Darkness Repeating

Dickens' three major works - Our Mutual Friend, Great Expectations and Bleak House - read as never before. Darkness Repeating's radical approach liberates readers from the orthodox tradition of Dickens' interpretation. The result is a refreshing analysis that underscores the source material's vibrancy and relevance. By employing Jacques Derrida's so-called deconstructionist mode of reading, Darkness Repeating explores previously uncharted areas of Charles Dickens' oeuvre. Derrida's most influential concepts - differànce, pharmakon, the supplement, the law and the mark - come into play as the heart and soul of Dickens' narratives are brought into sharp relief. Various conceptions of writing are omnipresent in Dickens and Derrida's work and should dominate any analysis of their work. Derrida has provided us with a new vocabulary when referring to writing: orphan, illegitimate child, phantom and, of course, the darkness that repeats itself endlessly. By engaging with these two towering writers Barwick's performative work interrogates both the importance and the inconsequentiality of writing.