General Introduction
– The end of the semester
– Freudian slips
The Surplus Population
– Scrooge and Thomas Malthus
– Enlightenment optimism
– Population checks
– Tiny Tim as a check on Malthus’ checks
Victorian Ghost Lore
– The chains
– The teleology of ghosts
– Conventional skepticism
– Gravy and graves
Dickens and Capitalism
– Fezziwig vs. Scrooge
– Misers vs. capitalists
– The capitalist as the life of the party
Tiny Tim
– Symbol or character?
– Wise children and noble cripples
– Christ the healer of the lame
– Tiny Tim as Pelagian Christ figure
Christmas Yet-To-Come
– Where Disney gets it wrong
– Imagining your funeral
– Scrooge’s conception of fate
– Does the reality of the vision matter?
Dickens and Advent
– Gilmour’s doubleminded Christmas
– Conversion story
– A Christmas Carol as somewhere in between
– How to live in both worlds
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Seattle: CreateSpace, 2011.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Trans. Constance Garnett. New York: Norton, 1976.
Irving, Washington. The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon. New York: Oxford UP, 2009.
Malthus, Thomas. An Essay on the Principle of Population. New York: Oxford UP, 2008.
Pliny the Younger. The Complete Letters. Ed. P.D. Walsh. New York: Oxford UP, 2009.
Scott, Walter. Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. Seattle: CreateSpace, 2011.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Arden, 2006.
The 1970 musical Christmas Carol, with Albert Finney, also had the flying misers (they may have been doing four-part harmony).
Also, here’s a Forbes article from 2008 (for validation):
http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/24/malthus-dickens-scrooge-oped-cx_jb_1224bowyer.html
Oh, and have you ever noticed that the first thing Scrooge does upon leaving his house is go to a church service? That scene is given briefly in the Patrick Stewart version.
Oh, and another thing–he doesn’t just change his life. He asks forgiveness first–at least of his niece-in-law.
Yes, Paul, I did notice that on this reading. Also, good catch on the forgiveness–that’s something I didn’t treat in our episode.
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