Charles Dickens

Module code: EN7122

This option module will acquaint you with a wide range of Dickens's writings from the 1830s through the 1860s. We will explore his novels, journalism, and travel writing. We'll consider some recent critical reassessments; in particular, we'll look at responses to representations of class, gender, sexuality, race, and place in Dickens, and how these relate to various debates in the nineteenth century. We'll also consider conditions of production and reception, the relationship between Dickens's prose and the first illustrations and frontispieces to his works, and some recent film and television adaptations of the novels.

Set texts may include:

• Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39)
• American Notes (1842)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
• David Copperfield (1849-50)
• The first issue of Household Words (1850)
• Selected Dickens journalism
• Our Mutual Friend (1864-65)

The recommended editions are those of the Penguin Classics paperback series.

The module will also include a detailed consideration of Doug McGrath's film adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (2002).