Tillys Shelf | Facial Stigma in Dickens Part 2 (Bleak House) @tillysshelf | Uploaded October 2022 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
*Part Two after the abrupt end if Part One*
If you want to avoid this self-indulgently lengthy video, what I am trying to say is that it is interesting to see Dickens assuming two roles in his work - one as a discriminator against characters with facial disfigurement, in particular as a reinforcer of the stigma of facial disfigurement being linked to moral deficiency, and the other as an "ally," criticising facial stigma in others.
An important theme which I neglected to mention was identity - Esther's face I many ways is a sign of her identity, a crucial link I the plot. Her illness obscures that identity from others, at the turning point when it finally becomes clear to herself.
In this video I explore how stigma around facial disfigurement appears in the work of Charles Dickens that I have read so far. Bleak House was my pick for Kate's challenge on disability and representation in Victorian Literature.
Books mentioned:
Face It by James Partridge (2020)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1837)
Great Expectations (1860)
Our Mutual Friend (1865)
Bleak House (1853)
Relevant charities for facial stigma:
Changing Faces - changingfaces.org.uk
The Katie Piper Foundation - katiepiperfoundation.org.uk
Dan's Fund for Burns - dansfundforburns.org
Part of #victober
#victober2022
*Part Two after the abrupt end if Part One*
If you want to avoid this self-indulgently lengthy video, what I am trying to say is that it is interesting to see Dickens assuming two roles in his work - one as a discriminator against characters with facial disfigurement, in particular as a reinforcer of the stigma of facial disfigurement being linked to moral deficiency, and the other as an "ally," criticising facial stigma in others.
An important theme which I neglected to mention was identity - Esther's face I many ways is a sign of her identity, a crucial link I the plot. Her illness obscures that identity from others, at the turning point when it finally becomes clear to herself.
In this video I explore how stigma around facial disfigurement appears in the work of Charles Dickens that I have read so far. Bleak House was my pick for Kate's challenge on disability and representation in Victorian Literature.
Books mentioned:
Face It by James Partridge (2020)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1837)
Great Expectations (1860)
Our Mutual Friend (1865)
Bleak House (1853)
Relevant charities for facial stigma:
Changing Faces - changingfaces.org.uk
The Katie Piper Foundation - katiepiperfoundation.org.uk
Dan's Fund for Burns - dansfundforburns.org
Part of #victober
#victober2022
