#PCSubtitle: Charles Dickens

National Association of Scholars

Submissions for this contest are now closed. See the list of winners at the bottom of this post. See the next contest, on Beatrix Potter, here

Last week we asked you to propose #PCSubtitles for Jane Austen books as part of our new satirical contest. We received 70 submissions from 52 readers. The NAS staff selected this week’s winner and runners up. Click here to read the winning entries.

This week’s assignment is any book by Charles Dickens. The university of the past, once the locus of high standards and great expectations, has now fallen on hard times, and is just a ghost of its former self. It’s becoming a bleak house of political activism, identity studies, and the spontaneous combustion of important books. To rescue Dickens from becoming just another knickknack in the old curiosity shop, and to poke a little fun at the idea that classics go stale, what #PCSubtitle would you propose for one of Dickens’ tomes?

Share your submissions on Twitter with the hashtag #PCSubtitle and the NAS Twitter handle @NASorg. You can also fill out the form at the bottom of this post. 

Updated October 3: Charles Dickens #PCSubtitle Winner

The NAS staff sifted through the sixty-three #PCSubtitles submissions for Charles Dickens’ books. This week’s winner is Luigi Bradizza for

Grade Expectations: Everyone Gets an A!

Our runners-up are

A Tale of Two Sanctuary Cities, submitted by T.L. Thomas

A Holiday Carol: White, Cisgender Male Learns to Check His Privilege, submitted by Michael Brooks

Limited Expectations: Pip Applies for a Post in the Humanities, submitted by Steve Hutchens

Hate Expectations: A Speech Code to Promote Inclusivity and Protect Students From Potentially Harmful Words and Microaggressions, submitted by Jordan Hill

NAS president Peter Wood also composed a series of #PCSubtitles that, in strict compliance with the rules, are actually subtitles. We selected one to share with you:

Barnaby Rudge: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Revolution

(Barnaby, for readers who haven’t yet met him, is a mentally handicapped young man who is used by revolutionaries to launch an uprising in 18th Century London.)

Join us this week for #PCSubtitles for Beatrix Potter’s books!

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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