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Series:   Elements in the Gothic

Dickens and the Gothic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2024

Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield

Summary

Dickens and the Gothic provides a critical focus on representations of social and psychological entrapment which demonstrates how Dickens employs the Gothic to evaluate how institutions and formations of history impinge on the individual. An analysis of these forms of Gothic entrapment reveals how these institutions and representations of public and personal history function Gothically in Dickens, because they hold back other, putatively reformist, ambitions. To be trapped in an institution such as a prison, or by the machinations of a law court, or haunted by history, or to be haunted by ghosts, represent forms of Gothic entrapment which this study examines both psychologically and sociologically.
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Keywords

DickensGothicghost storyprisonsVictorian literature
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in the Gothic
Online ISBN: 9781009282512
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 17 October 2024

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Dickens and the Gothic
  • Andrew Smith, University of Sheffield
  • Online ISBN: 9781009282512
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Dickens and the Gothic
  • Andrew Smith, University of Sheffield
  • Online ISBN: 9781009282512
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Dickens and the Gothic
  • Andrew Smith, University of Sheffield
  • Online ISBN: 9781009282512
Available formats
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