Chapter 11 Fake News from Nowhere: William Morris, Steampunk and Postmodern History

In: Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism
Author:
Martin A. Danahay
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Type:
Chapter
Pages:
288–313
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004688353_013

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Abstract

William Morris’s News from Nowhere (1890) was a retrofuturist fantasy in which a Utopian England created after a revolution looks suspiciously like an idealized vision of an agrarian Medieval past. Morris looked back to the Medieval period to imagine how Victorian society might be reformed. Steampunk similarly looks back to the Victorian Era to create a retrofuturist vision of an alternative history. Both Morris and steampunk use “fake” histories to critique present values. These strategies echo postmodern critiques of history. The recent prevalence of “fake news” raises troubling questions about such alternative histories as another way in which contemporary digital media can be used to distort reality. Whilst steampunk looks to the Victorian Era as a point of stability in the face of social upheaval caused by new digital media, the recourse to fake history also contributes to the subversion of references to a shared reality.

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Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism

Re-appropriating the Victorian and Medieval Pasts

Series:  Neo-Victorian Series, Volume: 9 and  Neo-Victorian Series Online, Volume: 9
Cover Neo-Victorianism and Medievalism
E-Book ISBN:
9789004688353
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
17 Apr 2024

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