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Reanimating the Zombies of (Nineteenth-Century) London in Victorian Undead

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Deviance in Neo-Victorian Culture

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Abstract

The graphic novel Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies! (2010), written by Ian Edginton, illustrated by Davide Fabbri and set in London, is an example of neo-Victorian cultural and historical rewriting of the past: in an alternative late nineteenth-century (the story is set in 1898) London is invaded by a horde of ravenous zombies, against which Sherlock Holmes and Watson fight in order to save the British Empire. Whereas the depiction of zombies as social outcasts and racial aliens in Victorian Undead replicates Conan Doyle’s retracing of crimes as coming from the socially ‘deviant’ representatives of lower classes and colonial aliens, at the same time the image of Victorian zombies ravaging London streets reflects the impact that contemporary perceptions of urban of violence have on the re-visioning of the Victorian age. This chapter will also include references to psychogeographic studies, and to Iain Sinclair’s White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, read in light of the issues raised in Victorian Undead.

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  1. University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy

    Saverio Tomaiuolo

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  1. Saverio Tomaiuolo
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Tomaiuolo, S. (2018). Reanimating the Zombies of (Nineteenth-Century) London in Victorian Undead. In: Deviance in Neo-Victorian Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96950-3_4

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