Wiley-Blackwell is delighted to release the following special issue as part of the ‘Dickens’s World’ Online Conference – read the articles below for FREE!
Victorian Psychology and the Novel
Anne Stiles
Originally published in Literature Compass
David Copperfield as Psychological Fiction
Mike Spilka
Originally published in Critical Quarterly
Gourmet Meals and Fast Food: a Vocal Approach to Dickens’s Literature and Journalism
Ian Wilkinson
Originally published in Literature Compass
Dickens, The Haunting Man
Steve Connor
Originally published in Literature Compass
Benjamin’s Paris, Freud’s Rome: whose London?
Adrian Rifkin
Originally published in Art History
Dickens the lawbreaker
Anthony Julius
Originally published in Critical Quarterly
Using Dickens to Market Morality: Popular Reading Materials in the Nickleby“Advertiser”
John J. Fenstermaker
Originally published in The Journal of Popular Culture
Recent Studies in Victorian English Literary Dialect and its Linguistic Connections
Sue Edney
Originally Published in Literature Compass
The Victorian Middle Classes: Wealth, Occupation, and Geography
W. D. RUBINSTEIN
Originally published in Economic History Review
#1 by Anna on March 8, 2012 - 5:42 pm
Victorian Psychology and the Novel-
I am currently taking a Dickens class and we are reading Bleak House. I was talking about how psychologically accurate the character of Ester was, how her history perfectly reflects her personality. In the article Victorian Psychology and the Novel I was hoping to find out if Dickens’ had any familiarity with psychology. Unfornately that was never directly discussed in Victorian Psychology and the Novel. However, the article did create the historical context of psychology that seems to indicate it that at the very least Dickens might have been familiar with psychology and some of that field’s concepts.
#2 by Sarah on March 9, 2012 - 12:40 am
The evolution of psychology, especially in fiction, is a fascinating topic.
Even when I was younger I was amazed with how attached or emotionally invested you can get with Dickens’ characters, now reading Bleak House and re-reading Oliver Twist I realize that it’s Dickens’ understanding of people that makes these characters so easy to feel for.
The article was really interesting, although I’d really love to see one with a focus on Dickens. I really loved that the article brought up memory and trauma as huge factors in victorian fiction, I hadn’t realized how often those themes popped up.
#3 by Anne Stiles on March 9, 2012 - 5:03 am
I say a bit more about Dickens and psychology in my lecture (in this conference) than in this particular article. Also, I think someone should write a separate Literature Compass article just on psychological interpretations of Dickens’ works! There is such rich scholarship on this topic.