This paper will use Charles Dickens’s novel Dombey and Son as a case study for thinking through the ways in which Dickens uses the body as a rich source of linguistic creativity throughout his career. In repeatedly depicting the minutiae of ‘bodily’ moments, often embarrassing or funny ones, this paper will explore how each part of the body becomes a site of imaginative potential for Dickens, allowing him to create these comic yet reflective ‘hiccups’ within his narratives – moments that draw us back to considering what it means to be in a body; the relationship and at times disconnection between body and world, and how such moments can be documented and made sense of through language.

Dr. Emma Curry completed her PhD thesis on Dickens and the Fragmented Body in 2016 at Birkbeck, University of London. From 2020 to 2021 she was a Research Fellow on the ‘Deciphering Dickens’ project at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and from 2023 she has been a Research Assistant on the ‘Decentering Dickens’ project at the University of Leicester, which seeks to learn more about Dickens’s correspondents.

Join us in person at Attenborough Tower, Room 1707 or online (Microsoft Teams link will be sent via email after you have booked your FREE ticket)