Approved-By: Patrick McCarthy
Dickens Universe -- 1998
I was delighted to find myself back at the Dickens Universe for a third
year. This year's conference focused on Oliver Twist and Lewis Carroll's
Alice books. As the centenary of the year of Dodgson's death, it seemed
fitting to introduce Alice to the wonderful world of the Dickens
Project--truly an experience that is like a wonderland for so many of its
participants. In fact, the pairing of these texts prompted one of the
largest enrollments ever at a Dickens Universe, including the youngest
participant to attend on his own, a twelve-year-old boy, David Richter, who
cited Bob Patten's keynote lecture as one of the highlights of his
Dickensian experience. Indeed, the daily lectures covered a broad spectrum
of topics and approaches to the texts and expanded the ways in which we
approach Dickens and Carroll.
Bob Patten's lecture, "The Name That Dares Not Speak Its Name," drew on
Plato's Cratylus to argue that names mean nothing until they become
symbols; thus, the names in both Oliver and the Alice books are culturally
encoded. Looking closely at the names that cannot be spoken in the three
works, Patten argued that the speaking of names betokens death in Fagin's
den of thieves, while Alice wants words to have a fixed meaning as the text
"plays with and at Alice." The next morning we were treated to a 'virtual'
lecture by Catherine Robson. Pregnant with twins, Robson appeared via video
in a taped presentation of her lecture, "Down Ditches, On Doorsteps, In
Rivers: Oliver Twist's Journey to Respectability." Focusing on the moment
in the text when Oliver is abandoned in a ditch, Robson argued that three
archetypal locations (the ditch, the doorstep, and the river) allow Oliver
to die the death of one kind of baby, the unwanted baby low in the social
imagination, and be reborn into the more acceptable story of the fortunate
foundling.
Kate Carnell Watt, a long-time participant in the Universe, gave the
afternoon lecture, "Oliver Twist and Other Ragged Boys--or--'Ours for his
Life': The Making of Oliver Twist." Drawing on contemporary punitive
theories and the practices of reformatory prisons for youthful offenders,
Watt argued that the novel explores the middle class's generalized fear of
the poor and the desire of that class to "reform this already honest
child." An interesting fact that recurred in conversations throughout the
week was that leapfrog was considered one of the only appropriate games for
reform-school boys to play. Much discussion centered around why this was
the case. This talk was followed by Renee Riese Hubert's lecture on
Salvador Dali's illustrations of the Alice story, in which we viewed an
interesting precursor to the famous melting watches painting in the
illustration of the mad tea-party, which featured a melting tea-table held
up in the center by a tree. Moving back to Dickens, David Parker, Curator
of the Dickens House Museum, gave the evening lecture, "Oliver Twist and
the Fugitive Family," which drew on biographical details from Dickens' life
to argue that there seem to be no "normal families" in this novel because
of Dickens' early life and the death of Mary Hogarth three months after he
began serializing the novel.
Tuesday morning's lecture, "The Long and Short of Oliver and Alice: The
Changing Size of the Victorian Child," explored how these texts reflect the
changing understanding of size and its relationship to human development.
Goldie Morgantaler explained the competing theories of preformation (the
individual is preformed before conception) and epigensis (today's model of
growth) to explore how the Victorians, living in a period of movement
between these two forms of thought, viewed children and childhood.
Morgantaler concluded that despite the differences between the texts, both
authors long to slow down time, and by focusing on childhood as a distinct
state, they ultimately choose to show childhood as static. John Romano's
evening lecture, "Violence in Popular Culture: Livy, Dickens, and
Television," served as an early segue into the weekend conference on forms
of Victorian violence. An academician turned television producer, Romano
presented an entertaining and informative lecture on the differences
between the "violence of involvement" and the "violence of detachment." He
argued that the violence of detachment, which distances the
reader's/viewer's response, is designed to hurt the reader/viewer and
fosters numbness. The driving question behind Romano's talk was whether
violence helps us to find the human or to hide it.
Wednesday morning began with Regina Barreca's lecture on play as a "job"
that children have to take seriously. In "Oliver and Alice Play Nicely
Together," Barreca argued that the dutiful child accepts the rituals and
rules of play, even at the expense of his or her own pleasure. On a side
note, the anecdote about Barreca's appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show"
and her witty comebacks to the authors of "The Rules" was a hit with the
Universe participants! Philip Collins' afternoon lecture on "Crime in
Dickens: Fagin, Sikes, and Their Successors" discussed Oliver Twist as
Dickens' "first major fictional presentation of crime" and showed the way
that this topic reverberates throughout the rest of his novels. Rounding
out the day's lectures, Kamilla Elliott presented "Figuring Images:
Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Carroll's Alice Books and Film Adaptations"
in the evening. Elliott presented us with three questions: "Why is a raven
like a writing desk? How is a film like a novel? How do literary and film
images elucidate the relationship between literature and film?" By showing
clips from both Disney's and Jan Svankmajer's adaptations of the Alice
books, Elliott argued that these successful adaptations do "with sounds and
images what Carroll does with language." As Elliott convincingly showed us
with clips of awful adaptations of Alice (including one in which Sammy
Davis Jr. plays the Caterpillar!), such a move works best in adaptations
that do not depend on live action.
Joss Marsh gave a lecture on Thursday morning, "Oliver Twist On/And Film,"
which included an incredible array of slides. Her thesis, Dickens is
cinema, argued that Dickens was an inspiration for cinema because 1) there
is a propensity in Dickens' narratives for streetwise exploration, and 2)
there is a "thirst for" the chase through city streets. Teresa Mangum's
afternoon lecture, "Dickens' Sinister Senescence," looked at the way in
which old age is represented as an extreme of either veneration or neglect.
In depictions of older women (and men) in paintings from the period, she
showed that the aged are grouped on the peripheries of the painting with
children. She explained that old age, in the novels, becomes sinister when
that character "abuses" or "takes on a young child." Mangum concluded by
looking at both aging and race, in the character of Fagin, and aging and
gender in the character of Miss Havisham, a crone figure.
Thursday evening brought us to the swing lecture for the weekend
conference. Joseph Childers introduced "Forms of Victorian Violence," and
Robert Polhemus presented an engaging talk on "Lewis Carroll, William
Stead, and Sexual Violence: 'The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.'" The
relationship between William Stead, the father of the sexy and sensational
"new journalism," and Lewis Carroll was a contentious one. Carroll wanted
the publication of "Modern Babylon" suppressed because he believed it was
too lurid for public consumption. As Polhemus pointed out, however, the
issue that both Carroll and Stead were interested in was ways to make girls
safe, yet each used a girl to make that point. Finally, Carroll was
vindicated in Polhemus' talk because he argued that Carroll was interested
in ceding power to Alice and his other girl-child friends and that Carroll
works through art to "belittle violence, authority, and himself." James
Kincaid's lecture on Friday morning, "How to Long," took Polhemus'
discussion of sexual violence and located the perpetrators of such violence
in us, the viewers. Prefacing his talk with the quip, "new ideas are like
new underwear, hard to get used to and likely to be uncomfortable,"
Kincaid helped to ease the audience into the "uncomfortable" idea that "to long
violently" is part of our "cultural geography," and the "adorable, empty
child" is a spot for "nostalgia and reverie for the adult." However, the
adult's desire is never fulfilled because, as the adult moves to join them,
these children take on a life of their own. Thus, in longing for the lost
world of the child, we want to both worship and to punish children.
Now in full swing, the weekend conference offered a smorgasbord of
readings of violence in Victorian literature and culture. Although too
numerous to enumerate, these presentations included James Buzard's
entertaining lecture on the invention of the revolving door as a synecdoche
of urban life, Kathleen Lonsdale's paper on Jack the Ripper, Catherine
Judd's discussion of English representations of the Irish famine, Lisa
Jenkins' illuminating reading of the autobiographical writings from
convicts on Norfolk Island, Carolyn Devers' paper on obstetrical drawings
and female dissection, and a discussion of the spermatorrhea panic by Ellen
Rosenman. Indeed, all the presenters did a wonderful job of both
enlightening the audience and allowing room for humor in the topic of
violence.
Finally, of course, the Dickens Universe is about much more than scholarly
papers. Despite the hectic schedule, participants found time to engage in
non-cerebral activities too. During the beginning of the week, the weather
was unseasonably warm for Santa Cruz, so the beach, the pool, and the
beautiful woods were popular get away spots. In addition, there was time to
ride the famous roller coaster on the boardwalk, featured in the Hollywood
film "Titanic," and the "Typhoon" ride, which was very popular this year.
Victorian teas, sponsored by the Friends of the Dickens Project, were also
a delight, as was the Friday night "Victorian Dance," complete with a live
band! Of course, what would a Dickens Universe be without the nightly
parties? Once again, the participants found little time to sleep! After an
intellectually challenging and exhausting week, it seems odd to be back in
the lull between summer school and Fall quarter...and odder still to
average more than a few hours of sleep per night. Despite the peace and
quiet, I think I speak for all the participants when I say that I wish I
could attend again next week. Thank you John Jordan, Murray Baumgarten,
John Glavin, and all the wonderful people who gave papers, provided
scintillating conversation, shared the giggles over the recurring cafeteria
"Taco Bar," and attended the Universe.
Monica Bosson
Brief Note: Beth Penny, Friend extraordinary of the Dickens Project,
has written the following account of this year's Universe
for her Dickens Fellowship publication and has asked whether
we would like to read it. And of course we would!
Monica Bosson is preparing a report for us from the standpoint
of a graduate student who attended her second Universe. She promises we
will get her impressions to us in a day or two, and I must say I am
looking forward to it.
Patrick McC
----------
The Dickens Universe, UC Santa Cruz, August 1997
"Contrast" was definitely the word of the week. At the 17th annual
Dickens Universe, 180 conference-goers (twice 1996's attendance) spent
the week contrasting Dickens with Austen, and Austen with her several
20th-century interpreters. Also examined throughout the week, which
certainly provided contrasts of its own in the weather, were various
and fascinating contrasting notions of heroes and heroines.
Through an extraordinarily warm first few days and a damp, drizzly
close to the week of August 3-9, we heard lectures, attended
workshops, drank tea, learned to dance, watched movies, and were
entertained by a magician.
The week opened with "The Hero of my Life," the keynote talk,
written by Dr. David Parker, Curator of the Dickens House Museum in London.
The paper, which deftly contrasted the title character with romantic hero
Steerforth, was delivered by Universe co-director John Glavin of Georgetown
University. Dr. Parker, unfortunately, could not join us this year
(the first year he has missed in some time) because of his mother's illness.
Early-morning workshops this year were led by Philip Collins of the
University of Leicester, Joss Marsh of Stanford University, and Jack
Hall of the City University of New York.
The morning lecture series opened on Monday with a lecture entitled
"Austen and the Narratives of Chance" by Maaja Stewart of Tulane University,
who discussed the fact that women (embodied of course by Jane Austen)
experienced the 19th century differently from men. On Tuesday morning,
Jacqueline Jaffe of New York University gave an equally fascinating talk on
"Exposure and Evaluation: Theories of Punishment and Control in David
Copperfield and Pride and Prejudice." This in-depth comparison and contrast
of the two novels proposed an interesting (and much discussed throughout the
week) theory, that, as Jaffe said, in David Copperfield "everyone gets
away with everything"; in other words, punishment in this novel just
does not work.
Relaxation in the form of nightly postprandial potations and the
Friends of the Dickens Project's afternoon teas was enjoyed by all
attendees. Afternoon lectures included "Fact and Fiction in David
Copperfield," by Philip Collins; "Dickens in China," by the
husband-and-wife team of Ling and Yang Zhang, who are the principal
translators of Dickens into Chinese; "Charles Dickens and a View of
Victorian Childhood," by Susan Healey and Tony Pointon of the
University of Portsmouth; and "Fagin Refashioned: Twentieth Century
Appropriations of Oliver Twist in Film and Musical Media" by Elizabeth
Boje of the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Other lectures included "Going Unsteadily from the One to the Other:
Split Mothers in David Copperfield," by Ruth Ginsburg of Hebrew
University in Jerusalem; "Prejudice in Jane Austen, Emma Tennan,
Charles Dickens-and Us," by Gerhard Joseph of the City University of
New York; "Boxing Jane Austen," by Helena Michie of Rice University;
and "A Tale in Two Media: Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities
Adapted 1911-1991."
On Thursday evening, the featured lecture for the
weekend conference, "Re-versions," was "Royal Poses: Elizabeth, Di,
and Fergie do Victoria," by Adrienne Munich of the State University of
New York, Stony Brook. The evening before, a "Victorian Panel," made
up of Jack Hall of CUNY, Jim Kincaid of USC, Angie Mason of the BBC,
and moderator Joss Marsh of Stanford, gave their varied views on
"Depicting the Victorians," and on Tuesday evening, costumed
participants were led in 19th-century dance instruction by Angela
Elsey of Santa Cruz.
A high-school teachers' workshop was conducted
throughout the week by Julie Minnis of Santa Cruz High School
Several of the lectures focused on the weekend topic of translating
the 19th century to the 20th, particularly in film. To accompany these
discussions, the following films were unspooled after the evening
lectures: A&E's brilliant rendering of Pride and Prejudice (in parts,
throughout the week); the 1935 MGM David Copperfield; and Pride and
Prejudice with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. On Friday evening,
participants were treated to a book auction, the proceeds of which
benefited the Friends of the Dickens Project, courtesy of donor Vic
Zoschak of Tavistock Books; a reading of the Mr. Bumble/Widow Corney
courtship scene from Oliver Twist by actress Miriam Margolyes; and a
fascinating magic show by east coast performer Robert Olson, who has
perfected techniques used by 19th-century magicians, with no
20th-century embellishments.
For next year's Universe (on August 2-8) the novels will be
Oliver Twist and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Thanks to the
Dickens Project staff, including co-directors John Jordan of UCSC and
John Glavin of Georgetown University, for another wonderful week.
Beth Penny of the Dickens Fellowship
Here, as promised, is Monica Bosson on the 1997 Dickens
Universe, with my thanks to her and repeated thanks (and apologies
for misnaming her report) to Beth Penny. PJM
---------
Dickens Universe 1997
First, I would like to say thank you to Beth Penny for her
detailed description of this year's Universe. As a graduate student
attending the conference for the second time, I can only hope to add a
somewhat different perspective on the week's events. So, here we go....
As Beth said, the week was one of contrasts, but it was also one
of comparisons. Perhaps the most pressing issue for the academics
attending the conference was whether or not the pairing of Dickens' *David
Copperfield* and Austen's *Pride and Prejudice* was valid. This meant
that we had to discover and define what kinds of assumptions scholars make
when they pair texts. Indeed, much discussion centered around the ways in
which the two novels intersect and whether such intersections are organic
or forced by the desire to find connections. Finally, the consensus was
that such anxiety was useful in promoting good scholarsip but ultimately,
a moot point. So, we all relaxed into an intellectually invigorating
week.
Although Beth Penny has already provided an overview of the
lectures, here is a synopsis of some of the highlights of the
lectures from my standpoint.
The keynote lecture of the Universe, "The Hero of My Life,"
centered on a discussion of Carlyle's definition of a hero as a man of
letters whose heroism is achieved through work. As Beth pointed out, the
paper contrasted Steerforth as the Romantic hero (the hero of narrative)
with David Copperfield as the hero of the bildungsroman (the hero of
drama). John Glavin's 'performance' of David Parker's paper (see Beth's
note about David Parker's absence) was truly inspired. Standing at the
podium as he read directly from the paper and then stepping away from it
when he commented on David Parker's words, John Glavin's performative
technique was often evoked throughout the remaining days of the
conference.
On Monday morning we were treated to Maaja Stewart's (Tulane U)
lecture, "Female Experience and Universal Truth," which revolved around a
discussion of Austen's letters and the argument that larger social and
historical realities are not repressed in *P&P* as is often assumed. Ruth
Ginsberg's Monday evening lecture, "Going Unsteadily from the One to the
Other: Split Mothers in *David Copperfield*," used Freud's work to explore
the ambivalent attitudes towards mothers in literature. She argued that
such ambivalence necessitates the split in *DC* between the bodiless girl
(Clara Copperfield) and the maternal, nourishing body (Clara Pegotty).
The literary work began anew on Tuesday morning with a lecture by
Jacqueline Jaffe from NYU. Centering her lecture around Foucault's
*Discipline and Punish*, in "Exposure and Evasion; Theories of Punishment
and Control in *DC* and *P&P*," Jaffe exposed the different ways in which
punishment is either present or absent in the two novels. Her lecture
elicited much excited discussion throughout the week. Whereas no one in
*P&P* gets away with anything, she argues that the world of *DC* is a
"form of utopianism" where the state apparatus does not work, thus
allowing everyone to get away with everything.
On Wednesday morning, Gerhard Joseph (CUNY) lectured on prejudice
in both novels and presented an interesting argument about the different
ways in which that word functions in the world of the two novelists, as
well as our own. Looking at sequels to Austen's work, "Prejudice in Jane
Austen, Emma Tennant, Charles Dickens -- and Us" explored the ways in
which Emma Tennant's modern sequels, *Pemberley* (1993) and *An Unequal
Marriage* (1994), reshape the "nature and affective impact of the
original" work. His argument centered on the premise that all
hermeneutics, or "how we understand what we understand," is dependent on a
"pre-understanding." The evening panel on "Depicting the Victorians" was
very informative. In particular, Jim Kincaid's 15-minute
synopsis of the meaning of history and Victorian studies evoked both
laughter (at his wit) and awe (at his high-wire daring) from the audience.
The lectures for the Dickens Universe ended with Helena Michie's
"Boxing Jane Austen," which discussed the ways in which male affectivity
works in both the novel and the A&E film adaptation. She argued that male
affect has the power to reorder the universe in the film adaptation. This
pairing of the text and film provided a seamless transition to the first
lecture of "Reversions," the weekend conference.
That lecture, Kamilla Elliot's overview of film adaptations of *A
Tale of Two Cities*, raised a point that continually resurfaced throughout
the weekend conference -- What is the role of faith and fidelity to the
original text in the production of adaptations? This point was also
central to the keynote lecture by Adrienne Munich (who gave a fascinating
talk on food and Queen Victoria at last year's weekend conference), which
focused on the ways in which "our Victorians exist [only] as reproductions
and reconstructions." She made this argument by highlighting the "traces"
of Queen Victoria present in the contemporary British royals Elizabeth,
Di, and Fergie.
Now in full-swing, the weekend conference was a whirlwind of
lectures on the various ways in which reversions to Victorian texts and
issues can be defined and explored. These lectures ran the gamut from
Kelly Hagar's (Harvard) discussion of the resurfacing in contemporary
adolescent literature of the Brontes' novels, to Hilary Schor's (USC)
lecture on A.S. Byatt and the way in which literature itself constitutes
"real property" for the author, to John Jordan's (UCSC) illuminating
overview of his present research on revisions of Dickens by postcolonial
authors, to James Buzard's (MIT) discussion of cultural studies and the
argument that the popular "repudiations of the Victorians amy [in fact]
lead to a Victorian reversion." Although too numerous to be discussed in
detail, all of the weekend lectures provided us with new ways of reading
the Victorians, but more particularly, new ways to read how we read the
Victorians!
Of course, the conference itself is much more than a week of
scholarly lectures. The late-morning discussion sessions provided a
chance to mull over the issues that the texts and lectures raised, while
the graduate
Message-ID:
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:46:04 -0700
Reply-To: Charles Dickens Forum
Sender: Charles Dickens Forum
From: Patrick McCarthy
Subject: Bosson on Dickens Universe '98
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Graduate Student
UC Santa Barbara
The Dickens Universe, 1997
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 15:16:39 -0700
From: Patrick McCarthy
Reply-To: Charles Dickens Forum
To: DICKNS-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Dickens Universe 1997 (2)
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 19:06:18 -0700
From: Patrick McCarthy
Reply-To: Charles Dickens Forum
To: DICKNS-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU