Recent Dickens Studies: 2020

Abstract

This article surveys Dickens scholarship published in 2020, identifying these key trends: (1) adaptations and other afterlives, with dozens of publications appearing that year in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Dickens's death; (2) form, with special attention to genre and affect, as observed in Victorian studies broadly; (3) gender and sexuality, with a primary focus on Dickens and women; and (4) politics and media, with a new urgency given to fact-checking as a rhetorical marker of critical integrity. The article also nods to the trends likely to increase in popularity in the next few years of research, by highlighting scholarship that deals even tangentially with (5) science and health and (6) race and intercultural exchanges.