Through their editorial arrangements of African-American, Euro-American and European poetry, fiction and news, Frederick Douglass’s anti-slavery periodicals (The North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper) imagine a cosmopolitan discourse that predates the segregated realities of the antebellum United States. In spite of Southern blockades against the infiltration of Northern texts, Douglass’s material space uniquely capitalized on the limited restrictions of his reprinting culture to relocate the voice of the ‘outraged slave’ onto a global stage. From the poems of Phillis Wheatley and William Cowper to Charles Dickens’s Bleak House and Douglass’s own novella “The Heroic Slave,” this project considers how Douglass’s literary inclusions—and exclusions—complicate our static considerations of the historicized Douglass and exhibit his savvy insertions of black print into an exclusive, transatlantic nineteenth-century print culture.

Many Nineteenth century writers experienced the withdrawal of God discussed by Miller in The Disappearance of God. Robert Browning and Charles Dickens present two examples of "Fra Lippo Lippi" and Great Expectations model effective alternatives to accepting God's absence. Conversely "Andrea del Sarto" accepts the void the other two heroes shun.

The themes of uncertainty, muddle and imprisonment, which are inextricably linked, permeate Charles Dickens’s novels. In his ‘early’ first five novels, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge, society is depicted as emerging from the Classical episteme of the eighteenth century into a period of uncertainty that is dominated by values inspired by mercantilism. Social and bureaucratic institutional practices have been outpaced by commercial developments and are shown to be lacking; they are outdated and irrelevant in meeting the needs of a society that is in the process of rejecting its feudal history. Yet, during these uncertain times, these archaic instruments of social control continue to exert a power over the individual in the absence of something more relevant to a commercialised nineteenth-century society. The legislature, the judiciary and the executive all continue to exercise their misguided power over those under their control, capturing these in webs and labyrinths of uncertainty, with the result that Mr Pickwick, Oliver, Nicholas, Little Nell and Barnaby all fall victim to these vagaries, and experience prison in one form or another. The second, or ‘middle’ group of novels, comprising Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House and Hard Times, reveal something different. Although institutions are still depicted as deeply flawed, Dickens shifts his focus from the inadequacies of social institutions to the flawed individuals who inhabit this defective society; individuals who are required to rid themselves of their flaws in order to achieve authenticity and, thus, enable a regeneration within society to take place. The ‘final’ novels, Little Dorrit, The Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend, seem to suggest that the ambit of commercialisation, with its skewed values, is so all-encompassing that no character is able to escape its clutches. The result is a society and its citizens who are inescapably imprisoned in their respective physical, emotional and moral prisons. This thesis examines the development and consequences of institutional uncertainty on the individual and on society. It is argued that Dickens follows a Foucauldian trajectory, initially visiting the uncertainties of the times on the bodies of his characters during the early nineteenth century, attempting to create ‘docile bodies’ of his characters through discipline and punishment of the soul in the middle of the century and, finally, in the second half of the century, revealing an entire society caught up in the morass of uncertainty from which there appears to be no escape. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

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

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The worlds of Dickens's novels and of Darwin's science reveal striking similarity in spite of their involvement in different areas. The similarity comes from the fact that they shared the ethos of Victorian society: laissez-faire capitalism. In The Origin of Species, which was published on 1859, Charles Darwin theorizes that nature has evolved through the rules of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the struggle for existence. Although his conclusion comes from the scientific evidence that was acquired from his five-year voyage, it is clear that Dawinian nature is reflected in cruel Victorian capitalism. Three novels of Charles Dickens which were published around 1859, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Our Mutual Friend, share Darwinian aspects in their fictional worlds. In Bleak House, the central image, the Court of Chancery as the background of the novel, resembles Darwinian nature which is anti-Platonic in essence. The characters in Hard Times are divided into two groups: the winners and the losers in the arena of survival. The winners survive in Coketown, and the losers disappear from the city. The rules controlling the fates of Coketown people are the same as the rules of Darwinian nature. Our Mutual Friend can be interpreted as a matter of money. In the novel, everything is connected with money, and the relationship among people is predation to get money. Money is the central metaphor of the novel and around the money, the characters kill and are killed like the nature of Darwin in which animals kill each other. When a dominant ideology of a particular period permeates ingredients of the society, nobody can escape the controlling power of the ideology. Darwin and Dickens, although they worked in different areas, give evidence that their works are products of the ethos of Victorian England.

《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》(The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, 1857) 是一本由查理‧狄更斯(Charles Dickens)與威爾基‧柯林斯(Wilkie Collins)根據他們的旅途見聞再加上各自創作的兩篇短篇故事所集結而成的小說。在過去，許多批評家只單論文本中的兩篇短篇故事，而忽略鑲嵌短篇故事的主架構，把文本切割至互不相連的碎片。本論文主要採取昂希‧列斐伏爾(Henri Lefebvre)對於空間三面向的理論概念來剖析《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》在文本中反覆出現，並且被不同主體所論述的閒蕩(idleness)一詞，試圖藉由呈現閒蕩的多重意義而把《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》視為一有機的整體。論文第二章借助空間的再現(representation of space)概念論述看似懶散、不事生產的地景是如何被規劃，最終喪失其神性(deity)。論文的第三章則檢視空間使用者與空間的互動。本章從空間實踐(spatial practice)的角度切入，試圖證明文本中的精神病院(lunatic asylum)、火車站(railway station)與賽馬週(race-week)的空間規劃異化(alienate)了生活在其中的空間居民，而居民無所事事的遊蕩正是此異化的展現。第四章援引再現的空間(space of representation)之概念，試圖證明閒蕩也有其積極面向。藉由檢視故事主人翁法蘭西‧古柴爾德(Francis Goodchild)與湯瑪士‧艾朵(Thomas Idle)既合作又競爭的夥伴關係，閒蕩對於湯瑪士‧艾朵而言，是一種在文本中爭取發言權的手段。至於對缺乏官方實證的怪談野史而言，閒蕩也是一種抵抗大論述收編、並且同時揭露資本主義中金錢對於人性腐蝕的路徑。 / The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices is a travelogue worked in collaboration between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Besides noting down what they observe and encounter during the trip, Dickens and Collins also enclose two gothic tales which is written respectively by them. Nevertheless, when most critics mention The Lazy Tour, they limit their concerns to simply the two interpolated tales, which violates the integrity of The Lazy Tour by dissecting it into disconnected pieces. This thesis proposes to apply Henri Lefebvre’s conceptual triad to analyze the recurring theme, idleness, which is interpreted by different subjects. By presenting the variations of the concept of idleness, this thesis attempts to see The Lazy Tour as an organic whole. Applying the idea of representation of space, Chapter Two explains how the seemingly inoperative landscapes are programmed and designed, which results in the demise of the deity of Nature. With the support of the concept of spatial practice, Chapter Three proposes to demonstrate how the spatial designs of the lunatic asylum, railway station, and the festive occasion, the race-week, respectively alienate the spatial inhabitants. The idleness manifested by these spatial inhabitants is the syndrome of their alienation. Chapter Four analyzes the constructive aspect of the idleness with the assistance of Lefebvre’s idea of space of representation. In terms of Thomas Idle, one of the protagonists, idleness serves as a resistant measure to develop his own narrative. As far as the two interpolated tales are concerned, idleness can be compared to a way to resist the incorporation of the narrative framework of The Lazy Tour, and in the meanwhile discloses the moral corruption brought by Capitalism.