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

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan

Scholarly study of neo-Victorianism across 1999–2009, examining how contemporary writers, critics, and cultural practices rework nineteenth-century aesthetics, ethics, and narratives. The book maps links among history, literature, and criticism; explores post-authentic appropriation and its moral dimensions; and analyzes memory, inheritance, trauma, race and empire, hybridity and resistance, and the interplay of sex, science, and textual bodies. It further addresses spectrality, metatextual magic, adaptation, and theme-park imaginaries through close readings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages336

Reading Time8 h 37 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: Neo-Victorianism and Post-Authenticity

1 History, literature, and criticism

2 Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the twenty-first century

3 Going forward, looking backward

1 Memory, Mourning, Misfortune: Ancestral Houses and (Literary) Inheritances

2 Race and Empire: Postcolonial Neo-Victorians

3 Sex and Science: Bodily and Textual (Re)Inscriptions

4 Spectrality and S(p)ecularity: Some Reflections in the Glass

5 Doing It with Mirrors, or Tricks of the Trade: Neo-Victorian Metatextual Magic

6 The Way We Adapt Now: or, the Neo-Victorian Theme Park

Neo-Victorianism The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999–2009 Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn Neo-Victorianism Also by Ann Heilmann FEMINIST FORERUNNERS THE LATE-VICTORIAN MARRIAGE QUESTION NEW WOMAN FICTION: Women Writing First Wave Feminism NEW WOMAN HYBRIDITIES (co-edited with Margaret Beetham) NEW WOMAN STRATEGIES: Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird Also by Mark Llewellyn CONFLICT AND DIFFERENCE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE (co-edited with Dinah Birch) Also by Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF GEORGE MOORE: Gender and Genre METAFICTION AND METAHISTORY IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S WRITING Neo-Victorianism The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century, 1999–2009 Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn © Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn 2010 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identiﬁed as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–24113–8 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne In memory of Hazel Irene Van-Gasse, 1923–2009 This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements x Introduction: Neo-Victorianism and Post-Authenticity: On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Appropriation 1 1 History, literature, and criticism 8 2 Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the twenty-first century 28 3 Going forward, looking backward 32 1 Memory, Mourning, Misfortune: Ancestral Houses and (Literary) Inheritances 33 1.1 Meta-morphoses: Classical,(early)modern, and neo-Victorian echoes in Wesley Stace’s Misfortune (2005) 37 1.2 ‘My mother not my mother; myself not myself’: The mother (as) text in Sarah Blake’s Grange House (2000) 41 1.3 ‘Tell me the truth’: Trauma, witnessing, and authorship in Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale (2006) 47 1.4 ‘There was something unheimlich about it’: Familial/textual legacies and spectral returns in John Harwood’s The Ghost Writer (2004) 55 1.5 Conclusion 63 2 Race and Empire: Postcolonial Neo-Victorians 66 2.1 Hybridity and resistance in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) 70 2.2 Voices across borders: Laura Fish’s Strange Music (2008) 81 2.3 Orientalism and transculturalism: Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love (1999) and Kate Pulling

FAQs

What is the central focus of the book?

The book investigates neo-Victorianism’s reworking of the nineteenth century through contemporary texts and cultural forms, with attention to ethics and aesthetics of appropriation.

Which major themes are discussed across the chapters?

Themes include memory and inheritance, trauma and authorship, race and empire, hybridity and resistance, sex and science, spectrality, metatextual magic, and contemporary adaptation.

How does the book approach the relation between contemporary works and Victorian authenticity?

It frames neo-Victorian practice as a post-authentic activity, asking how appropriation and aesthetic strategies create ethical and imaginative effects.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan