Varieties of Victorianism: The Uses of a Past

by Gary Day

Overview

The essays collected here all take issue with the claim that the Victorian period is the antithesis of our own. They show how characteristic postmodern anxieties and celebrations concerning truth, certainty and identity informed Victorian culture at all levels. Covering everything from attitudes to drink to the poetry of Browning, from the Great Exhibition to the Elephant Man, this volume shows not only how the Victorians coped with these challenges but also what lessons they have for us today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349267446
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Edition description:	1st ed. 1998
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

STEVEN EARNSHAW Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University NADINE HOLDSWORTH Lecturer in Drama, De Montfort University, Bedford CHRIS HOPKINS Course Leader of B.A. English Studies, Sheffield Hallam University SIMON MALPAS Lecturer, Department of English, Manchester Metropolitan University JESSICA MAYNARD Tutorial Assistant, University of Wales, Bangor ROBERT MIGHALL Editor, Penguin Classics KEN NEWTON Professor of English, Dundee University JOHN PECK Senior Lecturer in English, University of Wales, Cardiff CARL PLASA Lecturer in English, University of Wales, Cardiff NICK RANCE Senior Lecturer, Middlesex University MARY ANGELA SCHWER Lecturer, University of Notre Dame PETER R. SEDGWICK Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Wales, Cardiff JONATHAN SKINNER Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology, University of Abertay, Dundee DARRYL WADSWORTH Lecturer, University of Pennslyvania ALISTAIR WALKER Senior Lecturer in English, De Montford University, Bedford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction Past and Present: The Case of Samuel Smiles's Self Help ; Gary Day Imperial Muscular Christianity: Thomas Hughes' Biography of David Livingstone; Mary Angela Schwer Victorian Modernity? Writing the Great Exhibition; Chris Hopkins Black Silk and Red Paisley: the Toxic Woman in Wilkie Collins' Armadale ; Jessica Maynard A Postmodern Victorian: Lewis Carroll and the Critique of Totalising Reason; Simon Malpas Politics as Antagonism and Diversity: Mill and Lyotard; Peter R. Sedgwick Victorian Values and Silas Marner ; K.M. Newton Racism in the Mid-Victorian Novel: Thackeray's Philip ; John Peck The Reason for Drinking in Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge ; Steven Earnshaw 'To Whom Does He Address Himself?: Reading Wordsworth in Browning's Pauline ; Carl Plasa A Rose is a Rose is a Rover; Alistair Walker 'Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before?' Melodrama, Postmodernism and Victorian Culture; Nadine Holdsworth 'A Low Borne Labourer Like You': Audience and Victorian Working-Class Melodrama; Darryl Wadsworth Victorian Values and Fast Young Ladies: From Madeleine Smith to Ruth Rendall; Nick Rance Vampires and Victorians: Count Dracula and the Return of the Repressive Hypothesis; Robert Mighall Of Elephants and Men: The Freak as Victorian and Contemporary Spectacle; Jonathan Skinner Index

Editorial Reviews

Essays on the Victorian period look at the differences and similarities between the Victorian world and our own, pointing out that the Victorian response to questions such as the nature of truth and the relativity of value still shape the way we think about these problems. They suggest that misrepresentation of the period has prevented us from appreciating its rich, critical vocabulary for analyzing everything from social problems to artistic significance. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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