Charles Dickens’ novels often present a peculiar vision of the mid-nineteenth-century Victorian government and, more generally, of public administration. In Little Dorrit, the author presents his personal critique of a corrupt, nepotistic and detached bureaucracy that works to maintain itself, stifling citizens’ economic initiative in the process and likewise hindering the development of society. In the same novel, however, the author presents the Marshalsea prison as an unexpected example of ‘domestic’ administration, an official institution that simultaneously punishes and protects, and where, contrary to the other public institutions, the protagonists have really been part of.
Unrepresented and “Circumlocuted” People: Public Institutions and Citizens in Dickens’ Little Dorrit
Ligugnana, Giovanna
2018-01-01
Abstract
Charles Dickens’ novels often present a peculiar vision of the mid-nineteenth-century Victorian government and, more generally, of public administration. In Little Dorrit, the author presents his personal critique of a corrupt, nepotistic and detached bureaucracy that works to maintain itself, stifling citizens’ economic initiative in the process and likewise hindering the development of society. In the same novel, however, the author presents the Marshalsea prison as an unexpected example of ‘domestic’ administration, an official institution that simultaneously punishes and protects, and where, contrary to the other public institutions, the protagonists have really been part of.
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