Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield
This article addresses David Copperfield to try and understand what it means to write the autobiography of a violently traumatic life story. The traditional interpretation of the novel is to read it as representing, and overcoming, a childhood trauma through the linguistic mastery of the adult. Yet...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2017-03-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4880 |
| _version_ | 1819226775121559552 |
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| author | Cathy Caruth |
| author_facet | Cathy Caruth |
| author_sort | Cathy Caruth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article addresses David Copperfield to try and understand what it means to write the autobiography of a violently traumatic life story. The traditional interpretation of the novel is to read it as representing, and overcoming, a childhood trauma through the linguistic mastery of the adult. Yet if the novel thus dramatizes how traumatic origins can be represented in writing, it also asks what it means for autobiographical language to originate in a trauma. In this sense the novel is not only about the orphan who becomes an autobiographer, but about the emergence of a literary language when the self can no longer tell its own story. What would it mean to read the novel as both the story of an orphan and as a literary, and traumatic, orphaned story? |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T10:30:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-13335ed2864a4745a1b02f0eecbb0db3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T10:30:51Z |
| publishDate | 2017-03-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj.art-13335ed2864a4745a1b02f0eecbb0db32022-12-21T17:50:26ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022017-03-0122Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David CopperfieldCathy CaruthThis article addresses David Copperfield to try and understand what it means to write the autobiography of a violently traumatic life story. The traditional interpretation of the novel is to read it as representing, and overcoming, a childhood trauma through the linguistic mastery of the adult. Yet if the novel thus dramatizes how traumatic origins can be represented in writing, it also asks what it means for autobiographical language to originate in a trauma. In this sense the novel is not only about the orphan who becomes an autobiographer, but about the emergence of a literary language when the self can no longer tell its own story. What would it mean to read the novel as both the story of an orphan and as a literary, and traumatic, orphaned story?http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4880Charles DickensDavid Copperfieldtraumaautobiography |
| spellingShingle | Cathy Caruth Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield Sillages Critiques Charles Dickens David Copperfield trauma autobiography |
| title | Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield |
| title_full | Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield |
| title_fullStr | Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield |
| title_full_unstemmed | Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield |
| title_short | Language in Flight: Memorial, Narrative and History in David Copperfield |
| title_sort | language in flight memorial narrative and history in david copperfield |
| topic | Charles Dickens David Copperfield trauma autobiography |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4880 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cathycaruth languageinflightmemorialnarrativeandhistoryindavidcopperfield |