Many critics have examined metanarrative aspects of Dickens's writing, and many have studied Dickens's ethics. None, however, has yet assessed the ways in which Dickens's directly interrogates the ethics of fiction. Surprisingly philosophical treatments of the ethics of fiction take place in A Christmas Carol and A House to Let, both of which turn the ghost story of the traditional winter's tale to metafictional purposes. No one has yet dealt with Dickens's own meta-commentary on the ethics of fiction with the degree of philosophical nuance it deserves. Writings about the ethics of Dickens's fiction (and of fiction generally) often involves a simplistic separation of the real and the fictional: the text is ethical inasmuch as it effects positive change in the "real world." Yet Dickens constantly blurs the line between the real and the fictional. He adopts a somewhat Kantian stance, namely that both the real and the fictional are fundamentally imagined. Dickens reflexively makes the ghosts in A Christmas Carol embodiments of the fictional imagination, seen most explicitly in the Ghost of Christmas Past, who is closely associated with the narrator, with imagination, with memory, and with fiction. The other two spirits also personify aspects of the fictional imagination: that of Christmas Present embodies social imaginings; the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come embodies intentions. Dickens shows that these imagined realities are crucial parts of the real, proving that fiction cannot be defined as that which is merely "imagined." How, then, is "fiction" to be defined? Dickens's answer anticipates Levinas: the ethical encounter determines the real as real; its absence is what defines fiction. A House to Let is also strongly Levinasian: its very structure makes it a parable of the ethical relation. The plot centers on Sophonisba's "haunting" by an eye seen in the supposedly uninhabited house to let opposite. This "eye" and its effect are described in terms that equate it with the Levinasian "face," or the foundational ethical reality that precedes and conditions all discourse. Sophonisba reacts to this haunting by enlisting her closest male companions, Jarber and Trottle, to investigate the house. These two characters come to symbolize different general comportments by their reactions. The text unfavorably represents Jarber's primarily narrative orientation, and approves Trottle's response, which disrupts narrative self-satisfaction in favor of real-world intervention in behalf of the Other. There is a productive friction, then, between the metafictional message of A Christmas Carol (looking back to Kant and emphasizing fiction's positive effects) and that of A House to Let (looking forward to Levinas and emphasizing fiction's ethical dangers), evidencing Dickens's complex awareness of both narrative and pre-narrative levels of ethical reality.

A disassembling of the Virginia Theatre Machine (VTM), LLC and its annual restaging of an adaption of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol. The VTM is a custom-built trailer theater that combines the performance energy of street theater with the magic and wonder of a fully designed theatrical production. I provide a historical context for this 21st century revising of mobile theater that switches the paradigm of the traditional theater experience by bringing the stage to audiences, for free. I draw from critical social and cultural theory to make sense of the audience impact in public and private outdoor spaces. I examine how each new performance environment brings its own resonance to bear on the wonder of the presentation at hand. I present the VTM as an alternative business model and form of theater outreach to inspire a new generation of theater-makers to rethink the traditional constraints of producing theatre.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the concept of time in Dickens¡¦s novels including A Christmas Carol, Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities with the newly discovered concepts of time in physics, geology and social economy. I intend to use them to build possible parallels, which will help to clarify the working of time and its influences imposed upon the characters in Dickens¡¦s novels. The thesis, in a sense, is an experiment of cross-boundary study and, through a close examination of the three books, tends to provide an alternative way to rethink the relationship between time, characters, the world and the author in Dickens¡¦s novels.

Shortly after Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was released in 1843, a tradition of adaptation began which has continued seemingly unabated to the present day. Consequently, the tale has become so widely known that one is arguably as likely to have first encountered the iconic miser Scrooge through any number of audio-visual adaptations as through the original work itself. Significant critical attention has been paid to the nature of Scrooge's drastic change from miser to philanthropist. Many would argue that the change, happening both literally and figuratively overnight, is not representative of a genuine psychological transformation. On Christmas day, 2010, Stephen Moffat, Show-runner of the popular sci-fi series Doctor Who, became the latest adapter of the classic tale, with a Christmas themed episode of the series titled Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. This paper addresses the Scrooge Problem, or the debated legitimacy of Scrooge's transformation. A study of A Christmas Carol and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol reveals that Dickens in fact represents a genuine transformation based on one primary concept, time as a cyclical journey. This concept accommodates Dickens's belief in the transformative power of childhood memory and the nature of sympathy. Scrooge's transformation is brought to pass in part through his evolving understanding of the nature of time, a phenomenon which becomes even more apparent in Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.

The focus of this thesis is my performance in the play The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge by Mark Brown. I will research and perform the role of The Ghost of Christmas Past, a role which also plays the parts of Fan and Belle from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. I shall perform in The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, in Partnership with UCF in December 2008 as a part of their 2008-2009 Signature Series season. The main focus of this thesis is the exploration of how to create a performance of a classical character for a modern audience. I hope to maintain the integrity of Dickens's characters written in 1843, while performing in a contemporary script written by Mark Brown in 2004. My performance and research question is how to successfully communicate Brown's version of the story and still keep the spirit of the Dickensian characters as they were first written. I aim to discover and address the problems that may arise in combining the two versions of the characters. I will begin with my belief that contemporary humor and storytelling balanced with the essence of the classic characters that audiences may remember from the novel or other versions of this story will give the most effective, rich performance. Playwright Mark Brown strives for this balance in his script and my research for the role will focus on finding elements in my performance that satisfy both elements. My research will include deep examination of Fan, Belle, and the Ghost of Christmas Past, as they appear in both Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol and in The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge. I will look at different interpretations of the characters in the many stage and film versions of this story that have been created since the original to investigate how others have attempted to update or recreate the roles for their audiences. My research will also include an interview with the playwright for insight about his process of integrating old with new. My written thesis will include the findings of my research and preparation, a detailed rehearsal and performance journal, and extensive analysis of my discoveries, all of which will hopefully lead to a conclusive and useful approach for portraying contemporary characters derived from classical literature.

The theatre in the nineteenth century was a source of entertainment similar in popularity to today's film culture, but critics, of both that age and today, often look down on nineteenth-century theatre as lacking in aesthetic merit. Just as many of the films now being produced in Hollywood are adapted from popular or classic literature, many theatrical productions in the early 1800s were based on popular literary works, and it is in that practice of adaptation that value in nineteenth-century theatre can be discerned. The abundance of theatrical adaptations during the nineteenth century expanded the arena in which the public could experience and interact with the great popular literature produced during the period. Additionally, theatrical adaptations afforded audiences the opportunity of considering how the medium of theatre functions artistically, since a story on stage is communicated differently than a story in print. Studying theatrical work as adaptation – especially when we focus on the manner in which the subject is communicated rather than on alterations in the subject itself – reminds us that the theatrical medium is not constituted of the same formal elements as literature and should not be judged according to the same criteria. The stage of the early nineteenth century, perhaps more than in any other age, was defined by its appeal to the sense of sight rather than by attempts to be literary by using literary devices on the stage. Instead, theatre of this age found ways of communicating the subject material of popular literature in an entirely new "language" system, with varying degrees of success. Considering adaptation as a process of translation from one aesthetic language to another reveals that some creative minds were more attuned to the unique aesthetic capabilities of each medium than others. Two case studies of theatrical adaptations produced in nineteenth-century England apply this model of adaptation while considering the unique stage conventions, expectations, and culture of the day. These analyses reveal differing degrees of sensitivity to the mode of communication in literature and theatre.

In the United States, Christmastime has become a time of tension between the holy ideals of family togetherness, childhood innocence, and goodwill towards men and commercial idolatry. Christ and Santa Claus are pitted against each other in the war on Christmas between religion and secularism instead of feasting together on ham and figgy pudding in the traditional fashion. While many would agree that the everyday realities of the Christmas season do not often live up to the ideals imposed upon the holiday, few are able to tell why this is so or even trace the roots of their discontent. In an exploration of the unique anomaly of the hierosecular American Christmas, I propose that the unique systems of Christmas belief extend beyond the usual boundaries of sacred and secular to create a complex web of different beliefs that are performed together to create the unique feeling of Christmas. From a performance theory perspective, I use performance as both traditionally theatrical and as a paradigm for understanding and expressing belief in an effort to explore the essential but elusively defined cultural signifiers of the American Christmas. Through a series of case studies focusing on various traditions of Christmas performance, I apply the performance theories of Diana Taylor, Patrice Pavis, Victor Turner and others to such Christmas staples as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. In doing so, I propose different points for viewing Christmas and introducing new points of inquiry for questioning the meaning of Christmas, belief, and performance

The following study is interested in informal education in three of Charles Dickens's novels: A Christmas Carol (1843), Bleak House (1852), and Great Expectations (1860). While substantial scholarly attention has been paid to Dickens's interest in formal education, for example his educational reform efforts, his fictional depictions of schools and schooling, and his "student" and "teacher" characters, my project considers the fictional moments in which Dickens depicts education happening outside traditional "school" settings. I argue against claims that Dickens was exclusively interested in critiquing pedagogical practices; rather, Dickens offers informal solutions to Victorian attempts at establishing a state-run educational system. My project begins with a chapter providing historical context on formal Victorian educational practices; practices which inform Dickens's descriptions of both formal and informal learning/teaching experiences. In my analysis of A Christmas Carol, I analyze the Christmas Spirits's teaching strategies and find that the ghosts offer a more humane pedagogical approach than common Victorian teaching methods like Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster's Monitorial System. My chapter on Bleak House considers the ways in which gendered teaching and learning complicate a Dickensian perspective on what can be defined as best-practice pedagogy. In Great Expectations, I explore how the generic form of the Bildungsroman, or the novel of education, contributes to Dickens's evaluation of learning and social mobility. My project concludes by demonstrating how Dickens explodes and expands definitions of "teacher," "pupil," and "learning" in A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, and Great Expectations, even for twenty-first century audiences. / Master of Arts / In his novels Hard Times, Dombey and Son, and Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens famously criticizes common Victorian educational practices by depicting unfair and cruel treatment in school and classroom settings. However, Dickens's portrayals of excellent educational settings is often overlooked. My thesis argues that examples of Dickens's successful teachers occur most frequently in his portrayals of informal education. In A Christmas Carol (1843), Bleak House (1852), and Great Expectations (1860), ghosts, friends, mothers, dancing-masters, and dubious neighbors become the best teachers to needy students. My project begins with a chapter providing historical context on formal Victorian educational practices; practices which inform Dickens's descriptions of both formal and informal learning/teaching experiences. In my analysis of A Christmas Carol, I analyze the Christmas Spirits's teaching strategies and find that the ghosts offer a more humane pedagogical approach than common Victorian teaching methods like Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster's Monitorial System. My chapter on Bleak House considers the ways in which gendered teaching and learning complicate a Dickensian perspective on what can be defined as best-practice pedagogy. In Great Expectations, I explore how the generic form of the Bildungsroman, or the novel of education, contributes to Dickens's evaluation of learning and social mobility. My project concludes by demonstrating how Dickens explodes and expands definitions of "teacher," "pupil," and "learning" in A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, and Great Expectations, even for twenty-first century audiences.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The object of this study was the novelette A Christmas Carol, by the English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870+), specially concerning about its presentation on Dickens Public Readings, spectacles in which, on stage, the author would read pieces of his books. The objective was to observe the transformation process of the novelette to the Public Reading performances. Dickens adapted the text for stage through manuscript notes on a printed edition of the original text. This volume, named by Philip Collins as prompt-copy and by us, in Portuguese, as Roteiro de Leitura (Reading Script), was used as a guide for rehearsals and performances. We had access to the prompt-copy by means of the manuscript facsimile, edited by Philip Collins in the book A Christmas Carol: the Public Reading Version (1971). Firstly published in 1843, the novelette A Christmas Carol was already on the repertoire of the author s first Public Reading, presented, in 1853, with the intention of collecting funds for charity. Five years later, Dickens began to perform professionally, in a career that lasted twelve years. His repertoire counted with sixteen items, being A Christmas Carol one of the most enjoyed by the author and by the public. Such repertoire was carefully adapted for the stage. Dickens not only read the contents, but interpreted each character, seeking to create a variety of voices, gestures and emotions. Altogether, he presented about 470 times, in England, in Ireland, in Scotland, in Paris and in the United States. A Christmas Carol, the longest item in the repertoire, was read in no less than 127 performances, being part of the author s last Reading, in 1870. First, we made a historic contextualization of Dickens Public Readings, seeking to understand which aspects of that context were favorable to their good reception and that made them possible. Then, understanding Paul Zumthor s concept of performance, we analyzed A Christmas Carol s Public Readings, observing them with respect to the textual and performance aspects. In this way, we tried both to perceive the adaptation process of the text, through the analyses of the manuscript, and to form an idea about the scenic aspects of the Public Readings, by registers of spectators who witnessed them. / O objeto deste estudo foi a novela A Christmas Carol, do escritor inglês Charles Dickens (1812-1870+), em especial o que se refere à sua apresentação nas Leituras Públicas de Dickens, espetáculos em que, no palco, o autor lia trechos de seus livros. O objetivo foi observar o processo de transformação da novela para as performances de Leituras Públicas. Dickens realizou a adaptação do texto para o palco por meio de anotações manuscritas feitas em uma edição impressa do texto original. Esse volume, o qual nomeamos de Roteiro de Leitura, era usado como guia para os ensaios e para as performances. Tivemos acesso ao Roteiro por meio do fac-símile do manuscrito, editado por Philip Collins no livro A Christmas Carol: the Public Reading Version (1971). Inicialmente publicada em 1843, a novela A Christmas Carol já constava no repertório da primeira Leitura Pública do autor, realizada, em 1853, com o intuito de arrecadar fundos para caridade. Cinco anos mais tarde, Dickens passou a se apresentar profissionalmente, numa carreira que durou doze anos. Seu repertório contou com dezesseis itens, sendo A Christmas Carol um dos preferidos do autor e do público. Tal repertório era cuidadosamente adaptado para o palco. Dickens não apenas lia o conteúdo, mas interpretava cada personagem, buscando criar uma variedade de vozes, gestos e emoções. Ao todo, ele se apresentou por volta de 470 vezes, na Inglaterra, na Irlanda, na Escócia, em Paris e nos Estados Unidos. Item mais longo do repertório, A Christmas Carol foi lida em não menos que 127 performances, fazendo parte da última Leitura do autor, em 1870. Inicialmente, fizemos uma contextualização histórica das Leituras Públicas de Dickens, procurando entender quais aspectos daquele contexto favoreceram-lhes a boa acolhida e tornaram-lhes possível a realização. Num segundo momento, entendendo o conceito de performance de Paul Zumthor, analisamos as Leituras Públicas de A Christmas Carol, observando-as com respeito a dois aspectos: o textual e o performático. Desse modo, procuramos tanto perceber o processo de adaptação do texto, pela análise do manuscrito, quanto formar uma ideia dos aspectos cênicos das Leituras Públicas, por meio de registros de espectadores que as testemunharam. / Mestre em Teoria Literária