Journal | Il Tolomeo
Journal issue | 19 | 2017
Research Article | “Pip is my story”

“Pip is my story”

Cross-Fertilising Narratives in Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip

Abstract

In Mister Pip (2006), New Zealander writer Lloyd Jones transfers Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations to Papua New Guinea. Through a skilful play of metanarrative cross-references, Jones gives lifeblood back to the Victorian text while creating a new artistic work in which the 19th century enters into a dialogue with contemporary times offering its reader a modern ‘female’ Bildungsroman. This paper explores how Great Expectations turns out to be instrumental for the growth of Matilda, Jones’s main character, and for the development of the plot in a way that invites us to reflect on the imaginative power of literature and the unpredictable nature of its consequences in the world outside literary fiction.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Oct. 29, 2017 | Accepted: Nov. 5, 2017 | Published Dec. 21, 2017 | Language: en

Keywords Mister Pip • Great Expectations • Bildungsroman • Lloyd Jones • Postcolonial literature

Copyright © 2017 Caterina Colomba. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-19-17-17


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