Rethinking ‘Global Dickens’: The Case of the Cross-Cultural Transfer ofDavid Copperfield

Transnational Neo‐Victorian Studies: Notes on the Possibilities and Limitations of a Discipline

“…In her contribution to their special issue, for example, Primorac explores a Croatian parody of Sherlock Holmes, Mima Simić's Pustolovine Glorije Scott ( The Adventures of Gloria Scott ), by way of Russian and Soviet Sherlockiana; in a recent essay, Pietrzak‐Franger explores two graphic novel adaptations of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland – one Polish and the other Swiss‐German – as “a space for rethinking the global‐local continuum with reference to European cultural legacies and their (non)hegemonic status” (69). Similarly, Klaudia Hiu Yen Lee uses Chinese appropriations of David Copperfield – which she describes as simultaneously translations and adaptations – “to demonstrate the importance of attending to local differences and cultural specificities” and to argue “against any oversimplified pursuit of the concept of ‘Global Dickens’ ” (64) . At its best, what a category like “neo‐Victorian” does in a transnational register is create a conversational thread that draws together disparate national, linguistic, and disciplinary perspectives – from Croatian counter culture, to Chinese translation, say – and that invites multiple interlocutors to join in.…”