It is not as silly as it sounds. Victorian historical romances are exactly as they titled, they are romance stories set in Victorian England, but are written by modern authors and tend to feature modern sensibilities, such as the right to choices, agency for women, the right to work, but still have aspects of the period such as passivity, manners and gender responsibilities. Urban fantasy are stories set in distinctly urban locales that incorporate the presence of supernatural forces. They also tend to feature strong female leads, moralistic messages and evoke the essence of city life.
The Victorian era was actually the period of the emergence of city literature, with great works by Charles Dickens that captured the new industrial London. It was a period too when superstitious beliefs and the beginning of science-fiction with Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ and Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.’ It was a period that saw much of its literature immersed into the urban. This is a central concern of urban fantasy, and with the suggested supernatural interactions into the city that highlight the anxiety and fear present in the modern city, as captured beautifully in Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,’ it is unsurprising that contemporary authors are still so captivated with using this as a setting.
As such a new mash-up genre has emerged that is not yet named but is basically ‘Historical Victorian Urban Fantasy Romance’ genre – terrible name but a descriptive working title. Key authors in this field have been C. J. Archer with her series ‘Glass and Steele,’ and ‘The Ministry of Curiosities.’ Both feature strong female leads that must navigate through the streets of London on a series of adventures, with magics and supernatural forces surrounding them. Another is Colleen Gleason’s series ‘The Gardella Vampire Hunters,’ which focuses on Victoria, the most recent hunter called to hunt the vampires of London and Europe.
This new genre deserves further discussion and a closer examination.
Thanks for bringing up this idea! I saw this movie "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", another of such mash up fiction. I absolutely enjoyed the film. It's interesting to see how such Victorian canonical texts constituting primed-up characters are usually mashed up with supernatural creatures. Also, you have strong female leads taking the front pitch against the invasion of supernatural creatures, so you have a feminist undertone to it. – Azira101phale6 years ago
Analyse and inform why there is such a success in the main characters who are usually supposed to be the "good" guys, but it tends to be better when they have their own flaws as well. Old fiction books and television shows tended to portray the "perfect" protagonist with all virtues. Now, there seems to be more success when it’s not always black or white ("bad" vs. "good")
Can you give some examples please? – SaraiMW6 years ago
Maybe its because the perfect protagonist doesn't provide any tension. In order to generate obstacles, and having a character who is perfect won't provide this. – vmainella6 years ago
Rick from Rick and Morty is a good example of this. Despite his negative qualities he and at times abusive treatment of his family he truly cares about them. In a lot of ways that is one the reasons why he is the Rickest Rick because he has not completely stopped caring about his family. – Blackcat1306 years ago
In general, all characters have flaws - even the characters that are deemed as "good" guys. Well developed characters just have more development as a whole and thus more development to their flaws. Some examples to multidimensional protagonists are Deadpool and Batman - both characters have defining traits that make them heroic and flawed. For this topic, it would help having an example of a "black and white" protagonist to compare or juxtapose against a "gray" protagonist. – jay6 years ago
Fine idea, but it needs a sharper thesis. Compare modern day villains to older, mustache twirly ones? There was a good video essay on Wisecrack about this recently, about the need for morally complex villians in a more morally complex age. Article should at least touch on the 90's antihero architype. Major problem is idea is too general, needs either a modern focus or a historical focus. – ecoriell16 years ago
I am very interested in writing about how punk rock and literature intersect. I feel like both are mediums where its artists continually question the answer. I think about literary characters that are punk rock. For me the brooding indignation of Byron’s manfred is very punk rock because he tries to forge his own path despite the offered help of others. Expatriates like Hemingway’s Fredric Henry don’t just blindly follow orders or fight for the sake of fighting, but question why there is fighting to begin with.
Don't forget to either consider this through the lens of an applied reading, ie. applying the emerged concepts of 'punk rock' to previous literature; or perhaps more interestingly look at where 'punk rock' has drawn its themes and characteristics from previous authors/artists that challenged social norms.
But yes I agree this could be a lot of fun. – SaraiMW6 years ago
You definitely need a definition of "punk rock" here to frame your discussion: are you discussing music? Punk style? Punk ideology (how would you delineate this?)? Maybe bleed into cyberpunk? Either way, fun stuff! – Heather Lambert6 years ago
Analyse Brandon Sanderson’s laws of magic and talk about their growing popularity among modern fantasy literature. Contrast his laws of magic with other stories that feature magic (Harry Potter, LOTR, the Inheritance Cycle) and consider the pros and cons of having a "hard" or "soft" system of magic.
Boredom is invariably portrayed in both film and literature as something that is painful or to be avoided at all costs. Are there any positive portrayals of boredom? What is it about boredom that hurts us so much? Is there something useful in being bored and, if so, how would that be portrayed and made entertaining to a reader or cinema goer?
Hmm, this is an interesting topic that is not typically discussed. When describing the term boredom, you need to provide a working definition to avoid is misconception as melancholy, depression, etc. I think this is a pretty interesting topic...I hope someone does take this! You have provided some insight, but also enough room for vast expansion and explication of a "mood" not discussed in a manner isolated from a possible state of depression, grief, mood disorder, etc.
– danielle5776 years ago
Good points. Thanks. I definitely had in mind something distinct from mental states of depression, grief, etc., I think whoever took on this article would have to navigate both carefully and sensitively the conflation of boredom with depictions of melancholy. Then again, would these types of depiction be all that different? I'm not sure. Maybe there's something to explore there. Personally, I would lean toward exploring positive representations of boredom. The only person I've read that approaches this is David Foster Wallace in 'The Pale King'. – JM6 years ago
Just reading this makes me realize that I've seen people act bored in a movie or TV show and not really thought about it. How it matters to the development of a story might be interesting or even if there have been changes in how it is presented over time. – Joseph Cernik6 years ago
In honor of this month of spooky stories here’s a little topic for fun.
What is the best type of spooky story? – Is it the thriller that makes your skin crawl, or is it the bloody killer that seems unstoppable, or is it the monster that appears making you jump in your seat? What makes a spooky story effective? Are visual narratives (film and television) better at evoking fright or are written narratives (short stories and novels)? What are the best all time scary stories in film and novel form?
I’m sure you could turn this into an interesting article, even just engaging in a discussion between the different types of scary stories (thriller vs horror) or even by examining the different trends in scary films (stalker vs serial killer).
But I thought perhaps in the comments we could also add our favourite Halloween scary stories….
I love this idea. Scary stories are so different depending the the on person, culture, and taste in films/books/television. – Sean Gadus6 years ago
As more young adults surpass their teens and move into their early adult lives, the books that they are reading are not moving with them. YA books have become universally loved by age ranges of all kinds, striking a chord in the heartstrings of people of all ages. That’s what makes it so great. However, in a genre that is specifically titled "Young Adult", it poses the question: What defines the young adult genre? Is it the age of the protagonist or the backdrop of the story or is it simply just a marketing tactic that doesn’t have much substance to it at all?
Teen fiction is such a wide, diverse genre at this point that I'm not sure where we would draw the line. Is Harry Potter out? Should adults not read The Outsiders? What about more contemporary books like The Hate U Give? I think the question is not about the demographic age but the content of the novels themselves. At 21, I am beyond Twilight and most YA chicklit, but I am not beyond novels with compelling and diverse voices like The Hate U Give or novels that deal with mental illness like All the Bright Places. I think the more interesting question (and article) is why we keep reading teen fiction, not when we should stop. What is present in current YA fiction that attracts older readers and keeps them in that genre? What could adult fiction learn from this? – jillianlaw6 years ago
It would be interesting to make this into a meditation about what qualifies as a teen fiction and if we can use such a label. What qualifies a Y/A book, is it just the presence of a teen protagonist, is it the setting, is it the surrounding actions? Define teen reads and provide us with examples. Oh and naturally throw in some examples that you feel toe the line or stretch the boundaries of the genre! Keep up the thinking! – huntingkat186 years ago
I think it would be interesting to see an argument whether the features within a book classify it as a YA product or if the genre is just aimed towards a YA audience. Maybe you could highlight similar features in a few books as well as researching their target audiences? – AnnaliseAtua6 years ago
I think this would make for a fantastic article as there are so many different angles one could come as it from. Genre as a marketing tool, the need for genres in the first place, speculations as to why adults choose to read YA over adult fiction and why this particular genre has gained such popularity in recent years (say, since Harry Potter/Twilight phenomenon) – taraeast886 years ago
I reckon this would be a really interesting topic to explore the emotional and intellectual parallels between 'Young Adults' and 'Adults' more generally—whatever those definitions might meant or where the one becomes the other is blurry—by showing that the success of certain YA novels share commonalities with successful, often moving, 'adult novels'. The only worry I'd have about writing an article that attempts to define what the YA genre is is that it could turn into a semantic and terminological argument of classification rather than one that explores literature and the readers of that literature. Funnily, even if the article took such a tact and attempts to define the YA genre by its location, characters, setting, etc., it could be argued that the resultant attributes that define YA literature could be used just as appropriately to characterise most 'Adult Literature' (i.e., normal adult books, not pornographic literature—that's a whole other article). Like: Norwegian Wood, The Death House, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for instance. Which is, of course, amazing and highlights that, perhaps, what defines great YA novels defines great literature more generally. [A little late to the party here, but has this topic been written on yet?] – JM6 years ago
In the book the Shack by William P Young, Mack has major trauma after his youngest daughter is murdered during a camping trip. The author uses Spirituality as the main force to help Mack overcome his guilt and to help him work through his grief and trauma. Explore how spirituality is used in the book/film.
