Professor Richard Smith r.d.smith@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor
A strange condition of things: alterity and knowingness in Dickens' 'David Copperfield'
Smith, R.D.
Authors
Abstract
It is sometimes said that we are strangers to ourselves, bearers of internal alterity, as well as to each other. The profounder this strangeness then the greater the difficulty of giving any systematic account of it without paradox: of supposing that our obscurity to ourselves can readily be illuminated. To attempt such an account, in defiance of the paradox, is to risk knowingness: a condition which, appearing to challenge our alterity but in fact often confirming it, holds an ambiguous place in the ‘ethics of belief’ and has largely escaped philosophical attention. Like alterity, knowingness can only be approached indirectly. Charles Dickens, in David Copperfield, is exemplary in the way he handles these themes.
Citation
Smith, R. (2013). A strange condition of things: alterity and knowingness in Dickens' 'David Copperfield'. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 45(4), 371-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2012.718144
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Jan 1, 2013 |
Deposit Date | Nov 25, 2013 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 28, 2024 |
Journal | Educational Philosophy and Theory |
Print ISSN | 0013-1857 |
Electronic ISSN | 1469-5812 |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 45 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 371-382 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2012.718144 |
Keywords | Alterity, Knowingness, Psychoanalysis, The unconscious, Freud, Charles Dickens. |
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Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Educational Philosophy and Theory: Incorporating ACCESS on 28/09/2012, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00131857.2012.718144.
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