{"product_id":"steampunk-london-neo-victorian-urban-space-and-popular-transmedia-memory-9781350433908","title":"Steampunk London: Neo-Victorian Urban Space and Popular Transmedia Memory","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracing the genre through fiction, visual art, film and videogames from the 1980s to the present, this book offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between neo-Victorianism, urban spaces and Steampunk. \u003c\/b\u003eCharacterised by its interplay between past and present and its anachronistic retro-speculation, Neo-Victorian-infused Steampunk remixes modern collective memory to produce a re-imagined vision of Victorian London. Investigating how Steampunk's re-calibrated Londons both source from and subvert Victorian discourse about the city, \u003ci\u003eSteampunk \u003c\/i\u003eLondon offers a deeper understanding of how a popular cultural memory of the Victorian past is shaped and transmitted in light of present-day identity politics. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCovering key themes including retrofuturism, gender and sexuality, colonialism and postcolonialism, it considers such ideas as how early Steampunk synthesizes Victorian urban ethnography; how Victorian urban Gothic shapes shared transmedia memory to challenge reactionary, nostalgic meta-narratives; how Steampunk video games mobilize urban space as an immersive storytelling device with cities open to play; and how Steampunk interprets the modern metropolis as an opportunity for feminist and queer agency. Through examination of Victorian-era writers from Charles Dickens to Arthur Conan Doyle, the book digs into works of fiction and media alike, looking at \u003ci\u003eThe Difference Engine, Soulless\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFrom Hell\u003c\/i\u003e, Guy Ritchie's \u003ci\u003eSherlock Holmes\u003c\/i\u003e, cyberpunk classic \u003ci\u003eBlade Runner\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eAssassin's Creed: Syndicate and The Order 1886.\u003c\/i\u003e An important intervention in the study of steampunk, Helena Esser demonstrates how the works explored invite participatory consumption and considers the genre's potential- and failures- to interrogate and challenge our relationship with the Victorian past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHelena Esser \u003c\/b\u003eis an independent scholar based in Germany. She completed her PhD at Birkbeck College in 2020 and has published regularly on steampunk and Neo-Victorianism in journals such as \u003ci\u003eNeo-Victorian Studies\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVictorian Popular Fictions\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHumanities\u003c\/i\u003e. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eOuida\u003c\/i\u003e for the Key Popular Women's Writing series and organizes the Victorian Popular Fiction Associations reading group on 'The Third Sex'.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50903692181778,"sku":"9781350433908","price":131.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_62c04fb4-226e-4ca7-a2f2-a7188c42f9c2.jpg?v=1738503341","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/steampunk-london-neo-victorian-urban-space-and-popular-transmedia-memory-9781350433908","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}