<b>Images of Spatial Representations in Charles Dickens's New York</b>
Keywords:
Charles Dickens, New York, American Notes, Space, Image, RepresentationAbstract
Abstract
Agnes Calder claims that Charles Dickens came back from America, 'heartily disillusioned’ (Dickens 8). In this paper, through reading American Notes (1842), I see the image of spatial representation in the city of New York. On the surface, the city shows Dickens’s eye of observation, revealing the dark side of the city. And yet, Dickens’s writing expresses more than what he sees. Dickens’s image of New York, I argue, is not only a 'realistic’ account of what things look like, but a true realisation of how he feels about himself, and about the country in which he was situated in.
References
Adrian, Arthur A. (1952). ‘Dickens on American Slavery: A Carlylean Slant’. PMLA 67.4:
– 329.
Baudelaire, Charles. (1995). The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. Trans. Jonathan
Mayne. London: Phaidon.
Benjamin, Walter. (1973). Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism.
Trans. Harry Zohn. London: NLB.
Benson, Arthur Christopher and Viscount Esher, eds. (1907). The Letters of Queen Victoria:
A Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence Between The Years 1837 and 1861, Volume
I. London: John Murray.
Calder, Angus. (2006). ‘Charles Dickens: A Note’. Dickens 7 – 10. Claybaugh, Amanda.
‘Toward a New Transatlanticism: Dickens in the United States’. Victorian Studies 48.3: 439 –
Defoe, Daniel. (1998). Robinson Crusoe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dickens, Charles. (1987). American Notes. Eds. John S. Whitley and Arnold Goldman.
Middlesex: Penguin.
Goldberg, Michael. (1972). ‘From Bentham to Carlyle: Dickens’ Political Development’.
Journal of the History of Ideas 33.1: 61 – 76.
Grubb, G. Gerald. (1950). ‘The Personal and Literary Relationships of Dickens and Poe (Part
Two: “English Notes” and “The Poet of America”)’. Nineteenth-Century Fiction 5.2: 101 –
---. (1951). ‘Dickens’ Western Tour and the Cairo Legend’. Studies in Philology 48.1: 87 –
Heilman, Robert B. (1947). ‘The New World in Dickens’s Writings: Part Two’. Trollopian
4: 11 – 26.
Meckier, Jerome. (1984). ‘Dickens Discovers America, Dickens Discovers Dickens: The First
Visit Reconsidered’. The Modern Language Review 79.2: 266 – 277.
Poe, Edgar Allan. (1996). ‘The Man of the Crowd’ (1840). Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry, Tales,
and Selected Essays. New York: The Library of America.
Pound, Louise. (1947). ‘The American Dialect of Charles Dickens’. American Speech 22.2:
– 130.
Waller, John O. (1960). ‘Charles Dickens and the American Civil War’. Studies in Philology
3: 535 – 548.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All papers licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY.- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
