After Dickens

A study of Dickens's hostility to theatre and theatricality alongside the huge performative potential of his fiction.

John Glavin uncovers a richly ambivalent, often unexpectedly hostile, relationship between Dickens and the theatre and theatricality of his own time. Yet he also explores the performative potential in Dickens's fiction, and describes ways to stage that fiction in emotionally powerful, critically acute adaptations.After Dickens is both a performative reading of Dickens the novelist and an exploration of the potential for adaptive performance of the novels themselves. John Glavin conducts a historical inquiry into Dickens's relationship to the theatre and theatricality of his own time, and uncovers a much more ambivalent, often hostile, relationship than has hitherto been noticed. In this context, Dickens's novels can be seen as a form of counter-performance, one which would allow the author to perform without being seen or scrutinized. But Glavin also identifies a rich performative potential in Dickens's fiction, and describes new ways to stage that fiction in emotionally powerful, critically acute adaptations. The book as a whole, therefore, offers a reading of Dickens through an unusual alliance between literary criticism and theatrical performance.