Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Demon Copperhead is an adaptation of the beloved 19th-century novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, shows how Kingsolver negotiated Dickens’ literary legacy and updated the concerns of David Copperfield to deal with major issues of contemporary American life such as the opioid crisis, rural poverty, and the schisms in an increasingly divided country. Luzzi discusses how the two authors’ lives and literary careers relate to their novels and compares style, character creation, and plot development in the two books.
10–11 a.m. A Tale of Two Authors: Charles Dickens and Barbara Kingsolver
Key elements and aspects of Dickens’ and Kingsolver's lives, especially as they relate to the narratives of David Copperfield and Demon Copperhead, are examined.
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. David Copperfield: Youthful Challenges
The focus is on the first half of Dickens’ novel and how the author represents the childhood and youth of his protagonist, David Copperfield, in the context of English attitudes toward education, social standing, the role of women, and expectations about private and public morality.
12:15–12:45 p.m. Break
12:45–1:45 p.m. David Copperfield: Joys and Sorrows of Maturity
Covering the second half of Dickens’ novel, Luzzi considers David Copperfield’s transition out of adolescence and into adulthood, in addition to how Dickens portrays working life, friendship and family, and the options available to the haves and have-nots of 19th-century English society.
2–3 p.m. Copperfield to Copperhead
Luzzi analyzes how Kingsolver adapted and updated David Copperfield in her moving account of life in modern-day Appalachia. The struggles of her protagonist, Demon Copperhead, amid a chaotic world of poverty, opioid addiction, and broken family structures are discussed.
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