Clare Bucknell
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, author and regular LRB contributor, specialising in literary history and criticism and co-host/participant in the Close Readings discussions.
Best podcasts with Clare Bucknell
Ranked by the Snipd community
Dec 24, 2025 • 34min
What Dickens taught Mariah Carey
Colin Burrow, a literary scholar from Oxford, and Clare Bucknell, a fellow and literary critic, dive into the complexities of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. They explore how Dickens commercialized Christmas while critiquing societal issues like the 1834 Poor Law. The duo discusses Scrooge's Malthusian views and his redemption, examining the narrative structure from ghostly visits to the blending of fairy tale elements with a dark urban backdrop. They also highlight Dickens's call for empathy through abundance and the ethics of sharing.
Dec 24, 2025 • 34min
Novel Approaches: 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens
Clare Bucknell, a literary scholar from All Souls College, Oxford, and Colin Burrow, a fellow critic and contributor to the London Review of Books, delve into the complexities of Dickens’s 'A Christmas Carol'. They explore whether Dickens ruined Christmas through his commercial ventures and how his dark narrative critiques Victorian social issues. The discussion highlights the unsettling mix of sentimentality and social commentary, questioning what keeps this ghostly tale in holiday tradition despite its eerie undertones.
