Bodies and Things: Victorian Literature and the Matter of Culture

A One-Day Conference at the University of Oxford, 27 September 2008


The question of materiality has a special affinity with Victorian texts. Notoriously full of the rich trappings of material culture, novels, poems and plays from the period approach the physical world with both fascination and anxiety. Recent critical developments such as the emergence of thing theory have challenged the terms on which the material world can be encountered in literature and Victorian texts in particular. But how do these new theories account for the question of the human body? This conference aims to explore how contemporary notions of the physical self affected the relationship the Victorians had with the material world. Could these encounters help to illuminate the ways in which bodies and things were thought about and understood in the period? Plenary Speakers: Isobel Armstrong, Cora Kaplan, Elaine Freedgood For further queries please contact: elbodies@herald.ox.ac.uk		Conference Organisers: Rose Dunleavy and Katharina Boehm