01 - De-cosifying Dickens

This inaugural episode of the Literary Encyclopedia’s occasional podcast examines the life and reputation of Charles Dickens. In a wide-ranging conversation, five scholars from around the world discuss the decadent side to Dickens’s writing. Topics range from Dickens’s engagement with the British empire and global trade, to his international celebrity, fan fiction, and literary afterlives. Guest Host, John Plotz, Brandeis University Participants, Jonathan Foster, Stockholm University; Holly Furneaux, Cardiff University; Grace Moore, University of Otago/The Literary Encyclopedia, Giles Whiteley, Stockholm University Works Discussed in this Episode Archive of Our Own Peter Carey, Jack Maggs, Faber & Faber, 1997. Wilkie Collins, The Frozen Deep, 1856. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838. Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853. Charles Dickens, “The Seven Poor Travellers,” 1854. Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 1865. Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870. Joanna Hofer-Robinson & Pete Orford (eds), The Plays of Charles Dickens. Edinburgh University Press, 2025. Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip. Penguin, 2006. Susan K. Martin & Kylie Mirmohamadi. Colonial Dickens: What Australians Made of the World’s Favourite Writer. Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2012. Edward Shanks, The Old Indispensables: A Romance of Whitehall, 1919. Ali Smith, Spring, Hamish Hamilton, 2019. Giles Whiteley & Jonathan Foster (eds), Dickens and Decadence. Edinburgh University Press, 2025. Giles Whiteley, The Aesthetics of Space in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, 1843- 1907. Edinburgh University Press, 2020.