Charles Dickens’s Reflection on Race and Empire in The Mystery of Edwin Drood

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210519.134How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Race, Empire

Abstract

In his early works, especially “The Noble Savage” of 1853, one of his most controversial articles, Charles Dickens expresses rather unpleasant racist views, leading many scholars to consider as a definite racist. However, his last unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, presents a substantial reversion of his past racist stance, indicating his re-consideration of his past opinions about race and Empire. Through analyzing Dickens’s intriguing representations of key protagonists and the murder plots in this novel, this paper demonstrates Dickens’s challenge of racial stereotypes based on skin color and imperialist arrogance. I contend that this unfinished novel is crucial in the colonial and postcolonial study of Trollope for a comprehensive understanding of Dickens’s stance on race and Empire.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tianyue Li
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/05/20
TI  - Charles Dickens’s Reflection on Race and Empire in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 678
EP  - 681
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210519.134
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210519.134
ID  - Li2021
ER  -