"Yet we believe his triumph might surely be ours”:

The Dickensian Liberalism of Slumdog Millionaire

Abstract

Ever since its release, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) has proved controversial for its voyeuristic representation of suffering and violence in the global South, but Western media coverage has routinely attributed reformist intent to the film’s making and viewing. Exploring Boyle’s film as a neo-Victorian reworking of Oliver Twist (1838), I suggest that Slumdog Millionaire reveals the complicated permutations of the Dickensian legacy in a global setting. Specifically, I argue that the film’s use of the typically liberal form of the Bildungsroman, which it borrows from Dickens’ novel, naturalises neoliberal narratives of progress and economic globalisation and mobilises a plot of reform and rescue based on audience identification with the protagonist, who is configured as a liberal/neoliberal subject in the making.