Bodies would seem to be the most temporally bounded of objects. They have a clear beginning and end, moved on by a relentless teleological thrust that, at the end, cycles back on itself: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The movement of one’s body must be, we think, “inescapably narrative,” using Eve Sedgwick’s terms. Though …read more
The first thesis of the V21 Collective’s manifesto identifies a positivist historicism in Victorian studies, pointing out that its “primary affective mode is the amused chuckle.” Whatever else we may think of the claim for a predominant historicism within nineteenth-century literary study, what interests me is the claim for a representative affect, that a scholarly …read more
While Benjamin Noy’s evocative “Fog, Mud, and Dust” examined how we are still Victorian, I’d like to think about how the Victorians were the future. Much of the discussion in the wake of the V21 manifesto has taken place within the confines of a too-familiar argument of history vs. theory, without taking up the manifesto’s …read more
Despite the robust and productive debates taking place in our field about the length, breadth, and depth of the Victorian period, when it comes to the ways that we frame the era for our teaching—and our undergraduate teaching, most especially—the boundaries are often much more fixed and limited. Even though we teach across a wide …read more
Like others in the V21 Collective, I was drawn to the group by a sense that Victorian studies could use a boost of conceptual energy at the moment. Yet I hesitate to claim that our problem is an over-reliance upon historicism. Instead, I tend to agree with David Kurnick (in his response to the …read more
Fog, Mud, and Dust[1] The V21 Manifesto, which characterizes the mode of Victorian studies as ‘positivist historicism’ (thesis 1), also suggests ‘we are Victorian’ (thesis 8).[2] I want to add a speculative and polemical suggestion that ‘we are Victorian’ because this ‘positivist historicism’ is a signature sign of Victorian thought (a certain dominant form of …read more
When I fly into London’s Heathrow airport, I approach UK border patrol with a combination of trepidation and anticipation. I steel myself for the officiousness of the border agent, while I look forward to the world that opens after my passport is stamped. I approach this discussion in a similar fashion. Trained as a historian, …read more
Mary Mullen’s recent piece for V21 ends with the compelling observation that “A form of Victorian Studies grounded in multiple anachronisms interrogates our claims to distance, acknowledges our affective attachments (and their limits), and opens up new political horizons.” Mullen’s mention of “queer temporalities”—thinking of alternative ways to envision linear, normative ideas of about the …read more
Reflecting on Victorian studies in 2005, Matthew Rowlinson argues that the field needs to develop a theory of anachronism. In his words, it “would enable Victorian scholars to explain their investments in their object without proposing to find in that object the truth of the historical present.”[1] According to Rowlinson, Victorian Studies scholars tend to …read more
Lauren Goodlad‘s meditation on digital possibilities at V21 and elsewhere inaugurates a series of longer pieces that we will publish in coming weeks. ** Some readers of this response may recall a 2013 special issue of Victorian Studies, titled The Ends of History. Toward the end of the introduction, Andrew Sartori and I wrote that, looking back at Eve Sedgwick’s …read more