With its burgeoning interest in materialism, physiology, and the body, Victorian culture can be seen as anticipating contemporary critical formulations of the affect concept. Modern affect theory, in turn, has developed an analytical language and a conceptual toolkit which provide, in Elisha Cohn’s words, a “provocative critical vocabulary and approach for Victorian studies.”
Whereas the “affective turn” has prompted research in various fields within the humanities and social sciences, Victorianists have only recently begun to explore the potential of affect for the study of nineteenth-century literature and culture. As a series of important articles, book chapters, and monographs by Rachel Ablow, Audrey Jaffe, Tara MacDonald, and others demonstrate, however, affect is emerging as one of the most exciting subjects in the field.
This workshop aims to bring Victorian notions of affect and contemporary theorisations of the concept into dialogue with one another. We seek to address a number of related questions: What can an affect-oriented criticism contribute to our understanding of Victorianism and its private, social, and “political emotions” (Martha Nussbaum)? What methodological potential does affect theory have for readings of canonical and non-canonical Victorian writing? Conversely, what can the study of Victorian (con-)texts contribute to the critical vocabulary of affect-based literary and cultural criticism?
