Victorian Power
Midwest Victorian Studies Association
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
April 26-28, 2019
British world power peaked in the Victorian era, when industrial might, rule of the waves, and cultural “soft power” paved the way for Britain’s “imperial century” or, as its most recent chronicler has called it, Britain’s “victorious century.” Soldiers, traders, missionaries, and others added more red to the imperial map at the same time as a range of new institutions, such as the Metropolitan Police, prison system, museums, and primary education promised greater discipline and an enlightened citizenry at home. And yet nowhere was dominion complete or unchallenged, from frontiers of colonial conflict to internal contestations over religious, political, and civil rights, as well as access to arts, education, and culture. MVSA’s 2019 conference invites papers on the subject of Victorian Power. Submissions are welcome from scholars working in art history, musicology, history, science, philosophy, theater, literature, and other fields of scholarly endeavor. Topics might include:
- The aesthetic power of art, literature, and music, as well as the control that such institutions as the Royal Academy or the press wielded over these fields
- The role of arts and culture in relation to “soft power”
- Intersections of gender, race, and class in representing or theorizing a variety of forms of power
- Circulation of power across spaces, whether transatlantic, imperial, or urban vs. rural
- Science and technology of power
- Economic power of producers and consumers including in the literary and artistic marketplaces where cultural products circulated
- Religion and spiritual power
- Political parties and pressure or interest groups, such as abolition, temperance, constitutional reform
- Coercive power of the state and its institutions regarding (among other things) crime, public order, censorship, conquest, as well as resistance
MVSA is an interdisciplinary organization welcoming scholars from all disciplines who share an interest in 19th century British history, literature, and culture. For individual papers or panels, send a 300-word abstract and 1-page vita (as MS Word documents) by September 30, 2018, to conferencesubmissions@midwestvictorian.org.
For more information please visit www.midwestvictorian.org