“In Which Parasols Prove Useful”:

Neo-Victorian Rewriting of Victorian Materiality

Abstract

This article argues that Neo-Victorian and Steampunk literatures offer a new vision of Victorian materiality that depends not on the presumed oppression of the female form but rather on the usefulness and purpose of everyday items of dress. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age (1995) and Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series (2009-present) present heroines who manipulate the traditional understandings of controversial items such as parasols, veils, gloves, and crinolines to present Victorian women's fashions not as oppressive but rather as subversive and even transgressive of social paradigms.