Dickens And The Politics Of The Family
by Catherine Waters /
1997 / English / PDF
13 MB Download
The fictional representation of the family has long been regarded
as a Dickensian speciality; yet any close examination of his novels
reveals a remarkable disjunction between his image as the
quintessential celebrant of the hearth, and his interest in
fractured families. Drawing on feminist and new historicist
methodologies, Catherine Waters argues that Dickens' novels record
a shift in notions of the family away from stress on the importance
of lineage and blood toward a new ideal of domesticity assumed to
be the natural form of the family.
The fictional representation of the family has long been regarded
as a Dickensian speciality; yet any close examination of his novels
reveals a remarkable disjunction between his image as the
quintessential celebrant of the hearth, and his interest in
fractured families. Drawing on feminist and new historicist
methodologies, Catherine Waters argues that Dickens' novels record
a shift in notions of the family away from stress on the importance
of lineage and blood toward a new ideal of domesticity assumed to
be the natural form of the family.
