From Coketown to Palestine: A Comparative Study of Resilience and Resistance in Dickens’ Hard Times

الملخص

Dickens’ novel, Hard Times, constantly criticizes the industrial age, focusing on the traumatic and dehumanizing consequences of utilitarianism and industrialization on humans. The study examines the novel in Palestine in that, as Dickens describes it, we learn of a similarity between the oppressions of Dickens and those of today’s Palestinians living under occupation. In the end, resilience and resistance are studied in terms of Hard Times and the socioeconomic situation in Palestine. Through Sissy Jupe and Louisa Gradgrind, the analysis is proved a collective battle against dehumanisation. Further, it highlights the role of education and narrative in it. Dickens’ novel, the writer of this paper suggests a compelling understanding of Palestinian experience. The paper explains how narratives of resistance and resilience merge history and geography.