Victorian Ideologies in Contemporary British Cultures

‘Victorian’ is often used synonymously with ‘outdated’ today. However, some of the ideologies underlying contemporary social structures still seem to be heavily influenced by 19th-century thinking. The volume looks at Victorian and contemporary ‘texts’ to explore this ideological continuity. Apart from Neo-Victorian novellas, comics and TV series which openly take up Victorian concerns, the articles also foreground contemporary material less obviously ‘Victorian’, such as advertisements or the novels of the ‘black male underclass’. At the same time the contributors show how texts from both eras can also contain ‘structures of feeling’ which contradict dominant Victorian ideologies. Topics discussed range from gender, class and ethnicity to questions of seriality, spatiality and spirituality-issues significant both during the Victorian period and after. The volume also features an interview with British author and academic Patricia Duncker on how the Victorians and Victorianism have shaped her life and writings.