History and cultural memory in neo-Victorian fiction : Victorian afterimages

Examining recent rewritings of the Victorian period by authors such as A. S. Byatt, Sarah Waters, Gail Jones and Graham Swift, Victorian Afterimages explores the way in which neo-Victorian fictions enact and celebrate the power of cultural memory in an age historically obsessed and yet charged with the inability to think historically. History And Cultural Memory In Neo-victorian Fiction Combines Innovative Literary And Historiographical Analysis To Investigate The Way Neo-victorian Novels Conceptualise Our Relationship To The Victorian Past, And To Analyse Their Role In The Production And Communication Of Historical Knowledge. Positioning Neo-victorian Novels As Dynamic Participants In The Contemporary Historical Imaginary, It Explores Their Use Of The Victorians' Own Vocabularies Of History, Memory And Loss To Re-member The Nineteenth Century Today. While Her Focus Is Neo-victorian Fiction, Mitchell Positions These Novels In Relation To Debates About Historical Fiction's Contribution To Historical Knowledge Since The Eighteenth Century. Her Use Of Memory Discourse As A Framework For Understanding The Ways In Which They Do Lay Claim To Historical Recollection, One Which Opens Up A Range Of Questions Beyond Historical Fidelity On The One Hand, And The Problematics Of Representation On The Other, Suggests New Ways Of Thinking About Contemporary Historical Fiction And Its Prevalence, Popular Appeal, And Nmnenonic Function Today. This Ebook Is Participating In An Experiment And Is Available Open Access Under The Creative Commons Attribution-non Commercial-no Derivatives 3.0 Unported (cc By-nc-nd 3.0) Licence. Users Are Free To Disseminate And Reuse The Ebook. The Licence Does Not However Permit Commercial Exploitation Or The Creation Of Derivative Works Without Specific Permission. To View A Copy Of This License Visit Http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0. For More Information About The Experiment Visit Our Faqs. Introduction: I Told You We'd Been Invaded By Victoriana -- Memory Texts: History, Fiction And The Historical Imaginary -- Contemporary Victorian(ism)s -- A Fertile Excess: Waterland, Desire And The Historical Sublime -- (dis)possessing Knowledge: A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance -- Making It Seem Like It's Authentic: The Faux-victorian Novel As Cultural Memory In Affinity And Fingersmith -- 'the Alluring Patina Of Loss': Photography, Memory, And Memory Texts In Sixty Lights And Afterimage -- Conclusion: What Will Count As History? Kate Mitchell. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Arguing that neo-Victorian fiction enacts and celebrates cultural memory, this book uses memory discourse to position these novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary. It revises historical fiction's relationship to history and moves critical debates on from a reductive focus on the problematics of representation. History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction combines innovative literary and historiographical analysis to investigate the way neo-Victorian novels conceptualise our relationship to the Victorian past, and to analyse their role in the production and communication of historical knowledge. Positioning neo-Victorian novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary, it explores their use of the Victorians' own vocabularies of history, memory and loss to re-member the nineteenth century today. While her focus is neo-Victorian fiction, Mitchell positions these novels in relation to debates about historical fiction's contribution to historical knowledge since the eighteenth century. Her use of memory discourse as a framework for understanding the ways in which they do lay claim to historical recollection, one which opens up a range of questions beyond historical fidelity on the one hand, and the problematics of representation on the other, suggests new ways of thinking about contemporary historical fiction and its prevalence, popular appeal, and nmnenonic function today. This ebook is participating in an experiment and is available Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) licence. Users are free to disseminate and reuse the ebook. The licence does not however permit commercial exploitation or the creation of derivative works without specific permission. To view a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0. For more information about the experiment visit our FAQs History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction combines innovative literary and historiographical analysis to investigate the way neo-Victorian novels conceptualise our relationship to the Victorian past, and to analyse their role in the production and communication of historical knowledge. Positioning neo-Victorian novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary, it explores their use of the Victorians' own vocabularies of history, memory and loss to remember the nineteenth century today. While her focus is neo-Victorian fiction, Mitchell positions these novels in relation to debates about historical fiction's contribution to historical knowledge since the eighteenth century. Her use of memory discourse as a framework for understanding the ways in which they do lay claim to historical recollection, one which opens up a range of questions beyond historical fidelity on the one hand, and the problematics of representation on the other, suggests new ways of thinking about contemporary historical fiction and its prevalence, popular appeal and mnemonic function today. --Book Jacket Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: ‘I told you we’d been invaded by Victoriana’....Pages 1-11 Memory Texts: History, Fiction and the Historical Imaginary....Pages 12-38 Contemporary Victorian(ism)s....Pages 39-62 A Fertile Excess: Waterland, Desire and the Historical Sublime....Pages 63-92 (Dis)Possessing Knowledge: A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance ....Pages 93-116 ‘Making it seem like it’s authentic’: the Faux-Victorian Novel as Cultural Memory in Affinity and Fingersmith ....Pages 117-142 ‘The alluring patina of loss’: Photography, Memory, and Memory Texts in Sixty Lights and Afterimage ....Pages 143-176 Conclusion: ‘What will count as history?’....Pages 177-183 Back Matter....Pages 184-222 1. Introduction: 'I told you we'd been invaded by Victoriana' 2. Contemporary Victorian(ism)s 3. A fertile excess: waterland, desire and the historical sublime 4. (Dis)possessing knowledge: A.S. Byatt's possession: a romance 5. 'Making it seem like it's authentic': the Faux-Victorian novel as cultural memory in Affinity and Fingersmith 6. 'The alluring patina of loss': photography, memory, and memory texts in Sixty Lights and Afterimage. A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform, (http://www.oapen.org) www.oapen.org . Arguing that neo-Victorian fiction enacts and celebrates cultural memory, this book uses memory discourse to position these novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary.