Abstract
Great Expectationsis one of those classic English texts set for reading on schoolsyllabi, watched on television or on stage as a period drama, or heard on the radio.It is the tale of Pip, his adventures and, critically for us, how Pip’s expectationsguide him through life.1Dickens presents Pip’s journey as a secular pilgrimage,one dependent upon the imagination and consumption of desire – foracceptance, love, wealth, status and, eventually, happiness. Each time Pip’sexpectations are dashed new ones rise up, as though Dickens were offering us atale of the human condition: we think therefore we desire. This disappointmentis bred from a deep-seated capitalist-driven reproduction of expectation anddesire which we believe to be intrinsic in society; both real and apparent, it runsfrom colonialism and Orientalism through to tourism, operating upon desire, aplay of the imagination and, ultimately, conquest – visual and/or embodied (cf.Young 1995; Campbell 1987).