I am interested then in how walking and the physical movement between spaces—domestic, public, urban, and rural—in Charles Dickens's 1852 novel, Bleak House complicates and resists the overdetermined forms of language used in the book to dominate the body (through illnesses and social status), the mind (through legislature), and the soul (through the didacticism of moral code).  These ideas of walking, space, and classification converge on the pages of 19th-century maps of London, which were often used as a means of profiling, creating and affirming stereotypes, and conjuring fear in the minds of citizens. 

Like de Certeau, Dickens connects the productive use of language with the ability to physically and socially transgress overdetermined space.

Comment on this page