Review of We, the 'Other Victorians': Considering the Heritage of 19th-Century Thought, Ed. Silvia Caporale Bizzini

Abstract

This is a review of "We, the 'Other Victorians': Considering the Heritage of 19th-Century Thought," a volume edited by Silvia Caporale Bizzini (Alicante, Spain: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante, 2003. 215 p.). The volume sets out to read a number of contemporary cultural phenomena through the distorting lens of their analogues or forerunners in the nineteenth century, and on the whole manages to do it quite admirably. In this sense, it will be of interest not just to cultural critics working on issues such as modernity, consumerism, drugs, body technology, historical fiction and metafiction, etc.: it is also an interesting contribution to the postmodern critical genre of "retroactive rereading".

Keywords: Victorianism, Retrospection, Cultural studies, British culture, Cultural critique, Modernity,