Twisting Dickens: modding childhood for the steampunk marketplace in Cory Doctorow's 'Clockwork Fagin' (2011)

Bickle, Sharon A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7151-3733 (2013) Twisting Dickens: modding childhood for the steampunk marketplace in Cory Doctorow's 'Clockwork Fagin' (2011). Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies, 18 (3). pp. 58-71. ISSN 1327-8746

Abstract

This article provides a critical comparison between Cory Doctorow's adapted short story 'Clockwork Fagin' and Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. It focuses particularly on Doctorow's use of the posthuman 'modded' child in order to question firstly whether the text performs a neo-Victorian critique of the Dickensian text and secondly whether its Young Adult 'rebelling to conform' narrative structure compromises any anti-materialist steampunk politics presented in the text—and whether this affects its claim to the steampunk genre.

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Item Type:	Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	Published version deposited in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Historic - Faculty of Arts - School of Humanities and Communication (1 Apr 2011 - 30 Jun 2013)
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Historic - Faculty of Arts - School of Humanities and Communication (1 Apr 2011 - 30 Jun 2013)
Date Deposited:	29 May 2014 00:21
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2017 06:20
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Charles Dickens; childhood; neo-Victorian; steampunk; post-human
Fields of Research (2008):	20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2005 Literary Studies > 200503 British and Irish Literature 20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2005 Literary Studies > 200526 Stylistics and Textual Analysis 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1701 Psychology > 170102 Developmental Psychology and Ageing
Fields of Research (2020):	47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470504 British and Irish literature 47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470530 Stylistics and textual analysis 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5201 Applied and developmental psychology > 520199 Applied and developmental psychology not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objectives (2008):	E Expanding Knowledge > 97 Expanding Knowledge > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/25252

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