Traversing Trauma and Consuming Perverse Pleasures in the Neo-Victorian Novel Emily Jane Scott This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth September 2014 Abstract This thesis focusses upon evidencing a pervasive contemporary interest in Victorian traumas and corporeal suffering as a means of examining the extent to which this interest manifests itself as a form of ‘perverse nostalgia’ - which proffers the ‘degraded’ past as a seeming nostrum for the taboo or prurient interests of a contemporary readership - within the neo-Victorian novel. Recognising perverse nostalgia as a distinct mode through which the neo-Victorian engages with the Victorian past while also reflecting upon and exploring a contemporary fascination with trauma and the wounded or suffering body, the forthcoming discussion reveals trauma itself to have become intertwined with a myriad of seemingly diffuse – but in fact intrinsically related – contemporary consumption practices relating to or featuring the corporeal; the erotic, or pornographic; the visual; and historical (trauma) ‘tourism’ and exploration, all of which feature as modes of consumer-centred exoticism in the neo-Victorian novel. This revelation enables – and indeed compels – an assessment of the motivations for, and implications of, the exoticisation of historical traumas. Contributing an interdisciplinary perspective to a currently underexplored area in the field of neo-Victorian studies, and proffering an approach to the function of nostalgia in the neo-Victorian novel which departs from its traditional deployment and the negative connotations which frequently accompany the concept, this thesis examines the specific ways in which representations of historical traumas both facilitate and frustrate the exoticist desires of the reader, simultaneously working to summon and eschew their engagement with the ‘exoticised’ Victorian past. In doing so, this project illuminates how the neo-Victorian novel (or, more specifically, a set of texts which operate in critical and often subversive ‘obeisance’ to the late-Victorian adventure novel, and which I have termed the ‘neo- adventure’ novel) ‘imports’ contemporary anxieties, preoccupations, and concerns to its pages while representationally ‘exporting’ them into different historical moments, locations, and scenarios in the nineteenth-century. In this way, the ‘neo-adventure’ novel enables an exploration of prohibited, antithetic, or contentious subjects at a reassuring temporal remove, revealing ambiguities and problematic perspectives while also promoting consideration of the moral and ethical implications inherent to the literary appropriation of historically-situated traumatic representations themselves. i Table of Contents Abstract p.i Author’s declaration p.v Acknowledgements p.vi Dissemination p.vii Introduction p.1 - ‘10 truly bizarre Victorian deaths’: Evidencing a contemporary p.1 fascination with Victorian traumas Neo-Victorian Trauma: Context, Motivations, and Ethical p.8 Considerations - Trauma Theory and Literature: An overview of key concepts, p.8 theorists, and issues - Trauma and its function in the neo-Victorian novel: An overview p.13 Contextualising an approach towards Perverse Nostalgia and p.24 Exoticism in the Neo-Victorian Novel - The contentious issue of neo-Victorian nostalgia p.24 - Neo-Victorian ‘travelling’: Exotic nostalgia and the ‘neo-Adventure p.29 novel’ Tourism, Consumerism, and the Fetishisation of Historical p.34 Traumas - (Thana)Tourists of History p.34 - Souvenirs and (narrative) fetishism p.39 - Locating the perverse fascinations of neo-Victorianism: A chapter p.42 overview Chapter One - ‘Like a tattoo, on dead skin’: Corporeality, p.46 False Flesh and the Eroticisation of Somatic Traumas in Belinda Starling’s The Journal of Dora Damage - Perverse nostalgia, neo-Victorian pornography and eroticised p.55 ‘otherness’ - ‘False Flesh’: ‘Anatomising’ the neo-Victorian body p.65 - Visuality, the ‘gaze’, and seeking the traumatic corruption of p.71 ‘innocence’ - ‘I kiss his neck wound, which has almost gone’: The fetishisation, p.76 eroticisation, and exploitation of historical wounds and scars - ‘de humanis corporis fabrica’: The somatic focus of the neo-Victorian p.81 re-inscriptive impulse - Conclusion: or, ‘Hyperion to a satyr; antidote to a poison’ p.85 ii Chapter Two – ‘As if the stories would heal the crew’s p.87 wounds and furies’: ‘Urgent Flesh’, Visuality, and Traumatic Representation in Andrea Barrett’s The Voyage of the Narwhal - Contextualising Victorian Arctic Exploration Narratives p.90 - Neo-Victorian returns to Victorian Arctic Exploration p.92 - ‘Vicarious travellers […] conjuring up a generic exotic land’: p.97 Neo-Victorian vicarious experience - ‘Urgent flesh’: ‘Embodying’ traumatic memories p.104 - ‘The thing I’ve hated most is being looked at’: Transcending p.109 exploitative embodiment - Conclusion: or, being ‘drawn by the chaos, drawn by the wounds’ p.119 Chapter Three – ‘Painfully funny’: Exploring the Hybridization p.122 of Satire and Violence in Matthew Kneale’s English Passengers - Taking laughter seriously: A (brief) introduction to the relationship p.129 between postcolonial literature, humour and (re)presenting Aboriginal history - Global colonial traumas and the problematic relationship between p.132 proximity and responsibility - Hybridity, authenticity and ‘postcolonial celebrity’ p.140 - ‘Cutting and playing’ with the neo-Victorian body: ‘Marketing’ the p.151 Aborigines, consuming the ‘Other’ - Fixing ‘broken fellows’: Corporeal confrontations with p.163 historical injustice - Conclusion: or, ‘liberating laughter’ p.165 Chapter Four – ‘We were again on the trail of cannibals’: p.167 Consuming Trauma and Frustrating Exoticism in Robert Edric’s The Book of the Heathen - Neo-Victorian returns to the traumatic history of the Congo Free State p.169 - The symptomology of trauma: Contagion and transmission p.176 - Negating proximity, frustrating exoticism p.179 - Reader as spectator: Visuality, somatic suffering and ‘exoticised’ p.182 traumas - ‘They were telling me to go back, not to look, to close my eyes’: p.187 Eroticised traumas and promoting readerly introspection - Conclusion: or, ‘the abnormalities and not the divinities of men p.194 that have fascinated me’ Conclusions – “We’re not graverobbers,” he said. “Nor p.196 resurrection men. […] And what would we learn from violating them?” Beyond the borders of neo-Victorian studies: A summation of p.198 implications, impact, and future areas for consideration raised by this study iii - A productive approach towards nostalgia p.198 - A journey of ethical introspection p.200 - Areas for future research p.201 Bibliography p.203 Annex – Ethical approval p.228 iv Author’s Declaration Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Word count – 79,757 words v Acknowledgements I would like to express my very great appreciation to all the people who have supported me during the process of creating this thesis. I would first like to extend my thanks to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth for generously funding my research and for the host of opportunities and experiences afforded to me during my studies. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at the University of Portsmouth who have supported me in my research, particularly Dr Joanna Warson and Dr Jon Evans for your practical advice and reassurances, as well as to Dr Jane Ford for her insights. I extend my warmest and sincerest thanks to my supervisor, Doctor Elodie Rousselot, for her time, patience, and guidance throughout the duration of this project, and for being a consistent source of support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr Patricia Pulham for introducing me to the field of Neo-Victorian Studies while I was working towards my Masters degree and subsequently inspiring me to persue this research, and for her invaluable support and assistance in the final stages of completing this thesis. I extend eternal gratitude to my enthusiastic and thorough volunteer proof-readers for selflessly giving up their time and for their excellent, useful, and often humorous feedback and thoughts: to Nick (my most tireless proof-reader), Keith Scott, Mr William Frewin, Jamie Rodwell, and Janet Dryer. You are all excellent friends and human beings. Very special thanks are owed to my family for their selfless support, encouragement, and understanding: to my Dad, Nick, for his unfailing alacrity with regards to reading and discussing my work, and for his wonderful ideas and suggestions; to my Mum, for always being on the end of the phone when I needed her advice and level-headed perspective; and to my Nana and Grandad, for their boundless encouragement and constant, unfaltering assurances that I could achieve anything if I put my mind to it. My parents-in-law, Sue and Keith, are also deserving of thanks for their patience, as well as for facilitating a somewhat spontaneous trip to attend a pertinent conference in New York at which new ideas were formed and some old ones were crystalized. To my peerless friends I also offer my sincerest gratitude: to Taylor, for facing the final year with me in the Postgraduate Office, and for the