230074 Through a glass darkly: Neo-Victorianism and the Millennials (S) (WiSe 2017/2018)

'"Basically, Neo-Victorianism is the explosion of corsets, top hats, high tea parties, BBC adaptations of Dickens and Austen [who who was NO VICTORIAN!, A.S.], tattoos of Alice in Wonderland, Steampunk everything, and novels set in smoggy London. It is the contemporary re-engagement with and the reimagining of the Victorian era. It is, as put so delightfully by the founding editor of the Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies Marie-Luise Kohlke, “the afterlife of the nineteenth century in the cultural imaginary.” And it is a huge and expanding industry. Neo-Victorianism, for my study, at my present point in time, is contemporary fiction that employs Victorian settings and/or styles to self-reflexively invoke the Victorian era for the present. That is, I am focusing on creative works that are at least somewhat self-conscious (if not fully meta-critical), that use Victorian culture and literature, and talk back to Victorian culture and literature, in order to create original works that speak to and for the contemporary age." (Jessica Rose, "So What is Neo-Victorianism?" Past Books. https://pastbooks.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/so-what-is-neo-victorianism/)