Neo-Victorianism on Screen


Neo-Victorianism on Screen: Postfeminism and Contemporary Adaptations of Victorian Women

by Antonija Primorac

  • This is the first monograph devoted solely to the study of neo-Victorianism on screen
  • Innovatively cross-hybridises neo-Victorian studies with adaptation studies
  • Examines the role of neo-Victorianism on screen for contemporary understandings of the Victorian past and notions of women’s agency, gender, family and colonial space
  • Offers a novel approach by examining neo-Victorian screen adaptations of Victorian women in the context of postfeminist media culture

This book broadens the scope of inquiry of neo-Victorian studies by focusing primarily on screen adaptations and appropriations of Victorian literature and culture. More specifically, this monograph spotlights the overlapping yet often conflicting drives at work in representations of Victorian heroines in contemporary film and TV. Primorac’s close analyses of screen representations of Victorian women pay special attention to the use of costume and clothes, revealing the tensions between diverse theoretical interventions and generic (often market-oriented) demands. The author elucidates  the push and pull between postcolonial critique and nostalgic, often Orientalist spectacle; between feminist textual interventions and postfeminist media images. Furthermore, this book examines neo-Victorianism’s relationship with postfeminist media culture and offers an analysis of the politics behind onscreen treatment of Victorian gender roles, family structures, sexuality, and colonial space.

Find out more information here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319645582.