Afterword: Diversity in Victorian Studies and the Opportunities of Theory

This essay examines the reverberations of the Oscar Wilde trials in Brazil, using it to probe how a “widening” of Victorian studies might work and arguing that looking beyond the use nodes of comparison enriches our understanding of the long nineteenth century.

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Back in time for utopia: Neo-Victorian utopianism and the return to William Morris

European Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/1367549420980005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 136754942098000

Author(s):

Joe PL Davidson

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Reality Television ◽

Interesting Case ◽

Arts And Crafts ◽

William Morris ◽

Victorian Studies ◽

Victorian Era ◽

Cultural Imaginary ◽

The Future ◽

The 19Th Century

When we think of the Victorian era, images of shrouded piano legs, dismal factories and smoggy streets often come to mind. However, the 19th century has been rediscovered in recent years as the home of something quite different: bold utopian visions of the future. William Morris’ great literary utopia News from Nowhere, first published in 1890, is an interesting case study in this context. Morris’ text is the point of departure for a number of recent returns to Victorian utopianism, including Sarah Woods’ updated radio adaptation of News from Nowhere (2016) and the BBC’s historical reality television series The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts (2019). In this article, I analyse these Morris-inspired texts with the aim of exploring the place of old visions of the future in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Building on previous work in neo-Victorian studies and utopian studies, the claim is made that the return to 19th-century dreams is a plural phenomenon that has a number of divergent effects. More specifically, neo-Victorian utopianism can function to demonstrate the obsolescence of old visions of utopia, prompt a longing for the clarity and radicality of the utopias of the Victorian moment, or encourage a process of rejuvenating the utopian impulse in the present via a detour through the past.

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Victorian Poetry as Victorian Studies

Victorian Poetry ◽

10.1353/vp.2004.0010 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 513-518 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephanie Kuduk

Keyword(s):

Victorian Poetry ◽

Victorian Studies

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VICTORIAN STUDIES AND CULTURAL STUDIES: INTERDISCIPLINARITY, THE MARKET, AND A CALL FOR CRITICAL REALISM

Victorian Literature and Culture ◽

10.1017/s1060150399272105 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 481-486

Author(s):

Linda Shires

Keyword(s):

Critical Theory ◽

Cultural Studies ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Victorian Studies

VICTORIAN STUDIES PRACTITIONERS have often applauded themselves on their openness to views, topics, and approaches not immediately recognizable as already part of the field. I put the formulation this way because Victorian studies scholars and critics also prize the field for its capaciousness; they tend to think of the field as large and already all-inclusive. It houses many genres and sub-disciplines and it first welcomed certain kinds of critical theory when other historical fields moved more slowly to accept them.

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