Victorian Europeans

At a moment of intense political debate concerning the boundaries and location of the European subject, this international event reflects back upon the cultural significance of the European during the Victorian period. The pairing of the two terms ‘Victorian’ and ‘European’ establishes a creative tension that has received relatively little exploration in the field of nineteenth-century studies to date.

‘Victorian Europeans’ thus raises a set of questions that the conference organisers to see addressed during the course of the conference. What were the boundaries of the European in the nineteenth-century? How does thinking of ‘the Victorian’ through the lens of Europe, rather than British colonial expansion alter our conception of the metropolitan subject? Is it possible to conceive of non-elite ‘Victorian Europeans’? Is it intellectually valid to extend the category of ‘the Victorian’ and the field of ‘Victorian Studies’ to cover cultural histories of mainland Europe?

This conference is a Joint Interdisciplinary event of the Centre for Victorian Studies, Royal Holloway, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Birkbeck College and the Centre for Victorian Studies, University of Exeter.