Neo-Victorian Cultures: The Victorians Today
24-26 July 2013
Liverpool John Moores University
Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Helen Davies (Teesside University)
Prof. Margaret Stetz (University of Delaware)
A. N. Wilson (Author of The Victorians and The Potter's Hand)
While aesthetic, political and artistic returns to the Victorians have been prevalent throughout the twentieth century, the last decade has seen a particular surge in scholarly work addressing the seemingly ever continuing desire to reassess and adapt Victorian texts, theories, ideas and customs. This work has focused in particular on manifestations of the neo-Victorian on page and on screen, and this conference seeks to build on but also expand these debates by bringing together writers, practitioners and researchers working on the lasting presence of the Victorians since 1901 in a wide variety of realms, ranging from art and architecture to science, politics, economics, fiction and film. In doing so, the event aims to further expand the vibrant field neo-Victorian studies both within and beyond the arts and humanities through an examination of the Victorians¹ continuing influence on twentieth and twenty-first century culture. We therefore welcome and encourage abstracts from postgraduate students, academics and independent researchers from all academic realms in the hope of capturing the diverse work being done on Victorian afterlives across a wide spectrum of disciplines and across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Topics may include, but are by no means limited to, the following:
- the ethics, politics and aesthetics of adaptation
- neo-Victorian politics, economies and economics
- neo-Victorianism on page, screen and canvas
- neo-Victorian subcultures
- the Victorians in contemporary architecture, art and design
- neo-Victorian journalism/ the Victorian press and contemporary journalism
- the Victorians in contemporary science and medicine
- the neo-Victorian canon
- teaching neo-Victorianism
- the neo-Victorian marketplace; marketing the (neo-)Victorians
- Steampunk
Presentations should take the form of 20-minute papers. We also welcome proposals for fully-formed panels or roundtables. For individual papers, please submit a 300-word abstract as well as a short biographical note. For panel and roundtable proposals, please provide a brief outline of the session¹s aims together with abstracts and biographical notes for each speaker and for the proposed panel chair or discussant. All proposals should be emailed to the organisers at organisers@neovictoriancultures.org.uk no later than 1 March 2013. Please do not hesitate to email us if you have any questions about the event. You can also follow us on Twitter (@Neo_Vic_Cult) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NeoVictorianCultures).