Memória e representação da cidade em Oliver Twist, de Charles Dickens

Abstract

The representation of the city in Literature is relatively common. However, the way how the English author Charles Dickens represents this space in his works is extraordinary, describing the details of London and transforming his novels in true records of the memory of the city. The main goal of this research is to analyse how Dickens describes the space of the city in the nineteenth century and the London society at that time, in his work Oliver Twist. It also intends to comprehend the concepts of space and place, relating Geography and Literature; to investigate the city as a place of memory; to identify the historical and literary contexts of this publication and to verify how the criticism saw Dickens‘s text at his own time. The hypothesis is that the space of the city and its daily can influence the narrative. In order to validate it, this work is based on bibliographical research, considering mostly the conceptions of Santos (1999), Tuan (1983), Halbwachs (1990), Abreu (1998) and Moretti (2003), as well as other theorists that contribute to a more complete approach of the theme. We conclude that the same environment can be space or place, depending on the relations of affection established there. In addition, we conclude that the city is a typical place of memory and that its representation in literature is a way to keep it accessible for the next generations.