This year's Dickens Universe focused on Oliver Twist and Lewis Carroll's Alice books. As the centenary of the year of Charles Dodgson's death, it seemed fitting to introduce Alice to the wonderful world of the Dickens Project--truly an experience that is like a wonderland for so many of its participants. In fact, the pairing of these texts prompted one of the largest enrollments ever at a Dickens Universe, including the youngest participant to attend on his own, twelve-year-old David Richter, who cited Bob Patten's keynote lecture as one of the highlights of his Dickensian experience. Indeed, the daily lectures covered a broad spectrum of topics and approaches to the texts and expanded the ways in which we approach Dickens and Carroll.
Bob Patten's lecture, "The Name That Dares Not Speak Its Name," drew on Plato's Cratylus to argue that names mean nothing until they become symbols; thus, the names in both Oliver Twist and the Alice books are culturally encoded. Looking closely at the names that cannot be spoken in the three works, Patten argued that the speaking of names betokens death in Fagin's den of thieves, while Alice wants words to have a fixed meaning as the text "plays with and at Alice." The next morning we were treated to a 'virtual' lecture by Catherine Robson. Pregnant with twins, Robson appeared via video in a taped presentation of her lecture, "Down Ditches, On Doorsteps, In Rivers: Oliver Twist's Journey to Respectability." Focusing on the moment in the text when Oliver is abandoned in a ditch, Robson argued that three archetypal locations (the ditch, the doorstep, and the river) allow Oliver to die the death of one kind of baby, the unwanted baby low in the social imagination, and be reborn into the more acceptable story of the fortunate foundling.
Kate Carnell Watt, a long-time participant of the Universe, gave the afternoon lecture, "Oliver Twist and Other Ragged Boys--or--'Ours for his Life': The Making of Oliver Twist." Drawing on contemporary punitive theories and the practices of reformatory prisons for youthful offenders, Watt argued that the novel explores the middle class's generalized fear of the poor and the desire of that class to "reform this already honest child." An interesting fact that recurred in conversations throughout the week was that leapfrog was considered one of the only appropriate games for reform-school boys to play. Much discussion centered around why this was the case. This talk was followed by Renee Riese Hubert's lecture on Salvador Dali's illustrations of the Alice story, in which we viewed an interesting precursor to the famous melting watches painting in the illustration of the mad tea-party, which featured a melting tea-table held up in the center by a tree. Moving back to Dickens, David Parker, Curator of the Dickens House Museum, gave the evening lecture, "Oliver Twist and the Fugitive Family," which drew on biographical details from Dickens' life to argue that there seem to be no "normal families" in this novel because of Dickens' early life and the death of Mary Hogarth three months after he began serializing the novel.
Tuesday morning's lecture, "The Long and Short of Oliver and Alice: The Changing Size of the Victorian Child," explored how these texts reflect the changing understanding of size and its relationship to human development. Goldie Morgantaler explained the competing theories of preformation (the individual is preformed before conception) and epigenesis (today's model of growth) to explore how the Victorians, living in a period of movement between these two forms of thought, viewed children and childhood. Morgantaler concluded that despite the differences between the texts, both authors long to slow down time, and by focusing on childhood as a distinct state, they ultimately choose to show childhood as static. John Romano's evening lecture, "Violence in Popular Culture: Livy, Dickens, and Television," served as an early segue into the weekend conference on forms of Victorian violence. An academician turned television producer, Romano presented an entertaining and informative lecture on the differences between the "violence of involvement" and the "violence of detachment." He argued that the violence of detachment, which distances the reader's/viewer's response, is designed to hurt the reader/viewer and fosters numbness. The driving question behind Romano's talk was whether violence helps us to find the human or to hide it.
Wednesday morning began with Regina Barreca's lecture on play as a "job" that children have to take seriously. In "Oliver and Alice Play Nicely Together," Barreca argued that the dutiful child accepts the rituals and rules of play, even at the expense of his or her own pleasure. On a side note, the anecdote about Barreca's appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and her witty comebacks to the authors of "The Rules" was a hit with the Universe participants! Philip Collins' afternoon lecture on "Crime in Dickens: Fagin, Sikes, and Their Successors" discussed Oliver Twist as Dickens' "first major fictional presentation of crime" and showed the way that this topic reverberates throughout the rest of his novels. Rounding out the day's lectures, Kamilla Elliott presented "Figuring Images: Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Carroll's Alice Books and Film Adaptations" in the evening. Elliott presented us with three questions: "Why is a raven like a writing desk? How is a film like a novel? How do literary and film images elucidate the relationship between literature and film?" By showing clips from both Disney's and Jan Svankmajer's adaptations of the Alice books, Elliott argued that these successful adaptations do "with sounds and images what Carroll does with language." As Elliott convincingly showed us with clips of awful adaptations of Alice (including one in which Sammy Davis Jr. plays the Caterpillar!), such a move works best in adaptations that do not depend on live action.
Joss Marsh gave a lecture on Thursday morning, "Oliver Twist On/And Film," which included an incredible array of slides. Her thesis, Dickens is cinema, argued that Dickens was an inspiration for cinema because 1) there is a propensity in Dickens' narratives for streetwise exploration, and 2) there is a "thirst for" the chase through city streets. Teresa Mangum's afternoon lecture, "Dickens' Sinister Senescence," looked at the way in which old age is represented as an extreme of either veneration or neglect. In depictions of older women (and men) in paintings from the period, she showed that the aged are grouped on the peripheries of the painting with children. She explained that old age, in the novels, becomes sinister when that character "abuses" or "takes on a young child." Mangum concluded by looking at both aging and race, in the character of Fagin, and aging and gender in the character of Miss Havisham, a crone figure.
Thursday evening brought us to the swing lecture for the weekend conference. Joseph Childers introduced "Forms of Victorian Violence," and Robert Polhemus presented an engaging talk on "Lewis Carroll, William Stead, and Sexual Violence: 'The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.'" The relationship between William Stead, the father of the sexy and sensational "new journalism," and Lewis Carroll was a contentious one. Carroll wanted the publication of "Modern Babylon" suppressed because he believed it was too lurid for public consumption. As Polhemus pointed out, however, the issue that both Carroll and Stead were interested in was ways to make girls safe, yet each used a girl to make that point. Finally, Carroll was vindicated in Polhemus' talk because he argued that Carroll was interested in ceding power to Alice and his other girl-child friends and that Carroll works through art to "belittle violence, authority, and himself." James Kincaid's lecture on Friday morning, "How to Long," took Polhemus' discussion of sexual violence and located the perpetrators of such violence in us, the viewers. Prefacing his talk with the quip, "new ideas are like new underwear, hard to get used to and likely to be uncomfortable," Kincaid helped to ease the audience into the "uncomfortable" idea that "to long violently" is part of our "cultural geography," and the "adorable, empty child" is a spot for "nostalgia and reverie for the adult." However, the adult's desire is never fulfilled because, as the adult moves to join them, these children take on a life of their own. Thus, in longing for the lost world of the child, we want to both worship and to punish children.
Now in full swing, the weekend conference offered a smorgasbord of readings of violence in Victorian literature and culture. Although too numerous to enumerate, these presentations included James Buzard's entertaining lecture on the invention of the revolving door as a synecdoche of urban life, Kathleen Lonsdale's paper on Jack the Ripper, Catherine Judd's discussion of English representations of the Irish famine, Lisa Jenkins' illuminating reading of the autobiographical writings from convicts on Norfolk Island, Carolyn Devers' paper on obstetrical drawings and female dissection, and a discussion of the spermatorrhea panic by Ellen Rosenman. Indeed, all the presenters did a wonderful job of both enlightening the audience and allowing room for humor in the topic of violence.
Finally, of course, the Dickens Universe is about much more than scholarly papers. Despite the hectic schedule, participants found time to engage in non-cerebral activities too. During the beginning of the week, the weather was unseasonably warm for Santa Cruz, so the beach, the pool, and the beautiful woods were popular get away spots. In addition, there was time to ride the famous roller coaster on the boardwalk, alluded to in the Hollywood film "Titanic," and the "Typhoon" ride, which was very popular this year. Victorian teas, sponsored by the Friends of the Dickens Project, were also a delight, as was the Friday night "Victorian Dance," complete with a live band! Of course, what would a Dickens Universe be without the nightly parties? Once again, the participants found little time to sleep! After an intellectually challenging and exhausting week, it seems odd to be back in the lull between summer school and Fall quarter...and odder still to average more than a few hours of sleep per night. Despite the peace and quiet, I think I speak for all the participants when I say that I wish I could attend again next week. Thank you John Jordan, Murray Baumgarten, John Glavin, and all the wonderful people who gave papers, provided scintillating conversation, shared the giggles over the recurring cafeteria "Taco Bar," and attended the Universe.
-- Monica Bosson