Charles Dickens and the Image of Women

How successful is Dickens in his portrayal of women? Dickens has been represented (along with William Blake and D.H. Lawrence) as one who championed the life of the emotions often associated with the "feminine." Yet some of his most important heroines are totally submissive and docile. Dickens, of c...

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Hovedforfatter: Holbrook, David K.
Format: Online
Sprog:engelsk
Udgivet: NYU Press 2023
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Online adgang:ONIX_20231005_9780814744871_99
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author Holbrook, David K.
author_browse Holbrook, David K.
author_facet Holbrook, David K.
author_sort Holbrook, David K.
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description How successful is Dickens in his portrayal of women? Dickens has been represented (along with William Blake and D.H. Lawrence) as one who championed the life of the emotions often associated with the "feminine." Yet some of his most important heroines are totally submissive and docile. Dickens, of course, had to accept the conventions of his time. It is obvious, argues Holbrook, that Dickens idealized the father-daughter relationship, and indeed, any such relationship that was unsexual, like that of Tom Pinch and his sister but why? Why, for example, is the image of woman so often associated with death, as in Great Expectations? Dickens's own struggles over relationships with women have been documented, but much less has been said about the unconscious elements behind these problems. Using recent developements in psychoanalytic object-relations theory, David Holbrook offers new insight into the way in which the novels of Dickens particularly Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations both uphold emotional needs and at the same time represent the limits of his view of women and that of his time.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1143112024-03-26T22:55:23Z Charles Dickens and the Image of Women Holbrook, David K. Language & Literature thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism How successful is Dickens in his portrayal of women? Dickens has been represented (along with William Blake and D.H. Lawrence) as one who championed the life of the emotions often associated with the "feminine." Yet some of his most important heroines are totally submissive and docile. Dickens, of course, had to accept the conventions of his time. It is obvious, argues Holbrook, that Dickens idealized the father-daughter relationship, and indeed, any such relationship that was unsexual, like that of Tom Pinch and his sister but why? Why, for example, is the image of woman so often associated with death, as in Great Expectations? Dickens's own struggles over relationships with women have been documented, but much less has been said about the unconscious elements behind these problems. Using recent developements in psychoanalytic object-relations theory, David Holbrook offers new insight into the way in which the novels of Dickens particularly Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations both uphold emotional needs and at the same time represent the limits of his view of women and that of his time. 2023-10-05T10:02:58Z 2023-10-05T10:02:58Z 1993 book ONIX_20231005_9780814744871_99 9780814744871 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/114311 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt9qg5v3 NYU Press 10.2307/j.ctt9qg5v3 10.2307/j.ctt9qg5v3 4f0083e6-57b8-4955-9258-8a34506205d2 9780814744871 open access
spellingShingle Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
Holbrook, David K.
Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title_full Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title_fullStr Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title_full_unstemmed Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title_short Charles Dickens and the Image of Women
title_sort charles dickens and the image of women
topic Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
topic_facet Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
url ONIX_20231005_9780814744871_99
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