All across his literary canon, Charles Dickens focused upon the definition, the composition, and the democratizing of the process of writing history. In this text, the author takes as his point of departure the New Historicist critical theories articulated by Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Hayden White, Dominick LaCapra and others, and offers a critical analysis of Dickens' complete body of work. Palmer explores Dickens' use of philosophical, economic and literary history as generators for plot, theme and character in his novels. He aims to reveal that not only did Dickens give voice to the marginalized participants in the history of the 18th century and of his own contemporary Victorian age, but throughout his body of work he consistently evolved a philosophy of history composed from the perspective of the marginalized voices of the Victorian age. In the opinion of the author, this proves that Dickens' philosophy of history places him at the fulcrum of a history of ideas which emanates from 18th-century sources and prefigures the existentialist history of the 20th century,
- ISBN10 0333731077
- ISBN13 9780333731079
- Publish Date 14 January 1998 (first published 15 December 1997)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 208
- Language English