Oliver Smithies Lecture: 'Edith's Two Bodies'
It is a critical commonplace to remark on Charles Dickens’ penchant for orphaned characters, but what of Dickens’ mothers? Motherhood is a peculiarly difficult role to fill for Dickens, with either over-indulgence or neglect as standard habit of care. In many ways, the only good Dickensian mother is a dead one. This lecture examines Edith Dombey from Dickens’ 1848 novel Dombey and Son as a test case, and examines the role Edith’s varied familial ties play in the novel’s plot and form.
Date:
15 November 2017, 17:15 (Wednesday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2017)
Venue:
Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details:
Buttery Old Archive Room
Speaker:
Professor Claire Jarvis (Oliver Smithies Fellow, Balliol College, University of Oxford and Assistant Professor in the English Department at Stanford University)
Part of:
Oliver Smithies Lectures
Booking required?:
Not required
Cost:
Free
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Victoria Holt
