to have an Elinor in my life?"

Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Why do you feel Jane Austen is important? 

I think she's important because she taps into the social discourse of Regency England. But she was so progressive for her time that even today in 2025, we can still relate to what is going on in those novels. It's crazy to me, right? How long it's been and yet, we still can relate to these characters. I don't think people realize how witty she was. I think every single person who takes an English course should read at least one Jane Austen novel to demonstrate how advanced she was in her understanding of social discourse. It just blows my mind how brilliant she was truly as a writer. 

What are you hoping attendees gain from your presentation? 

Well, being the nerd that I  am, I want them to remember what I talked about. So, when they watch the movie with their family or friends, they can be like, "Oh, they're using this instrument in this scene because it means and fill in the blank." I want them to make these musical associations with the action in the film and impress all their friends and family at movie gatherings or if it happens to be on television.  I want them to consider how film soundtracks really influence and navigate the movie. It doesn't have to be the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. You could watch Lord of the Rings and see how music scoring influences Tolkien's characters. You can find ways to make this relatable in other types of films as well. However, my goal is for the audience to appreciate the use of music in film and its importance. 

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JASP 2025 is partially supported by a grant from NC Humanities.