Abstract
This article introduces an early Victorian popular song, with some preliminary reflections on how it, and indeed similar texts, might be relevant to twentieth and twenty-first century practitioners and critics of steampunk. ‘The Steam Arm' describes a veteran who acquires a prosthetic limb, with disastrous consequences. As a text from the start of the ‘steam age', it reveals the fantasies and anxieties surrounding technological progress in early Victorian literature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 196-207 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Neo-Victorian Studies |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
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Keywords
- steampunk
- prosthesis
- Victorian popular song
- music-hall
Cite this
Blair, K. (2011). 'The steam arm': proto-steampunk themes in a Victorian popular song. Neo-Victorian Studies, 3(1), 196-207.