Is Steampunk Neo-Victorian?

Steampunk in its origin drew upon the history, literature, and material culture of the British Victorian Era. Novels such as The Difference Engine (1990) by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson and the “Burton and Swinburne” (2010–2012) series by Mark Hodder rework Victorian literary and historical figures and set their narratives within an alternative British Empire. In material culture steampunk practitioners refashion Victorian objects fused with modern technology. The issues of race, gender, nostalgia, and empire in neo-Victorian texts that are set in the British Victorian period are problematic for both steampunk practitioners and critics. Many steampunk novels now eschew the British Victorian period as a setting as they counter the Anglocentric and colonialist definition of both neo-Victorianism and steampunk, while others seek to undermine the restrictive gender binaries of the period. Novels by Ken Lui incorporate the technology and history of East Asia and the Pacific islands, while Nisi Shawl’s Everfair (2016) is set in the Belgian Congo. Gail Carriger’s Young Adult series of steampunk novels critique Victorian gender ideologies. By pushing the boundaries of both location and history steampunk novels make defining steampunk as neo-Victorian contentious and add another dimension to the long debate on how to define it as a genre.