Neo-Victorianism: The Politics and Aesthetics of Appropriation

Who were ‘the Victorians', and why have they continued to exert such an influence throughout the twentieth century and beyond? From the domestic goddess to hegemonic globalisation, from neo-Victorian novels to the Dickensian ‘soap opera', from ‘new Victorian' feminism to ‘boy's own' masculinity, and from Victorian values to the Victoria sponge, this conference is interested in the ways in which a Victorian legacy has both inspired and haunted succeeding national and international generations.

Hosted by the Centre for Victorian Studies

with support from the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research, Cardiff University

Keynote speakers:

Cora Kaplan, Brian Maidment, John Sutherland & Imelda Whelehan

Speakers include:

Simon Dentith, John Dupré, Regenia Gagnier, Ann Heilmann, Philip Hensher, Ken Newton, John Plunkett, Patricia Pulham, Angelique Richardson, Eckart Voigts-Virchow, Carolyn Williams

Session topics include:

• Hauntings
• Steampunk
• Education, Education, Education
• Adaptation
•  (In)visible subjects
• Revisiting Mayhew
• Spiritualism
• Queering the Neo-Victorian Novel
• Old/New Imperialisms
• Reader, I re-wrote Jane Eyre
• Feminist forerunners
• Modern Victorians
• Tableaux and Technologies
• Jack the Ripper
• Writing the Victorians
• Neo-Darwinism