Neo-Victorian cultural productions overtly draw on and frequently re-imagine either specific Victorian novels or situate plots in storyworlds that reproduce aspects of Victorian culture, aesthetics, or settings. Over the course of the semester, not only will we set on a solid theoretical foundation the concept of ‘adaptation’ and its meanings in relation to neo-Victorian cultural production, we will also discuss two neo-Victorian novels and three films/series with a special focus on texts from the 1990s onwards. In so doing, we will give attention both to the politicized underpinnings of neo-Victorian adaptations/re-imaginations (in particular in relation to empire/race, gender, class, or same-sex desire) and the texts’ narratological, formal, aesthetic, and spatialising components: how exactly do they re-narrate Victorian culture, themes, and spaces/geographies and to what effect?
In preparation, please read the following novels in their respective versions [links to Amazon purely for information]:
- Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet: https://tinyurl.com/5584kfdc
- Sara Collins’ The Confessions of Frannie Langdon: https://tinyurl.com/5y9bs4c5
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Please watch the following films/series:
- Carnival Row (2019-; season one)
- Gentleman Jack (2019- ; season one)
- Sherlock (2010-2017; season one; more possible but not obligatory) |
