Notes on a Visit to Newgate
Literary and Cultural Studies 212 – Narrative
Essay 1 – ‘A Visit to Newgate’ by Charles Dickens
D’Costa, Alzena. ‘Week 3: Realism as Convention’. Lecture. Curtin University. 10/8/09.
Realism
The realist novel is a product of a particular time and place as well as a new set of assumptions about the nature of truth. (Lect 3)
Emerged in a time of capitalist modernity – ‘truth’ a product of empirical science. Reality translated through the human ability to test and measure (observation).
Produced by bourgeoisie (middle class) who began harnessing nature for material gain.
Modern society characterised itself as ordered, and privileged rationality, reason and logic.
Pre-modern society privileged religion as the dominant way of knowing whereas modern society privileged empirical science as a discourse of ‘truth’.
The aesthetics of realism are underpinned by the mimetic theory of language.
Charles Dickens as a realist
“The notion of Dickens as realist in early French criticism...is associated with reproduction of the physical world by accumulation of facts and details and continual reference to sense experience…the notion of truth in Dickens is viewed in the sense of fidelity to the actual conditions of life in contemporary England.”
Fibbert, Joseph T. “Dickens and the French Debate over Realism: 1838-1856.” Comparative Literature 23.1 (1971): 18-31.
“Things are painted literally as they are…it is a book that might have stood its ground…as containing unusually truthful observation…a picture of everyday London at its best and worst…with the absolute reality of the things depicted.”
The Life of Charles Dickens (1876) cited by Hillis Miller
Medieval Romance Vs Realist Narrative
Medieval Romance
Realist Narrative
Context
12th – 11th century (feudal ‘pre-modernity’) rural, superstitious, religious...
18th century (capitalist modernity)
Dominant Class
Aristocracy
Middle-class (bourgeoisie)
Narrative Setting
Distant, idealised past; an exotic location
Contemporary setting;
Essay 1 – ‘A Visit to Newgate’ by Charles Dickens
D’Costa, Alzena. ‘Week 3: Realism as Convention’. Lecture. Curtin University. 10/8/09.
Realism
The realist novel is a product of a particular time and place as well as a new set of assumptions about the nature of truth. (Lect 3)
Emerged in a time of capitalist modernity – ‘truth’ a product of empirical science. Reality translated through the human ability to test and measure (observation).
Produced by bourgeoisie (middle class) who began harnessing nature for material gain.
Modern society characterised itself as ordered, and privileged rationality, reason and logic.
Pre-modern society privileged religion as the dominant way of knowing whereas modern society privileged empirical science as a discourse of ‘truth’.
The aesthetics of realism are underpinned by the mimetic theory of language.
Charles Dickens as a realist
“The notion of Dickens as realist in early French criticism...is associated with reproduction of the physical world by accumulation of facts and details and continual reference to sense experience…the notion of truth in Dickens is viewed in the sense of fidelity to the actual conditions of life in contemporary England.”
Fibbert, Joseph T. “Dickens and the French Debate over Realism: 1838-1856.” Comparative Literature 23.1 (1971): 18-31.
“Things are painted literally as they are…it is a book that might have stood its ground…as containing unusually truthful observation…a picture of everyday London at its best and worst…with the absolute reality of the things depicted.”
The Life of Charles Dickens (1876) cited by Hillis Miller
Medieval Romance Vs Realist Narrative
Medieval Romance
Realist Narrative
Context
12th – 11th century (feudal ‘pre-modernity’) rural, superstitious, religious...
18th century (capitalist modernity)
Dominant Class
Aristocracy
Middle-class (bourgeoisie)
Narrative Setting
Distant, idealised past; an exotic location
Contemporary setting;