Dickens's London: Perception, Subjectivity and Phenomenal Urban Multiplicity

Julian Wolfreys

May 2012 · Edinburgh University Press

About this ebook

This exploration of the streets of Dickens's London opens up new perspectives on the city and the writer Taking Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project as an inspiration, Dickens's London offers an exciting and original project that opens a dialogue between phenomenology, philosophy and the Dickensian representation of the city in all its forms. Julian Wolfreys suggests that in their representations of London - its streets, buildings, public institutions, domestic residences, rooms and phenomena that constitute such space - Dickens's novels and journalism can be seen as forerunners of urban and material phenomenology. While also addressing those aspects of the urban that are developed from Dickens's interpretations of other literary forms, styles and genres, Dickens's London presents in twenty-six episodes (from Banking and Breakfast via the Insolvent Court, Melancholy and Poverty, to Todgers and Time, Voice and Waking) a radical reorientation to London in the nineteenth century, the development of Dickens as a writer, and the ways in which readers today receive and perceive both. Key Features Major reassessment of Dickens's writing on the city Dual focus on methodology and the historicity of Dickensian urban consciousness Philosophical reflections on urban tropologies through key passages from Dickens's texts recreate the experience of Victorian London Inventive structure offers the reader an experience of the disordered multiplicity of London Illustrated with 19 maps and photographs

About the author

Julian Wolfeys is Professor of English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in LIterature. He is author and editor of more than 40 books on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature and literary theory. Most recently he has published Dickens's Londonand The Derrida Wordbook, both with Edinburgh University Press. He recently published his first novel, Silent Music.