Vital Disguises: Sartorial Insurrection and the Female Body in Bleak House

This article examines the role of fictional matter exhibited by the dresses Lady Dedlock wears in Dickens's Bleak House. Using new materialism's concept of matter as active and having agency, I argue that fictional objects are full members of the narrative with an independent and agentic m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Texas studies in literature and language 2018-12, Vol.60 (4), p.496-518
Main Author: ERNST, RACHEL A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Attorneys
British & Irish literature
Criticism and interpretation
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
English literature
English literature, 1837-1901 (Victorian age)
Interiority
Materialism
Novelists
Novels
Plot (Narrative)
Portrayals
Self concept
Victorian period
Victorian period literature, 1832-1901
Women's dresses
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Summary:This article examines the role of fictional matter exhibited by the dresses Lady Dedlock wears in Dickens's Bleak House. Using new materialism's concept of matter as active and having agency, I argue that fictional objects are full members of the narrative with an independent and agentic materiality. The dress asserts its own identity, redefining the subject-object relationship and calling our attention to the variety of vital actants that create representations of the material in the novel.
ISSN:0040-4691
1534-7303
DOI:10.7560/TSLL60405