2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
He was not his own man-Dickens' losing proprietorship over himself in the U.S.
| Project/Area Number |
25370311
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Literature in English
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Science |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | ディケンズ / 所有権 / 奴隷制 / ヴィクトリア朝 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This was a research project which aimed to show how much of his U.S. trips were about owning something or somebody (when it comes to slavery).In other words, it was a reassessment of his attitudes towards the rights of property during those periods.
The following are the two major findings. (1) The three major problems that harassed Dickens during his first trip, (namely, the absence of international copyrights, lionisation, and slavery) were all issues concerning proprietorship or the rights of property. (2) His attitude towards black (ex-)slaves seems to have gone through a considerable change between his 1st trip (when he sounded almost like an abolitionist) and the second, during which he wrote to his friend about 'the melancholy absurdity of giving these people [=black freedmen] votes.' Dickens is limiting their political ownership here, and this change of his can be contextualised in a shift in the Victorian attitudes towards race that occurred during the 1850s and 1860s.
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| Free Research Field |
英文学・ヴィクトリア朝文化
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