The Death Penalty in Dickens and Derrida

In the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens backed the cause of abolition of the death penalty and wrote comprehensively about it, in public letters and in his novels. At the end of the twentieth century, Jacques Derrida ran two years of seminars on the subject, which were published posthumously. What the novelist and the philosopher of deconstruction discussed independently, this book brings into comparison.Tambling examines crime and punishment in Dickens''s novels , A Tale of Two Cities , Oliver Twist and Bleak House and explores those who influenced Dickens''s work, including Hogarth, Fielding, Godwin and Edgar Allen Poe. This book also looks at those who influenced Derrida - Freud, Nietzsche, Foucault and Blanchot - and considers Derrida''s study on terrorism and the USA as the only major democracy adhering to the death penalty.A comprehensive study of punishment in Dickens, and furthering Derrida''s insights by commenting on Shakespeare and blood, revenge, the French Revolution, and the enduring power of violence and its fascination, this book is a major contribution to literary criticism on Dickens and Derrida. Those interested in literature, criminology, law, gender, and psychoanalysis will find it an essential intervention in a topic still rousing intense argument.>

Préface
Using a comparative approach, this book looks at the ways in which Dickens (as a voice of literature) and Derrida (as a philosopher) have approached - both as abolitionists - the question of the death penalty.

Auteur

Jeremy Tambling was Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong, and then Professor of Literature at the University of Manchester. He is now part-time Professor at the Warsaw University of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS), Poland, and author of over twenty books, plus articles.

Contenu

Frequently Cited Texts and Abbreviations

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: 'Growing Up to be Hanged'

PART ONE: Dickens - And The Eighteenth Century
CHAPTER I - Abolition and Dickens
CHAPTER 2- Fielding, Hogarth, and Dickens
CHAPTER 3 - Barnaby Rudge: Poe, and Caleb Williams

PART 2 - Derrida - The French Revolution Onwards
CHAPTER 4 - Deconstruction and Justice
CHAPTER 5 - The Death Penalty Seminars
CHAPTER 6 - Decapitation in A Tale of Two Cities
CHAPTER 7 - On the USA: Violence and Terrorism

In Conclusion

Index