Don't miss my account of what it was like for a first-timer at this summer's #vpfaextremes conference. A very exciting read indeed ;-)
Just to give a flavour of Birkbeck C19th doings at #VPFAExtremes ! @19birkbeck.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social @theprofrog.bsky.social @andrewkingc19.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social
Still buzzing after an amazing #VPFAextremes conference! What a treat to hear so many talented speakers and to present on Hypnotic Gothic alongside Birkbeck pals!
@vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian
BMI building in Birmingham
First time attending a @vpfa.bsky.social event and #VPFAExtremes made it so easy, I almost forgot this was my first full on multi-day conference in two years! Had a lovely time, and I gave my paper today, and it went fine, and people seemed to enjoy it, which is the important stuff. I’ll be back!
Conference programme: 17th Annual Conference of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association. Heights, Depths, and Extremes. The Birmingham & Midland Institute, Birmingham UK. Victorian picture of a group of people confronted by a sea monster
Well, #VPFAExtremes has been wonderful - the height of my summer so far, as ever! I am deeply grateful to be part such a fantastic, extremely warm and collegiate association. Thoroughly enjoyed the last few days - diolch pawb!
The last time I was at the @bmi1854.bsky.social was as a kid playing in a music competition with my brother....this week I was back for the @vpfa.bsky.social Annual Conference! It's been absolutely wonderful; thank you to everyone! #VPFAExtremes
A photograph of the stained glass window in Birmingham Cathedral. The window shows the acesnsion of Christ. By Edward Burne-Jones & William Morris' studio. If you look closely, you can see Morris patterns in the glass panels.
Had such a fab time at #VPFAExtremes (as usual) and met so many lovely people (also as usual). Saw this cool window, too (less usual).
Today's #VPFAExtremes has assembled FIVE (5) whole #Ouida scholars in its hybrid space! A lovely Study Day 2023 re-union with Lorraine Dubuisson, @ouidaite.bsky.social, Crescent Rainwater, & @andrewkingc19.bsky.social ✨️🩷✨️
Peter wakes up and realises that the time travel is a dream. Smith suggests we can understand the text to be a time travel comedy with a didactic message. It is a text situated somewhere between Dickens and Wells, taking parts from didacticism and science fiction #VPFAExtremes
To date, Sarah Alexander is the only scholar to pay any critical attention to this novel - so Smith's research is extremely original! #VPFAExtremes
The final paper of the conference is Hayley Smith discussing Thomas Anstey Guthrie's Tourmalin’s Time Cheques as an early time travel narrative #VPFAExtremes
Our final paper of the Fairy Tales and Magical Creatures panel at #VPFAExtremes is Cecelia Rose, presenting 'A Fishy Tail: Edward Burne-Jones’s The Depths of the Sea (1886)'
Discussing the work of Catherine Wells, mountains and alchemism with Emelyne Godfrey
#VPFAExtremes
Next we have Marijke Vale, who is discussing the fascination with radium's rejuvenating properties that led it to be known as the “elixir of life” #VPFAExtremes
In the final science and imagination panel, Adam Baldwin is talking about tales of Venus. In these stories, the contemporary imperial assumption that other worlds are there to be conquered is subverted #VPFAExtremes
This year's 3rd Sex reading group session @vpfa.bsky.social was om "The Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island" - a remarkable short story that led to really interesting discussion! #vpfaextremes
On one of our final panels at #VPFAExtremes today – Fairy Tales and Magical Creatures – Silvia Storti is getting us started with '"Proof of Thought and Depth of Feeling": Gender, Power and Empire in Anne Thackeray’s Fairy Tales'
A brilliant final keynote from @corinnefowler.bsky.social at @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes. Can't wait to read the book!
read the short story here and let us know if you have any thoughts on it: www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/ten-...
#VPFAExtremes
in the Third Sex Reading group conference session we were discussing Nebedita Sen's Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island. A very poignant commentary on literal, intellectual, cultural, and literary consumption #VPFAExtremes
Such a great keynote. #VPFAExtremes
Fowler says she finds walking a useful methodology because it allows her to situate herself in the landscape and understand why certain places were valued above others #VPFAExtremes
in a fascinating intersection of labour and colonial history, Ghandi visited Lancashire in 1931 to discuss the impact of the Indian boycott of British goods (particularly cotton) on the textile industry #VPFAExtremes
George Loveless was sent to modern day Tazmania for being a Tolpuddle martyr. He was concerned about the brutality of the colonial regime and wrote that it was a good warning about aristocracy possessing unfettered power in the colonies as they do back home #VPFAExtremes
1 example is Charborough Park, owned by MP Drax. His ancestor went to Barbados and built a sugar empire. The wealth from this & compensation for enslaving people affected locals. A toll road was built meaning local people suddenly had to pay to go in that direction #VPFAExtremes
Take a look at Fowler’s book ‘Our Island Stories: Ten Walks through Rural Britain and its Hidden History of Empire’. She has an opium walk through the Lake District and more. It is a useful way of understanding what our colonial histories in this country are #VPFAExtremes
Now for our final keynote of the conference, Corinne Fowler with her talk 'The Impact of Empire on the Countryside, 1837-1901' #VPFAExtremes
Edwardian spy fiction activated the idea of the chivalrous gentleman hero who is loyal to country, class, and kingdom. Ouida sets her spy fiction in the glamorous courtly world of high society and manipulates ideas of powerful men #VPFAExtremes
Ouida anticipates the trope of cosmopolitan clandestine networks. She believed that ‘to the true poet his native land lies wherever what is beautiful can be beloved, or that which is sorrowful needs solace’ #VPFAExtremes
The unprecedented popularity of the podcast Serial is closely linked to the producers’ unconscious debt to the seriality, narrative techniques and framing strategies pioneered by Victorian popular fiction #VPFAExtremes