Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Historicism, Collaboration and Digital Editing

Abstract

AbstractThis paper forms part of a Literature Compass cluster of articles which examines the current state of Victorian Literary Studies and future directions. This group of four essays was originally commissioned by Francis O’Gorman (University of Leeds), who also provides an introduction to the cluster.The full cluster is made up of the following articles:‘Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Introduction’, Francis O’Gorman, Literature Compass 4 (2007), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2007.00467.x.‘Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Revising the Canon, Extending Cultural Boundaries, and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity’, Joanne Shattock, Literature Compass 4 (2007), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2007.00468.x.‘Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? –“Interesting Times” and the Lesson of “A Corner in Lightning”’, David Amigoni, Literature Compass 4 (2007), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2007.00469.x.‘Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Historicism, Collaboration and Digital Editing’, Valerie Sanders, Literature Compass 4 (2007), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2007.00470.x.‘Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Historicism and Hospitality’, John Bowen, Literature Compass 4 (2007), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2007.00471.x.***This essay argues that, while research in Victorian Literary Studies remains rich and vibrant, it faces several types of pressure in the immediate future. These range from undergraduate resistance to reading long novels, to the funding councils’ apparent preference for collaborative, interdisciplinary or large editorial projects, and proposed changes such as the Block Grants Partnership Scheme. The decline of ‘feminist’ in favour of ‘gendered’ critical approaches, and preference for generic and cultural issues over single author studies, mark a notable change of approach in the last few years. Although continuing loyalty towards historicism, and rejection of the more abstract literary theories of the 1990s, suggest that Victorian literary studies remains confident of its own direction in the next five years, the essay closes with a hope that the purely ‘literary’ analysis will not disappear for ever.