---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 1995 23:52:54 EDT
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Query: Dickens and Empire

In the month since I've been signed up for Dickns-l there hasn't been
much traffic, and I'm not sure if there are rules of etiquette I don't
know. I'd like to request help with a project I'm considering on Dickens
and Empire. I hope:

1) to trace Dickens's own attitudes toward the empire (looking not only
at his fiction but at his views, for instance on the Niger project, the
Indian Mutiny, and the Governor Eyre case);

(2) to find evidence of the empire's reception of Dickens--that is,
whatever can be found about the circulation of Dickens's works and
critical responses to them in the colonies, or former colonies; I'd be
particularly interested in any influence he may have had on colonial
writers (V. S. Naipaul, for instance, has written something about this).
For this second part I'm not period-bound, i.e. would welcome material
from any period.

I'm not too concerned about finding material on (1), though I'd welcome
suggestions (I know Said's and Brantlinger's work, and have references to
a couple of books on the Eyre case).  What I'd really appreciate,
however, is help with (2).

Gill Gane                       UMass-Boston            [log in to unmask]