The Value of Things after the V21 Manifesto

Abstract

In March 2015, the collective known as V21, or Victorian Studies for the 21st century, published a manifesto comprised of ten theses. The leading thesis stated that “Victorian Studies has fallen prey to positivist historicism: a mode of inquiry that aims to do little more than exhaustively describe, preserve, and display the past” (“Manifesto”). The manifesto called for a move toward presentism and a renewed attention to aesthetic form and formalism. Since then, Victorian scholars working in the areas of material culture and thing theory have found themselves in the crosshairs of such debates, seemingly accused of doing exactly what the V21 manifesto claims is stagnating Victorian studies. Is there a pathway forward for material culture scholars, historicists, and thing theorists in Victorian studies?