Neo-victorianism and Medievalism: Re-appropriating the Victorian and Medieval Pasts (Neo-victorian Series, 9)

Bringing together neo-Victorian and medievalism scholars in dialogue with each other for the first time, this collection of essays foregrounds issues common to both fields. The Victorians reimagined the medieval era and post-Victorian medievalism repurposes received nineteenth century tropes, as do neo-Victorian texts. For example, aesthetic movements such as Arts and Crafts, which looked for inspiration in the medieval era, are echoed by steampunk in its return to Victorian dress and technology. Issues of gender identity, sexuality, imperialism and nostalgia arise in both neo-Victorianism and medievalism, and analysis of such texts is enriched and expanded by the interconnections between the two fields represented in this groundbreaking collection. Contents Figures Introduction: Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism—Why Together? Why Now? Keywords 1 Introduction 2 How Distant Is the Past? Exoticism, Familiarity, Commodification, Nostalgia 3 (Re)Defining the Fields: When, Where, and What It Means 4 The Politics of Race and Place: Confronting (Dis)Continuities with the Past 5 (Re)Presenting Gender and Sexuality 6 Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism: the Question of Authenticity 7 The Essays 8 Conclusion Works Cited Part 1: (Re)Defining the Fields 1 Negotiating Identity: an Editor’s Perspective Abstract Keywords 1 Defining Medieval(ism) 2 Medievalism vs. Neomedievalism 3 (Neo)Medievalism Studies Relative to (Neo-)Victorian Studies 4 The Benefits of (Neo-)Victorian Studies for (Neo)Medievalism Studies 5 The Benefits of (Neo)Medievalism Studies for (Neo-)Victorian Studies 6 Conclusion 2 Irish Neo-Victorianism and an Gorta Mór Abstract Keywords 1 Introduction 2 An Gorta Mór (1845–52) 3 The Clinical Gaze 4 The Tourist Gaze 5 Conclusion Works Cited Part 2: Race and Place 3 Digital White Supremacy, White Rage, and the Middle Age Abstract Keywords 1 The Alt-Medieval Ecosystem 1.1 Androphilic Anarcho-fascists 1.2 The Crusades, #DeusVult, and Islamophobia 1.3 Byzantine White Nationalism 1.4 Charles Martel Society 2 The Stakes: Alt-Right Radicalization and #Charlottesville 3 #Charlottesville 4 #Christchurch and the Alt-Medieval in 2019 Works Cited 4 The Three Phases of a Statue: Queen Victoria and the Monumental Past Keywords 1 Monuments and Time 2 Monumental Time 3 Case Study: Montréal’s Queen Victoria Monuments 4 Time of the Monumental Subject 5 Time of Construction 6 Time of Contemporary Engagements 7 Conclusion Works Cited Part 3: Gender and Sexuality 5 Janus-Faced Neo-Victorianism in Penny Dreadful: to the Nineteenth Century Keywords 1 Witchcraft, Spiritualism, and Penny Dreadful’s Neomedievalism 2 The Nineteenth Century as Another “Dark Age” 3 Beastly Ages: Medieval-Victorian Heroic Monsters 4 Coda: Neo-Victorianism, Today’s Medievalism, and “Otherness” Works Cited Filmography 6 Mourning Wood: Adapting the Patriarchy in Contemporary Robin Hood Cinema Keywords 1 Introduction 2 Spaces of Education and Robin Hood Films 3 Rejecting Innovation 4 Conclusion: Masculinity and Toxic Nostalgia Works Cited Filmography 7 Medieval Knights and Mighty Young Men Keywords 1 Knights, Heroic Masculinity and (Neo?)Victorian Medievalism 2 Charlotte M. Yonge’s The Heir of Redclyffe (1853) 3 Rodman Philbrick’s Freak the Mighty (1993) and The Mighty (1998) 4 Medievalism, “Salvation,” and Masculinity 5 Conclusion Works Cited 8 Remarkable Teenagers in a World Gone Steampunk: Rewriting Young Protagonists in the Victorian Era Keywords 1 Steampunk and Young Adult Novels 2 Race, Class, Gender, and Espionage: the Finishing School Series 3 Observing the “Foreigner”: How Carriger Fails to Rewrite the British Empire 4 Which Is Inevitable? Gender or Empire? Works Cited Part 4: Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism 9 “Steam Wars,” the Special Edition: Steampunk on the Move Keywords 1 Introduction: Steampunk on Steroids 2 Steampunk Technofantasy: Looks Like Science, Works Like Magic 3 Retrofuturism: Imagining the Past Imagining the Future 4 Vintage, Not Victorian: That Old-Time Steampunk Feeling 5 Conclusion: Steampunk on the Move ... in Ratrods and Mack Trucks Works Cited 10 “Some Traveller from New Zealand”: Steampunk, Retrofuturism Abstract Keywords 1 A New Dark Age 2 St. Paul’s Cathedral as Symbol 3 Steampunk, the Neo-Victorian, and the Medieval Works Cited 11 Fake News from Nowhere: William Morris, Steampunk and Postmodern History Keywords 1 Fake News in The Commonweal 2 Steampunk and Alternative History 3 History vs. Postmodernism 4 Conclusion: Fake Objects, Fake History and Fake News Works Cited Index