Spectral Dickens by Alexander Bove
Drawing on the recent ontological turn in critical theory, Spectral Dickens explores an aspect of literary character that is neither real nor fictional, but spectral. This work thus provides an in-depth study of the inimitable characters populating Dickens' illustrated novels using three hauntological concepts: the Freudian uncanny, Derridean spectrality, and the Lacanian real. Thus, while the current discourse on character studies, which revolves around values like realism, depth, and lifelikeness, tends to see characters as mimetic of persons, this book invents new critical concepts to account for non-mimetic forms of characterization. These spectral forms bring to light the important influence of developments in nineteenth-century visual culture, such as the lithography and caricature of Daumier and J.J. Grandville. The spectrality of novelistic characters developed here paves the way for a new understanding of fictional characters in general.-
The Great Exhibition, 1851
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The Poems of Elizabeth Siddal in Context
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Charlotte Bronte
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Invasions
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Speculative endeavors
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Legible bodies
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The Penny Politics of Victorian Popular Fiction
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Counterfactual Romanticism
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Richard Marsh, Popular Fiction and Literary Culture, 1890-1915
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British Literature and Archaeology, 1880-1930
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Spain in the Nineteenth Century
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The Emotions in Liberal Writing, C. 1790-C. 1920
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Marie Duval
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Pasts at play
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Women's writing for Punch magazine, 1868–1918
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Readers and mistresses
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Re-examining nineteenth-century Easts
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Creating character
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Engine of Modernity
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The Case of the Initial Letter
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Instead of Modernity
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Margaret Harkness
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Interventions
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Dante Beyond Influence
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The Victorian Aquarium
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Victorian legs
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Beyond the Antislavery Haven
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The nineteenth-century present
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Madrid on the Move
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Worlding the South
'Drawing on graphic traditions of the era, the author describes how Dickens developed objects like dolls and effigies to reinforce meanings beyond the literalBove is interested in visual and narrative techniques that move beyond the limits of mimesis.'
CHOICE
(Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.)
Spectral Dickens will be of immense interest to those seeking to understand Dickens's enduring appeal for readers and critics alike, especially those with an interest in psychoanalysis and the literary critical paradigms it can enable.'
The Dickensian
'Bove has produced both a work that expands the ways we think about character, and a sustained demonstration of the continuing value of Lacanian thought for literary analysis.'
BAVS newsletter
This is an exciting read for those of us long troubled by the old adage that Dickens is a “failed realist” who does not create convincing characters... a creative and original set of readings of how Dickens’s characters
are so powerful.'
Dickens Quarterly
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781526174543 |
| ISBN 10 | 1526174545 |
| Title | Spectral Dickens |
| Author | Alexander Bove Iii |
| Series | Interventions: Rethinking The Nineteenth Century |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Manchester University Press |
| Year published | 2023-10-31 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |