Nicholas Taylor-Collins in front of a bookshelf

Nicholas Taylor-Collins

Literary researcher | Creative reader

Tag: Charles Dickens

  • The anti-Bildungsroman: Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Demon Copperhead’

    The anti-Bildungsroman: Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Demon Copperhead’

    In this post I explore the transformative journey of Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Demon Copperhead’, a contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens’s classic Bildungsroman ‘David Copperfield’, set in Appalachia amid opioid addiction. I examine the complexities of growth and stagnation, as Demon’s narrative navigates between traditional Bildungsroman elements and an intriguing anti-Bildung twist, shaping a poignant coming-of-age tale.

  • What is hyper-contemporary literature?

    This blog is entirely concerned with what I am terming hyper-contemporary literature. But what is hyper-contemporary literature, and how does it differ from any other kind of literature? When we read literature, the word ‘contemporary’ can mean two things. First, it means the historical moment of the text’s production. For Shakespeare’s plays, this is the…