Neo-Victorianism : The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999-2009

This field-defining book offers an interpretation of the recent figurations of neo-Victorianism published over the last ten years. Using a range of critical and cultural viewpoints, it highlights the problematic nature of this 'new' genre and its relationship to re-interpretative critical perspectives on the nineteenth century. "This field-defining book offers an extensive interpretation of the most recent, millennial and especially postmillennial figurations of neo-Victorianism published over the last ten years (1999-2009) through a range of critical and cultural viewpoints, while at the same time highlighting the problematic nature of this 'new' genre and its relationship to re-interpretative critical perspectives on the nineteenth century. In its focus on a series of literary and cultural encounters with the Victorians (and, to a lesser extent, the earlier nineteenth-century period) coupled with a concluding chapter on neo-Victorianism in the wider nostalgic/heritage marketplace, this book provides new insights into the powerful aesthetic, cultural, and metafictional potential of neo-Victorianism and explores how those possibilities have been employed since the millennium. The six chapters explore questions of aesthetics and ethics; memory, trauma, and inheritance; postcolonialism; sex and science; spectrality and secularity; (neo- )Victorian magic and metatextuality; and adaptation."--Back cover This field-defining book offers an extensive interpretation of the most recent, millennial and especially postmillennial figurations of neo-Victorianism published over the last ten years (1999-2009) through a range of critical and cultural viewpoints, while at the same time highlighting the problematic nature of this 'new' genre and its relationship to re-interpretative critical perspectives on the nineteenth century. In its focus on a series of literary-interpretive encounters with the Victorians (and, to a lesser extent, the earlier nineteenth-century period) coupled with a concluding chapter on neo-Victorianism in the wider nostalgic/heritage marketplace, this book provides new insights into the powerful aesthetic, cultural, and metafictional potential of neo-Victorianism while exploring how those possibilities have been employed since the millennium. The six chapters explore questions of aesthetics and ethics; memory, trauma, and inheritance; postcolonialism; sex and science; spectrality and secularity; (neo- )Victorian magic and metatextuality; and adaptation. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-32 Memory, Mourning, Misfortune: Ancestral Houses and (Literary) Inheritances....Pages 33-65 Race and Empire: Postcolonial Neo-Victorians....Pages 66-105 Sex and Science: Bodily and Textual (Re)Inscriptions....Pages 106-142 Spectrality and S(p)ecularity: Some Reflections in the Glass....Pages 143-173 Doing It with Mirrors, or Tricks of the Trade: Neo-Victorian Metatextual Magic....Pages 174-210 The Way We Adapt Now: or, the Neo-Victorian Theme Park....Pages 211-245 Back Matter....Pages 246-323 Neo-Victorianism and post-authenticity : on the ethics and aesthetics of appropriation Memory, mourning, misfortune : ancestral houses and (literary) inheritances Race and empire : postcolonial neo-Victorians Sex and science : bodily and textual (Re)inscriptions Spectrality and S(p)ecularity : some reflections in the glass Doing it with mirrors, or tricks of the trade : neo-Victorian metatextual magic The way we adapt now : or, the neo-Victorian theme park.

This field-defining book offers an interpretation of the recent figurations of neo-Victorianism published over the last ten years. Using a range of critical and cultural viewpoints, it highlights the problematic nature of this 'new' genre and its relationship to re-interpretative critical perspectives on the nineteenth century.