A01=Alexander Bove
anamorphosis
Author_Alexander Bove
Category=DSA
Category=DSBF
Category=DSK
characterization
Charles Dickens
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
French caricature
Hablot Browne (Phiz)
Jacques Lacan
novel illustration
psychoanalytic literary theory
realism
the uncanny
Product details
- ISBN 9781526147936
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 02 Feb 2021
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
Alexander Bove is Professor of English at Pacific University
