Steampunk Technologies of Gender: Deryn Sharp’s Nonbinary Gender Identity in Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan Series

Abstract

As a discipline, Victorian studies has a certain fondness for pointing out the myriad connections between the nineteenth century and our own time. We do so not only to make the vital case for the relevance of our work to current cultural concerns, but also to bring into relief how twentieth- and twenty-first-century cultures have understood themselves in relation to the Victorian. As literary genres overtly concerned with understanding and reimagining nineteenth-century literary culture, neo-Victorian fiction and, in particular, steampunk fiction are central nodes for this sort of cultural and critical work. First named by K. W. Jeter in 1987,1 steampunk, a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy in which alternate histories of the nineteenth century dramatically reshape the past, present, and future, has become increasingly popular in mainstream culture as both a literary genre and a fan subculture, to the point that one can now purchase mass-produced steampunk costumes from most American party shops. As an alternate history genre, steampunk literature builds its worlds by answering the “what if?” question of science fiction and fantasy by tweaking nineteenth-century history and literature and engaging with cultural discourses of the day.