Neo-Victorianism and feminism have been linked since the
appearance of novels like Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) and John
Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969). Feminist theory has,
furthermore, offered critics tools with which to understand and evaluate the
tendency for neo-Victorian texts and media to rewrite women’s history or,
simply, to write women (back) into history. Yet, as Marie-Luise Kohlke and
Christian Gutleben have noted, “certain neo-Victorian perspectives – the
nineteenth-century fallen woman, medium, or homosexual, for instance – have
become rather over-used, tired, and hackneyed” (Neo-Victorian Tropes of
Trauma, 23). Indeed, many neo-Victorian texts have followed in the footsteps
of Rhys and Fowles in re-writing the story of the fallen woman or madwoman, and
it remains to be seen if this impulse to redress the ignored histories of
nineteenth-century women still has currency in the twenty-first century. Or has,
rather, the repeated characterisation of these now standard figures ironically
made them into clichés that reinforce unproductive stereotypes rather than
giving voice to women as distinctive subjects?
This special issue of Neo-Victorian Studies will
explore the relationship between feminism and neo-Victorian texts, objects, and
media in the twenty-first century. Papers dealing with late-twentieth century
texts will also be considered, but the issue will primarily address recent
developments in neo-Victorianism, in an attempt to offer new ways in which to
understand Neo-Victorianism as a feminist discourse (or not). For instance, what
figures have been obscured in the focus on the fallen or mad woman? How has the
Victorian woman remained a figurehead for contemporary feminism? Can the
neo-Victorian impulse be most clearly associated with second-wave, third-wave,
or post-feminism? And what forms of feminist dialogues exist between
neo-Victorian critics and authors?
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
·
feminist
characters in neo-Victorian literature and film
·
the
utility of feminist theory in reading neo-Victorian texts
·
‘ancestors’ of contemporary figurations of the fallen woman, madwoman, medium,
etc.
·
notions
of time and history in relation to neo-Victorianism and feminism
·
neo-Victorian understandings of the family and marriage
·
TV/film
adaptations of proto-feminist Victorian texts
·
the
performance of Victorian femininity in music, theatre, performance art, etc.
·
intersections of queer theory and feminism in neo-Victorian fiction and
criticism
·
postcolonial discourse and representations of neo-Victorian womanhood
Please address enquiries and expressions of interest to the
guest editors Tara MacDonald at
T.C.MacDonald@uva.nl and Joyce Goggin
at J.Goggin@uva.nl. Completed articles
and/or creative pieces, along with a short biographical note, will be due by
28 February 2013 and should be sent via email to the guest
editors, with a copy to
neovictorianstudies@swansea.ac.uk. Please consult the NVS website (submission
guidelines) for further guidance.
Please direct
enquiries and send electronic submissions via email with Word Document
attachment to the General & Founding Editor, Marie-Luise Kohlke, at
neovictorianstudies@swansea.ac.uk. Please consult our
submission guidelines, prior to submission.
