Article

'The Steam Arm': Proto-Steampunk Themes in a Victorian Popular Song

Details

Citation

Blair K (2010) 'The Steam Arm': Proto-Steampunk Themes in a Victorian Popular Song. Neo-Victorian Studies, 3 (1), pp. 196-207. http://www.neovictorianstudies.com/

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.

Keywords
music-hall; prosthesis; proto-steampunk; song; steam; steampunk; technology

Journal
Neo-Victorian Studies: Volume 3, Issue 1

StatusPublished
Publication date31/12/2010
Publication date online2010
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/13029
PublisherSwansea University
Publisher URLhttp://www.neovictorianstudies.com/
ISSN1757-9481

People (1)

Professor Kirstie Blair

Professor Kirstie Blair

Dean of Faculty of Arts and Humanities, AH Management and Support Team

Files (1)