Twenty-First Century Neo-Victorian Gothic: Deviance and Transgression on Page and Screen
Due Date: 05-05-2025
For a volume in the series Genre Fiction and Film Companion, published by Peter Lang Oxford, we solicit papers on the topic neo-Victorian Gothic literature and film adaptation in the twenty-first century.
Neo-Victorian Gothic represents a contemporary revival of Gothic themes, often exploring deviance and transgression in the context of Victorian society as a challenge to the rigid structures imposed by Victorian society and a reexamination of marginalized voices and experiences. This genre not only revisits the aesthetic and narrative structures of the Gothic, but also critiques and reinterprets the cultural anxieties of both the Victorian and modern societies. Neo-Victorian texts frequently engage with themes of sexual and social deviance thus reflecting on contemporary concerns about identity, gender roles, and morality too.
The neo-Victorian Gothic critiques historical injustices, especially regarding gender inequality, violence, sexual transgression, and neurodiversity through intricately weaving together themes of deviance and transgression, with a critical lens on both Victorian history and contemporary culture. By revisiting Gothic conventions such as encounters with the uncanny in all its manifestations, with ghosts and the doppelgënger, neo-Victorian works illuminate the persistent shadows of social constraints and anxiety while advocating for a deeper understanding of identity and morality in both past and present contexts. Moreover, the genre heavily relies on intertextual references to Victorian literature, thus drawing parallels between the past and the present and reflecting on the continuity of certain social issues across time.
While aware of the many renowned masterpieces of neo-Victorian Gothic literature from the previous century, the proposed volume will explore how our twenty-first century engages with the topics of deviance and transgression. Will Self’s Dorian, An Imitation, Julian Barnes’s Arthur and George, Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, John Harding’s Florence and Giles, Rosie Garland’s The Palace of Curiosities, Gregory Blake Smith’s The Maze at Windermere, and Nell Stevens’s Briefly, A Delicious Life are some of the many novels published in the past twenty-odd years. What is more, neo-Victorian novels are frequently adapted for the screen: for example, Sarah Waters’s Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith, and Affinity and Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White or more recent productions such as Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films, and TV series like Sherlock, Ripper Street, Whitechapel, and Penny Dreadful. The Companion will therefore revisit the issues of deviance and transgression as embodied in literary texts and adaptations in the context of the challenges set by the contemporary reading audiences and viewers.
Send abstracts of about 300 words and short bios for consideration by 5 May 2025 to Rossie Artemis at artemis.r@unic.ac.cy.
Authors will be notified about the status of their proposals by 15 May 2025, and the first drafts of essays (about 4,500 words) will be expected by 1 November 2025.
For more information about Peter Lang’s Genre Fiction and Film Companion series, please visit https://www.peterlang.com/series/gffc.