Temporality and Progress in Victorian Literature by Ruth M. M... - 9781399532846

Edinburgh University Press

Temporality and Progress in Victorian LiteratureAuthor(s): Ruth M. McAdams\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Edinburgh University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Edinburgh University Press\nISBN-13: 9781399532846, 978-1399532846\nSynopsis\nTemporality and Progress in Victorian Literature argues that Victorian literature uses traces of a lingering past to theorize time as non-progressive and discontinuous. For decades, the dominant view in Victorian studies has been that the periods economic, political, and intellectual developments led to a broad sense that time was defined by continuous improvementand that this masternarrative of progress was evident across Victorian writings. McAdams contributes to a broader scholarly challenge of this thesis by considering how the irregular life-cycles of individuals and objects undermine Victorian progress. Unfashionable waistcoats, aging courtesans, and remembered conversations in Victorian literature instead reveal numerous alternative conceptions .