Janus-Faced Neo-Victorianism in Penny Dreadful: to the Nineteenth Century and Beyond (All the Way Back to the Medieval)

Marie-Luise Kohlke

Jump to Content

Chapter 5 Janus-Faced Neo-Victorianism in Penny Dreadful: to the Nineteenth Century and Beyond (All the Way Back to the Medieval)

In: Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism

Author:

Marie-Luise Kohlke

Marie-Luise Kohlke
Search for other papers by Marie-Luise Kohlke in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 139–176

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004688353_007

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

This chapter explores how John Logan’s Gothic television series Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) deploys various medieval motifs to reimagine the nineteenth-century fin-de-siècle on screen. Adapting Andrew B. R. Elliott’s analysis of the repurposing of the Middle Ages in mass media, I trace the ideological implications of the amalgamation of the neo-Victorian and neomedieval in a postmodern product for mass consumption. On the basis of the show’s encoded medievalism, introduced through tropes of witchcraft and spiritualism, monster-avengers, and allusions to female mysticism, I argue that both “the medieval” and “the Victorian” as specific historical referents mutate into amorphous floating signifiers of generalized attitudes toward the past as barbaric and backward. Penny Dreadful draws not only on the Middle Ages but also on nineteenth-century remediations of the earlier period, thus accentuating the show’s Gothic narrative and constructing the Victorian fin-de-siècle as a new “Dark Age”, particularly inimical to women.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004688353/BP000013.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism

Re-appropriating the Victorian and Medieval Pasts

Series: Neo-Victorian Series, Volume: 9 and Neo-Victorian Series Online, Volume: 9

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004688353

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 17 Apr 2024

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	233	81	10
Full Text Views	8	2	0
PDF Views & Downloads	16	4	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 5 Janus-Faced Neo-Victorianism in Penny Dreadful: to the Nineteenth Century and Beyond (All the Way Back to the Medieval)

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism

Re-appropriating the Victorian and Medieval Pasts

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics