Queer Circuits: Dynamic Forms, Description, and Teleoskepticism in Dickens's Great Expectations

Abstract

Abstract This article draws on the concepts of “chrononormativity” and “teleoskepticism” from current debates in queer theory to explore the formal work of description in Dickens's novel (1861–1862). Where formalism and narrative theory have traditionally assumed that narrative action lends dynamism to the novel form, this article draws on Dickens's descriptions of Miss Havisham to propose the concept of dynamic stasis, a form that occurs not in the plotted activity of the text but in its descriptions. Rather than interrupting the narrative action, these descriptions are themselves dynamic forms that force us to reconsider the formal dynamics of the novel and the stability of the closure derived from heteronormative sociotemporal forms, like the marriage plot or the bildungsroman.