Neo-Victorian Decadence and Degeneration: Mental Disorder, Vulnerability and Resistance in Kate Williams’ The Pleasures of Men

What is it about?

Kate Williams’ The Pleasures of Men (2012) is a neo-Victorian novel which echoes issues of gender violence and traumas from the past. The protagonist, Catherine Sorgeiul, is a woman who suffers from split personality and thinks herself evil. She becomes fascinated with the serial killings of The Man of Crows in 1840. She identifies herself with the killer, but as a sleuth tries to find restoration for the victims described as helpless. This chapter demonstrates how neo-Victorian fiction aims to address issues of violence against women, endorsing the idea that vulnerability and precarity are not only conditions of the Victorian past. The novel’s characters show symptoms of decadence and degeneration in their lack of faith in human progress and in the serial killings of prostitutes which reflect broken psyches and instability. This neo-Victorian novel conveys a social critique of fin-de-siècle concerns in light of Judith Butler and Sarah Bracke’s theories of vulnerability and resistance.

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Photo by wallace Henry on Unsplash

Photo by wallace Henry on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Neo-Victorian literature has become a very popular genre with a wide audience and this chapter puts the emphasis on deviant minds and violence against women that can be hot issues both in the Victorian past and in our contemporary societies.

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