Victorians like us. Memories, dialogues and trends

Date: 21-23rd november 2012
Venue: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Organiser: ULICES – GI 2

Program

Victorians like us. Memories, dialogues and trends

The Victorian Age  is seen, at a distance of more than a century, as a complex and contradictory period, where matrixes of modernity and  postmodernity can be found. This two-day colloquium aims to draw attention to  the current debates  around that period, namely, but not exclusively, under the designation of neovictorianism, which both  focuses  on  new approaches to a period what was usually contained by the nineteenth century and acknowledges the continuity, in contemporary society, of some of the problems that marked the Victorian Age.

This cultural influence, constantly renewed, is witnessed by successive meetings of researchers and publications with regular issues; moreover, it presents many research avenues for various disciplines, from heritage studies to memory studies, branching out to the press, visual culture, urban studies, museum studies, and to the Empire, a structuring and inextricable aspect of the Victorian Age. Such current scientific production stems, in part, from the development of Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies, which permitted a fresh look at the nineteenth century, highlighting issues not yet addressed by other areas of study. Therefore, new, non-hegemonic approaches provide many research opportunities and a renewed space for critical production, allowing for a creative dialogue on Victorianism.

This initiative, whose first edition will take place from the 21st to 23rd of November 2012 in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, proposes to bring together Portuguese and foreign researchers, including those who have long been dedicated to this field of study, as well as the more recently arrived to the topics that relate to Victorianism. The goal is that these dialogues will have continuity in the future.