Little Dorrit’s Fourth Volume. Twenty-first Century Remediation of a Victorian Classic

Simonetta Falchi

doi:10.13125/2039-6597/1329

Simonetta Falchi Università degli Studi di Sassari

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/1329

Keywords: Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens, Remediation, fan fiction, period drama

Abstract

The current interest in the Victorian period is particularly evident in the multitude of successful period dramas and cinema productions deriving their inspiration from Victorian history and culture. Dickens’s Little Dorrit, generated by the difficulties of understanding a ‘new’ world dominated by more and more complicated machines, and markets, is possibly the ideal paradigm to explore this ‘Victorianomania’ because this novel strikes us “no less forcefully today in its indictment of society's ability to destroy through greed and crushing self-interest” (Kirschner 2009).

This study carries out a threefold analysis of Little Dorrit's remediation in the twenty-first century: visual remediation – Xue’s 2012 Little Dorrit; audio-visual remediation – the BBC series; and web remediation – fan fiction – in order to investigate Dickens’s appeal and longevity in contemporary media.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Simonetta Falchi, Università degli Studi di Sassari

Dr. Simonetta Falchi (PhD) is currently a Researcher of English and American Studies at the University of Sassari, Sardinia. In 2008-2009 she was academic visitor at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of English and Lucy Cavendish College). She has helped as a member of the editorial board with the journal of English Studies The Grove (University of Jaen) and with the cross-cultural journal Annali della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere (University of Sassari). Her main research interest is the reception of myth in the broader sense, including classical, para-biblical and literary myths; she also deals with the intertwining between culture and technology, especially with regards to the contemporary remediation of Victorian literature.

References

Works cited

Alber, Jan, “The Dark Dungeons in Charles Dickens’ Novels and Their Film Adaptation”, Narrating the Prison: Role and Representation in Charles Dickens' Novels, Twentieth-Century Fiction, and Film, Youngstown, N.Y., Cambria, 2007: 37-64.

Aithion, Primvale, FanFiction.net, 2012, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8769714/1/Primvale-Volume-One-1841, online (accessed 07/06/2014).

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich, Rabelais and His World [1968], Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1984.

Barthes, Roland, S/Z: An Essay, Oxford, Blackwell, 1974.

Benjamin, Walter, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”[1937], Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, New York, Schocken Books, 1968: 217-253.

Bolter, David Jay – Grusin, Richard, Remediation, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 1999.

Booth, Paul, Digital Fandom. New Media Studies, New York, Peter Lang, 2010.

Brugnolo, Stefano, “Perché non possiamo non dirci vittoriani: influssi inglesi sull’immaginario letterario europeo”, Figures in the Carpet: studi di letteratura e cultura vittoriana, ed. Giulia Pissarello, Pescara, Tracce, 2012: 407-429.

Byatt, Antonia Susan, “Within Those Walls”, The Guardian, Saturday 15 November 2008, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/15/

>

little-dorritt-byatt, online (accessed 30/08/2014).

Carnell Watt, Kate – Lonsdale, Kathleen C., “Film and Television Adaptations 1897-2001”, Dickens on Screen, ed. J. Glavin, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003: 201-215.

Chater, David “Little Dorrit; The Home Show; The Family; Banged Up Abroad”, The Times,5 November 2008, www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tvradio/article2445137.ece, online (accessed 07/05/2009).

Coppa, Francesca, “A Brief History of Media Fandom”, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2006: 41-60.

Davies, Andrew, “Introduction”, Little Dorrit, London, BBC, 2008: xv-xviii.

Dickens, Charles, Little Dorrit (Illustrations by H. K. Browne), London, Bradbury and Evans, 1857.

Dickensblog, Dickens wrote fan fiction!, 2009, http://dickensblog.typepad.com/dickensblog/2009/11/dickens-wrote-fanfiction.html, online (accessed 05/05/2014).

Dickensian812, Friends, FanFiction.net, 2011, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6829624/1/Friends, online (accessed 14/05/2014).

Eco, Umberto, “Casablanca, Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage”, SubStance, 14.2.47 (1985): 3-12.

Eisenstein, Sergei, “Dickens, Griffith, and the Film Today”, Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, ed. and transl. Jay Leyda, New York, Harcourt, 1944.

Eliot, George (aka Von Richl W. H.), “Rev. of Little Dorrit”, Westminster Review, 10 (1856): 55.

Hellekson, Karen − Busse, Kristina, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland, 2006.

Hillman, James, A Blue Fire: Selected Writings, New York, Harper Perennial, 1989.

Joyce, Simon, The Victorians in the Rearview Mirror, Athens, Ohio University Press, 2007.

Kirschner, Ann, “Reading Dickens Four Ways. How Little Dorrit Fares in Multiple Text Formats”, The Chronicle Review ‒ The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2 2009, http://chronicle.com/article/Reading-Dickens-Four-Ways/44461, online (accessed 30/08/2014).

Kitton, Frederic G., Dickens and His Illustrators, S.l., Redway, 1899.

Lloyd, Robert, “Review: ‘Little Dorrit’ on PBS”, Los Angeles Times, 27 March 2009, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/ 27/entertainment/et-littledorrit27, online (accessed 28/03/2009).

Lowry, Bryan “Review: ‘Little Dorrit’”, Variety, 26 March 2009, http://variety.com/2009/tv/reviews/little-dorrit-3-1200474016, online (accessed 28/03/2009).

Marroni, Francesco, Disarmonie vittoriane, Roma, Carocci, 2002.

Id., Miti e mondi vittoriani: la cultura inglese dell’Ottocento, Roma, Carocci, 2004.

Marucci, Franco, Il Vittorianesimo, Napoli, Liguori, 2009.

Osborn, Bryan, “A Note on Costume and Historicity in Little Dorrit”, Dickensian, 486.108. 1 (Spring 2012): 47-51.

Purton, Valerie, “Victorians beyond The Academy. ‘Nobody’s Fault’: Little Dorrit, Andrew Davies and the Art of Adaptation”, Journal of Victorian Culture, 15. 1 (April 2010): 131-135.

Rotkin, Charlotte, “The Athenaeum Reviews Little Dorrit”, Victorian Periodicals Review, 23.1 (Spring 1990): 25-28.

Shaw, George Bernhard, “Preface”, Great Expectations, Edinburgh, R. and R. Clark, 1937, v-xxii.

Schiller, Laura, Lock and Key, FanFiction.net, 2012, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8408019/1/Lock-and-Key, online (accessed 14/05/2014).

Stein, Richard L., “Dickens and Illustration”, The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens, Ed. Jordan, John O., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001: 167-188.

Stewart, Garrett, “Dickens, Eisenstein, film”, Dickens on Screen, Ed. Glavin J., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003: 122-144.

Wollaston, Sam, “Britannia High is a Money-Making, Multimedia Monster –but Those Kids Sure Can Dance”, The Guardian, Monday 27 October 2008,http://www.theguardian.com/culture/ 2008/oct/27/television-television, online (accessed 28/03/2009).

Xue Wang, Xue, 2014, http://xuewang.weebly.com/about.html, online (accessed 30/06/2014).