Neo-Victorian Cannibalism
A Theory of Contemporary Adaptations
Authors: Ho, Tammy Lai-Ming
Free Preview- Examines themes of cannibalism in Victorian and neo-Victorian criticism and literature
- Explores definitive aspects of neo-Victorian fiction including grotesque and gothic influences
- Provides a framework for understanding the origins of neo-Victorian fiction
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- About this book
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This Pivot examines a body of contemporary neo-Victorian novels whose uneasy relationship with the past can be theorised in terms of aggressive eating, including cannibalism. Not only is the imagery of eating repeatedly used by critics to comprehend neo-Victorian literature, the theme of cannibalism itself also appears overtly or implicitly in a number of the novels and their Victorian prototypes, thereby mirroring the cannibalistic relationship between the contemporary and the Victorian. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho argues that aggressive eating or cannibalism can be seen as a pathological and defining characteristic of neo-Victorian fiction, demonstrating how cannibalism provides a framework for understanding the genre’s origin, its conflicted, ambivalent and violent relationship with its Victorian predecessors and the grotesque and gothic effects that it generates in its fiction.
- About the authors
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Tammy Lai-Ming Ho is Associate Professor of English, Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the founding co-editor of the Hong Kong-based international publication, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and an editor of Hong Kong Studies, the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to Hong Kong.
- Reviews
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“Neo-Victorian Cannibalism is … an appreciated and extremely well-researched new take on neo-Victorian literature, which might be of use for anyone studying neo-Victorian fiction, adaptation theory, or any of the novels analyzed in the book.” (Krisztina Jilling, Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, Vol. 26 (2), 2020)
- Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Introduction: Neo-Victorian Cannibalism
Pages 1-5
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Contesting (Post-)colonialism: Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea and Three Neo-Victorian Rejoinders
Pages 7-54
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Dickens: The Cannibal Cannibalised
Pages 55-87
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Stoker and Neo-Draculas
Pages 89-123
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Coda: Victorian Memes
Pages 125-129
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Neo-Victorian Cannibalism
- Book Subtitle
- A Theory of Contemporary Adaptations
- Authors
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- Tammy Lai-Ming Ho
- Copyright
- 2019
- Publisher
- Palgrave Pivot
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-02559-5
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-02559-5
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-02558-8
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VIII, 150
- Topics