I was happy to be among the teachers, scholars, graduate students,
and Dickens enthusiasts of all ages who came together for the
1999 Dickens Universe, an activity-filled week of serious conversation
combined with a healthy dose of conviviality. The nineteenth annual
Dickens Universe was hosted by the Dickens Project at the University
of California, Santa Cruz, from August 1-8, and featured Dickens's
1841 historical novel of the Gordon Riots, Barnaby Rudge.
The novel had never before been the featured work of the Universe.
The Dickens Project staff did a fabulous job of programming the week's events, which began Sunday evening with a welcome by Dickens Project Director John O. Jordan. As part of the welcome, Jordan asked for a show of hands by participants returning to the Universe. As Jordan increased the number of summers spent at Santa Cruz, the number of hands slowly decreased, but despite this I was amazed at the number of people present who had been back to the Universe upwards of ten times. The number of returning participants attested to the truly special atmosphere of the week. I found it astounding to see such loyalty to the week at UCSC which, as Murray Baumgarten informed me, stands for Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp, as well as University of California, Santa Cruz. Jordan's welcome was followed by a lecture by John Bowen, the editor of a forthcoming edition of Barnaby Rudge. Bowen set the tone of the week Sunday evening with a lecture on "History's Grip: The Event of Barnaby Rudge." In his talk, Bowen focused on the uncanny drive toward repetition in the novel. Quite fittingly, Bowen's notion of repetition returned throughout the week.
Monday morning's lecture was delivered by Patrick Brantlinger. Brantlinger argued that Dickens's philosophy of history was one of grotesque populism, a contradictory amalgamation of two disparate ideas. In the afternoon we heard from Bill Daleski and from George Newlin. Daleski explored resonances and discontinuities between the work of the novelist and the historian. Newlin, an independent scholar who has written such useful texts as Everything in Dickens and Everyone in Dickens, provided a great deal of information on the actual people upon which Dickens's characters were based, in particular Lord Chesterfield and Lord Gordon. Later that day Jeffrey Spear spoke "Of Jews and Ships and Mob Attacks, of Catholics and Kings," focusing on the life of Lord George Gordon and the political context of the Gordon riots.
Tuesday morning we were treated to a lecture by Robert Tracy, who drew our attention Barnaby Rudge's initial appearance within the framework of the intriguingly self-referential Master Humphrey's Clock. In the afternoon the former curator of the Dickens House Museum, David Parker, spoke on the games-playing of the narrator in Barnaby Rudge. Tuesday's evening's lecture, the first Herb Furse Memorial Lecture, was given by Philip Collins via videotape. This "virtual" lecture, reminiscent of Catherine Robson's virtual appearance last year, delineated the political context of Dickens's novels.
The next morning we heard from Judith Wilt, who argued that the recent film "Elizabeth" enacted the same dualism of Catholic "duplicity" and Protestant "authenticity" at work in Barnaby Rudge and the work of Sir Walter Scott. There were two speakers Wednesday afternoon; the first was Sara Hackenberg. Her talk, "The Raven and the Writing Desk: From Dickens to Poe and Back Again," compared the riddles in Alice in Wonderland -- one of the texts focused on in the previous year's Universe -- to the sense of mystery Dickens and Poe develop. Clotilde de Stasio focused on Peter Ackroyd's The Great Fire of London, which, by drawing on Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, invokes the same tensions between historical accuracy and metaphorical power.
Wednesday evening witnessed a new event at the Universe, a graduate student panel on "Victorian Studies: The Next Generation" moderated by Janice Carlisle. The tables were now turned, with four graduate students put in the spotlight as we presented our dissertation projects. I discussed watering places and the significance of recreation in the early nineteenth century, Melisa Klimaszewski talked about the under-examined role of the nursemaid in the Victorian period, Tate Hurvitz spoke of the cultural significance of pigeons as symbols of the middle class, and Dejan Kuzmanovic addressed seduction at the end of the nineteenth century. The panel was great practice for us in focusing our arguments and in addressing the sort of large and varied audience that one finds at the Universe. The question and answer period generated many helpful comments and suggestions. The four of us greatly appreciated the help of Janice Carlisle and John Glavin, whose efforts contributed so much to the success of the event.
Thursday morning we returned to our focus on Barnaby Rudge with a lecture by John Glavin that examined the relationship between theater and public violence. In the afternoon, Goldie Morgentaler focused on the aesthetics of violence in her talk, "Dickens and the Fine Art of Execution."
The weekend conference, "Victoria Redressed: Feminism and Nineteenth-Century Studies." was initiated by Hilary Schor, whose lecture on "Dickens and the Violent Femmes" served as a bridge between the Dickens Universe and the weekend conference by examining the connection between the "casual misogyny and cloying flirtatiousness" of early Dickens to feminism and the nineteenth century. The next morning Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar reflected on the twentieth anniversary of their groundbreaking text, The Madwoman in the Attic. Their talk on "The Madwoman in the Academy" provided insight into how the idea of the project came about and traced each scholar's engagement with feminism and the nineteenth century. The third lecture of the weekend took place Saturday morning; Sally Shuttleworth spoke about how childhood and adolescence were figured in the nineteenth century.
Many excellent papers were also presented at the weekend conference. The speakers included James Eli Adams, Allison Booth, Meaghan E. Clarke, Eileen Cleere, Eileen Gillooly, Suzanne Graver, Martha Stoddard Holmes, Karen Hottle, Tricia Lootens, Susan Lurie, Nancy K. Miller, Angelique Richardson, and Rebecca Steinitz. On Sunday morning, the conference closed with a roundtable discussion of "Feminism and the Future of Nineteenth-Century Studies" with Diane F. Sadoff, Sally Shuttleworth, and Susan Gubar.
I have tried to outline the week's academic activities in order to provide an overview for those who could not attend the Dickens Universe. However, my description has hardly done the Universe justice. Besides attending lectures morning, noon, and night, participants were found chatting to one another between sessions, at the Victorian teas, during meals, and late into the night. Many people attended parties every night (as if our days had not been full enough!) Others found time to attend performances by Shakespeare Santa Cruz, to relax at the pool, and of course to stroll around the beach and the boardwalk. How fun it was to spy Jim Kincaid ruthlessly ramming teenagers at bumper cars and to have a group of twelve graduate students pile into a photo with a shark! And I will never forget dancing to Prince and Aretha Franklin one night and to a live band playing Victorian-era music a few nights later.
By the end of the week, everyone was completely exhausted but
also looking forward to returning next summer for the twentieth
anniversary of the Dickens Universe. Universe organizers hope
to put together special events for the anniversary, perhaps including
a special display of all the t-shirts. The featured text will
be Our Mutual Friend while the weekend conference will
center around "Victorian Waste." I hope to see you there!
Sheila Minn Hwang
Department of English
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
smh1@umail.ucsb.edu
(s-m-h-one)