Neo-Victorian Victoria(s) on Screen

In this chapter, Friars and DeMerchant explore neo-Victorian representations of Queen Victoria on film from 1913–2019, with a focused analysis of two films that attempt to cover major periods of Victoria’s life: The Young Victoria (2009) and Victoria & Abdul (2017). In neo-Victorian representations of the monarch on film, writers and directors attempt to centralise Victoria’s personhood, purporting to give her a voice through representations of her thoughts, feelings, and independent actions; however, this chapter contends that in “recovering” Queen Victoria’s story and representing the elements of her life that endear her to contemporary audiences, creators craft their own versions of the monarch that deploy her iconic image for their own ends. By choosing how and when to adapt Victoria’s life, writers and directors cement Victoria’s status as an unknowable figurehead representative of an age and a nationalist ideology. Neo-Victorian film adaptations of Queen Victoria’s life reflect a nationalist tradition prevalent in the heritage film genre and especially significant in over a century of representing Queen Victoria on-screen. With her image and aspects of her biography reworked and adapted to various ideological ends, the social implications of representing Queen Victoria are hugely significant.