Alumni College 2014: Marc Conner's "Charles Dickens and the 19th-century British Novel"

A presentation by W&L Professor Marc Conner. Marc is the Jo M. and James M. Ballangee Professor of English and the Associate Provost at Washington and Lee. He took degrees in English and Philosophy at the University of Washington (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude), followed by the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English at Princeton University, and has taught at Princeton and at the University of Notre Dame. His books include The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable (2000), Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher (2007), both published by the University Press of Mississippi, and The Poetry of James Joyce Reconsidered (2012) from Florida, as well as a 24-lecture course for The Great Courses titled How to Read and Understand Shakespeare (2013). In addition, Marc has published dozens of essays and book reviews on American and Irish Modernism. Marc directs a spring term study abroad program to Ireland, which he has run six times since 2000. He is the co-founder of the Program in African-American Studies, and in 2009 received the Anece McCloud Excellence in Diversity Award. His teaching interests include American, African-American, and Irish literature, Shakespeare, literature and philosophy, and the Bible as English literature, and his scholarly interests deal with the intersections of literature, philosophy, and religion. In 2004 Marc received the Ring-Tum Phi Award for teaching excellence at Washington and Lee.

Пікірлер: 40

  • @patriciahartner7336
    @patriciahartner73362 жыл бұрын

    You organized my understanding of Dickens like a centrifuge. Thank you.

  • @bellringer929
    @bellringer9294 жыл бұрын

    Thank you so much. One of the best lectures on Dickens... Loved the clarity and simplicity that enlivened the entire lecture... Badly want more of Marc's lectures...

  • @martm216
    @martm2163 жыл бұрын

    Listened to only a minute or two so far, but I can tell that this guy is good.

  • @datinchristievengadesan6636
    @datinchristievengadesan66365 жыл бұрын

    19 th century England the novel was the great art form. Dickens defined his age, shaped his own time and place. Romanticism: reactions to what came before: emotion above reason , overflow of powerful feeling. Primacy of nature, Dickens Victorian age: attitude, repressive, patriarchal, Industrial expansion, Loss of connection with the land Dickens: is on both sides, Age of empire Issues of labour Rise of the working class Sympathetic to the spiritual life Issues of gender Roles of women 18 century novel is a secular form Mass distribution, Realistic novel: 19 century novel: examines the body of society, Plot of vocation: marriage, Coming of age Novel of growth 5 moments in CD Father is imprisoned Works in a blacking factory at age 12. Shattering experience Idyllic love, swallowed up sense of critic, Loss of childhood CD: A man of enormous energy Highly harsh realities of the world. Hard Times: unities of a novel Echo-chamber of his childhood, Abuse of education, Industrial revolution Thank you for the presentation.

  • @fayazmulla5283

    @fayazmulla5283

    Жыл бұрын

    This is better than the lecture itself.

  • @corpuscallosum4677
    @corpuscallosum46772 жыл бұрын

    Great and clear review and presentation of such a sophisticated writer as Dickens. His contrasts, like his opening lines in Tales of Two Cities, the two Claras as maternal forces in David Copperfield, the cross of gifts in Christmas Carols, sometimes threw readers into a tailspin. But to understand a disciplined heart, a love in reality, we have to put ourselves in the turbulent epochs of that time/space!!

  • @lisamuir4261
    @lisamuir426117 күн бұрын

    Loved this lecture. Also found more writers which I do not recall hearing of. The views were enlightening as well.

  • @Larkinchance
    @Larkinchance2 жыл бұрын

    Dicken's enduring popularity was due to universal availability through the penny press and the fact that at the time he wrote as a contemporary addressing social ills.

  • @rifan_j
    @rifan_j Жыл бұрын

    Absolutely fantastic lecture!!! Totally indebted to this wonderful, wonderful presentation. Wish I could get some more by being in his class. My first introduction to Dickens was "Great Expectations" when I was in my mid-twenties, and I continue to read his works ever since. Finished "David Copperfield" just last month and currently perusing "Bleak House", and again I was amazed by the power of Dickens's storytelling and things about his greatness we have already known. Thank you, thank you very much.

  • @patriciahartner7336
    @patriciahartner73362 жыл бұрын

    I understand now that the loss of childhood which tainted his stories is the source of my strong connection.

  • @BooksWeCanRead
    @BooksWeCanRead5 жыл бұрын

    Ah what a great teacher! Wonderful resource, thanks for sharing!

  • @preggioperson

    @preggioperson

    4 жыл бұрын

    Energy and passion are infectious.

  • @sandralechner2974
    @sandralechner29744 жыл бұрын

    Thank you so much for sharing the lecture!

  • @julyandavis8528
    @julyandavis85282 жыл бұрын

    Fab. Clear and memorable! Thanks.

  • @sheilapowell5599
    @sheilapowell559919 күн бұрын

    A good analysis.I would like educators to remember Frances Trollope and indeed Trollope himself who focussed on the intellectual and political thinking and mores of the times.Frances Trollope's travels around America in Victorian times highlight how the English had an unparalleled grasp of of their times,which Americans seemed hostile to. READ HER!

  • @sugalimuralisreenivanaik9064
    @sugalimuralisreenivanaik90643 жыл бұрын

    Superb delivered sir,💐💐💐🌹🌹🌹👏👏👏👌👌🍓🍓🍓

  • @jpmaya7284
    @jpmaya72842 жыл бұрын

    Excellent - so informative thank you for sharing

  • @Beesmakelifegoo
    @Beesmakelifegoo2 ай бұрын

    Wonderful!

  • @joanamor2224
    @joanamor22242 жыл бұрын

    Very informative lecture. Thank you Sir.

  • @johnmulvey5121
    @johnmulvey5121 Жыл бұрын

    Very interesting and clear!Thanks

  • @electraruby4078
    @electraruby4078 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant!

  • @christait2549
    @christait2549Ай бұрын

    Very interesting!

  • @abderrahimmachkouri6347
    @abderrahimmachkouri634719 күн бұрын

    which page and edition were you reading from David coperfield?

  • @athenassigil5820
    @athenassigil58202 жыл бұрын

    The prof left out Sir Walter Scott! Whether we like his style now or not, the author was huge in that era and well into the remainder of the 19th century. Singlehandedly, he revised and led the Victorian love of medieval romance. William Morris had read all 26 of Scotts novels by the age of 8! He was also very influential on not just British writers, but the French, Americans and so many other Euro-centric cultures in that period.

  • @athenassigil5820

    @athenassigil5820

    2 жыл бұрын

    I forgot to add, Scott was also a great advocate and admirer of Austen, too.

  • @2ndavenuesw481

    @2ndavenuesw481

    Жыл бұрын

    To actually discuss Romanticism in full context would be too reactionary. That is to say, "culture" "today" is subject to a kind of Leftist orthodoxy. This is why they so often can't stand to play opera straight. To actually discuss the idealization of the past as seen in Sir Walter Scott, and to recognize its importance and influence, would be to concede too much for these people who make a mantra of the term "Enlightenment" as though it were the beginning of everything. A comprehensive view of Romanticism would require consideration of some premises opposed to Whig history and its offspring critical theory.

  • @2ndavenuesw481

    @2ndavenuesw481

    Жыл бұрын

    So for these people, Romanticism must be treated as a prelude to comic books because to actually discuss it might somehow be "Nazi."

  • @mieliav
    @mieliav Жыл бұрын

    oooh... fighting words about Trollope at the end!

  • @NadeemKhan-ce5tk
    @NadeemKhan-ce5tk3 жыл бұрын

    Sir i need notes ...charles dickens contribution in 19 century novels

  • @maryheiman4091
    @maryheiman40913 жыл бұрын

    Terrible background noise when during the question and answer section like someone’s twisting and moving around in their chairs

  • @endrimaloku6960
    @endrimaloku69606 жыл бұрын

    Where can we see more of prof. Marc's lectures about Dickens?

  • @preggioperson

    @preggioperson

    4 жыл бұрын

    More Dickens. More David Copperfield. That would be great.

  • @bellringer929
    @bellringer9293 жыл бұрын

    Thank you sir. Love your not so humble views☺️ Dickens writing style is predictable, isn't?

  • @mustertherohirrim7315
    @mustertherohirrim73153 жыл бұрын

    Dickens RULES. Just take your time.

  • @rajivgokhale3629
    @rajivgokhale36293 жыл бұрын

    Practical subordinate warm

  • @kevinzalizniak5565
    @kevinzalizniak55657 жыл бұрын

    David Copperfield is wonderful of course, but very sad he virtually shuts out Bleak House - possibly the greatest novel ever written.

  • @rajivgokhale3629
    @rajivgokhale36293 жыл бұрын

    Conventional Victorian mode

  • @abderrahimmachkouri6347
    @abderrahimmachkouri634719 күн бұрын

    you are an erudite lecturer.

  • @ssake1_IAL_Research
    @ssake1_IAL_Research2 жыл бұрын

    My paper, "Evidence That ‘A Christmas Carol’ Was Originally Written by Mathew Franklin Whittier and Abby Poyen Whittier, Rather Than by Charles Dickens," is downloadable at the following link. It can also be found by searching on the title on Academia.edu. www.ial.goldthread.com/MFW_APW_Carol.pdf