Dickens's forensic realism : truth, bodies, evidence / Andrew Mangham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mangham, Andrew, 1979- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickens, Charles.

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.

Dead in literature.

Death in literature.

Human body in literature.

Medicine in literature.

Medical jurisprudence.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xvi, 253 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Dickens's Forensic Realism: Truth, Bodies, Evidence by Andrew Mangham is one of the first studies to bring the medical humanities to bear on the work of Dickens. Turning to the field of forensic medicine (or medical jurisprudence), Mangham uncovers legal and medical contexts for Dickens's ideas that result in new readings of novels, short stories, and journalism by this major Victorian author. Dickens's Forensic Realism argues that the rich and unstable nature of truth and representation in Dickens owes much to the ideas and strategies of a forensic Victorian age, obsessed with questioning the relationship between clues and truths, evidences and answers. As Mangham shows, forensic medicine grew out of a perceived need to understand things with accuracy, leaning in part on the range of objectivities which inspired the inorganic sciences. At the same time, it had the burden of assisting the law in convicting the guilty and in exonerating the innocent. Practitioners of forensic medicine were uniquely mindful of unwanted variables such as human error and the vagaries of interpretation. In readings of Oliver Twist, Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, and Dickens's early journalism, Mangham demonstrates that these questions about signification, perception, and reality are central to the stylistic complexities and playful tone often associated with Dickens. Moreover, the medico-legal context of Dickens's fiction illuminates the richness and profundity, style and impact of Dickens's narratives. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Contexts : common sense, medicine, law

The whole truth : Oliver Twist and Our mutual friend

Bodies : early journalism and Bleak House

Collateral evidence : The Pickwick papers and Great expectations

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-245) and index.

ISBN:

9780814213247

0814213243

OCLC:

957656306

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description