When we initially envisioned V21, our intent was to create a new space for discussion and to catalyze debates about the state of the field. And while Victorian studies is of course a multidisciplinary field, the scholars involved in developing V21 were exclusively trained or housed in English or literary studies. Our manifesto attempts to …read more
V21 invited brief responses to our recently launched collective and manifesto. We thank the scholars who have generously shared their thoughts, and we look forward to posting more responses soon. Kent Puckett | Talia Schaffer | Elaine Freedgood | Daniel Hack | Tyler Dean | Elaine Auyoung | Kathy Psomiades | Kyle McAuley | Jeanette …read more
1. Victorian Studies has fallen prey to positivist historicism: a mode of inquiry that aims to do little more than exhaustively describe, preserve, and display the past. Among its symptoms are a fetishization of the archival; an aspiration to definitively map the DNA of the period; an attempt to reconstruct the past wie es eigentlich …read more