Dickens and the Myth of the Reader

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British
Cover of the book Dickens and the Myth of the Reader by Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton, Taylor and Francis
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Author: Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton ISBN: 9781315386249
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: November 10, 2016
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton
ISBN: 9781315386249
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: November 10, 2016
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

This study explores the ways in which Dickens’s published work and his thousands of letters intersect, to shape and promote particular myths of the reading experience, as well as redefining the status of the writer. It shows that the boundaries between private and public writing are subject to constant disruption and readjustment, as recipients of letters are asked to see themselves as privileged readers of coded text or to appropriate novels as personal letters to themselves. Imaginative hierarchies are both questioned and ultimately reinforced, as prefaces and letters function to create a mythical reader who is placed in imaginative communion with the writer of the text. But the written word itself becomes increasingly unstable, through its association in the later novels with evasion, fraud and even murder.

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This study explores the ways in which Dickens’s published work and his thousands of letters intersect, to shape and promote particular myths of the reading experience, as well as redefining the status of the writer. It shows that the boundaries between private and public writing are subject to constant disruption and readjustment, as recipients of letters are asked to see themselves as privileged readers of coded text or to appropriate novels as personal letters to themselves. Imaginative hierarchies are both questioned and ultimately reinforced, as prefaces and letters function to create a mythical reader who is placed in imaginative communion with the writer of the text. But the written word itself becomes increasingly unstable, through its association in the later novels with evasion, fraud and even murder.

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