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You may have come across the term ‘steampunk‘, often in relation to a popular subculture or -genre that begins to surface in films, TV series, literature or fashion, but few know what it actually means. It shows us a nineteenth century that is both familiar and fantastical because it transforms nineteenth-century texts, fashion, music and many other things into imaginative or anachronistic commentaries on history, memory, technology or culture. We may encounter airships over London, dandies and detectives, carriages powered by steam engines, adventurers, aristocrats or aviators, Victorian computers, and some mad scientists.
In this seminar, we will examine how steampunk works: How does it relate to canonical texts of the Victorian era, and how important are Charles Dickens or Arthur Conan Doyle in this context? What does it mean, culturally or politically, to ‘punk’ the past? How may we use steampunk to discuss identity, and how may we include fashion, sculpture, music or film in our analysis?
A reader with the material we will discuss will be made available in the copyshop at Reckhammerweg. |
