The Critical Age in Victorian Popular Literature
Online Study Day in Association with the Victorian Popular Fiction Association
Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Keynote Speaker: Dr Louise Benson James, Ghent University

Deadline for Submissions: February 19, 2026

This one-day symposium seeks to explore representations of the ‘critical age’ – the (peri-) menopause – in Victorian popular literature. The peri-menopausal and menopausal experiences of Victorian women have to date been overlooked or underrepresented in scholarly discussions of the period. Victorian popular literature, from novels to periodicals to advice books, provided an essential forum for discussing and shaping the public understanding of women’s bodies, even as much of it sought to obscure the female body. The (peri-) menopausal experience was often framed in terms of illness, excess, and degeneration, or, conversely, was relegated to silence. Women at the ‘critical age’ are frequently marginalised and associated with a range of negative stereotypes in literary and cultural narratives. This call for papers invites exploration of how this phase of women’s lives was constructed in the Victorian imagination, in medical discourses and advice literature, and in women’s lived experiences.

Organizers invite 20-minute papers exploring any aspect of the critical age in Victorian popular literature. Topics for exploration include but are not limited to:

• Representations of the critical age in Victorian popular fiction

• The medicalisation of (peri-) menopause

• Cultural constructions of middle-aged women

• Class and (peri-) menopause

• Menopause in Victorian advice literature

• Motherhood and (peri-) menopause

• Experiences of the critical age in Victorian women’s life writing

• Myths and popular misconceptions

The event will also include a Digital Humanities Research Skills Workshop, with an emphasis on making digital methods more accessible. Organizers invite short papers or workshop proposals that showcase how digital tools can be used to research women and their bodies in Victorian literature. Possible topics include data creation/cleaning/visualisation, textual, quantitative or statistical analysis, using AI or specific tools (such as Voyant or Power BI).

The event will be free to VPFA members and £5 for non-members. To join the VPFA click HERE.

Please send proposals (max. 250 words) and a short biographical note to jessica.cox@brunel.ac.uk and siobhan.smith@tees.ac.uk by 19th February 2026.