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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical
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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels Paperback - 2013

by Shale Preston


From the publisher

This work offers an original interpretation of the mothers of the protagonists in Dickens's autobiographical novels. Taking Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic concept of abjection and Mary Douglas's anthropological analysis of pollution as its conceptual framework, the book argues that Dickens's primary emotional response towards the mother who abandoned him to work in a blacking warehouse was disgust, and suggests that we can trace similar signs of disgust in the narrators of his fictional autobiographies, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations. The author provides a close reading of Dickens's autobiographical fragment and opens up the possibility that Dickens's feelings towards his mother actually bore a significant influence on his fiction. The book closes with a provocative discussion of Dickens's compulsive Sikes and Nancy public readings.

From the jacket flap

This work offers an original interpretation of the mothers of the protagonists in Dickens's autobiographical novels. Taking Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic concept of abjection and Mary Douglas's anthropological analysis of pollution as its conceptual framework, the book argues that Dickens's primary emotional response towards the mother who abandoned him to work in a blacking warehouse was disgust, and suggests that we can trace similar signs of disgust in the narrators of his fictional autobiographies, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations.

The author provides a close reading of Dickens's autobiographical fragment and opens up the possibility that Dickens's feelings towards his mother actually bore a significant influence on his fiction. The book closes with a provocative discussion of Dickens's compulsive Sikes and Nancy public readings.

Details

  • Title Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels
  • Author Shale Preston
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: first
  • Pages 228
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher McFarland & Company
  • Date 2013-01
  • ISBN 9780786471393 / 0786471395
  • Weight 0.75 lbs (0.34 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 in (22.61 x 14.99 x 1.78 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Dickens, Charles - Criticism and, Dickens, Charles - Family
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2012044135
  • Dewey Decimal Code 823.8

About the author

Shale Preston is an honorary research fellow in the Department of English at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She has published articles and book chapters on Dickens and has presented papers on his work at international conferences in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia.
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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels

Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels

by Shale Preston

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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels
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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels

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Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels

Dickens and the Despised Mother: A Critical Reading of Three Autobiographical Novels

by Shale Preston

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Paperback / softback. New. This work offers an original interpretation of the mothers of the protagonists in Dickens's autobiographical novels. Taking Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic concept of abjection and Mary Douglas's anthropological analysis of pollution as its conceptual framework, the book argues that disgust was Dickens's primary emotional response towards the mother who abandoned him to work in a blacking warehouse, and suggests that we can trace similar signs of disgust in the narrators of his subsequent fictional autobiographies: David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations. Displaying an extensive grasp of the critical field, the book provides a close reading of Dickens's autobiographical fragment and opens up the possibility that his feelings towards his mother bore a significant influence on his fiction. Further, the book provides a compelling overview of the theories of disgust and closes with a provocative discussion of Dickens's compulsive Sikes… Read More
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£80.21
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