Introduction: The Victorians for Dummies? Talking Back to the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

What might it mean to ‘talk back’? In childhood we are warned against ‘back-chat’, hence the phrase ‘talking back’ implies a sense of rebellion or challenge to figures of authority. However, children might also be cautioned to ‘not speak until you’re spoken to’, underscoring an alternative interpretation. For ‘talking back’ suggests a response; one can only engage in a process of ‘talking back’ after being addressed in some manner, after being brought into being as a subject by a prior discursive agency.1 Finally, ‘talking back’ also has connotations of historicity; there has been a preceding utterance or voicing that is being answered. I propose that the proliferation of contemporary fiction set in the Victorian era is preoccupied with these multiple implications of ‘talking back’. Neo-Victorian fiction suggests that there is a palpable desire to respond to the Victorians in some way, to answer back to the society and culture of this era.KeywordsNineteenth CenturyGender IdentityFemale MediumAcademic CommentaryContemporary AuthorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.