SOURCE: “Difference Engines and Other Infernal Devices: History According to Steampunk,” in Extrapolation, Vol. 40, No. 3, Fall, 1999, pp. 244-54.

In the following essay, Hantke examines a subgenre of science fiction called “steampunk,” which rewrites and reinterprets events in the Victorian period.

In the introduction to The Other Victorians, Steven Marcus states that “as we try to understand the past we try to understand ourselves in relation to the past” (xix). Marcus's words, as much as they provide a rationale for historiography in general, are particularly pertinent to the fascination that the Victorian period has for contemporary audiences. We recognize ourselves in a play of similarity and difference, or, as Marcus puts it, the Victorians' “otherness connects them to us,” though, he cautions, “connection is nevertheless not identity.” While Marcus allows for historical breakthroughs, that is, for moments of radical change, he still considers Victorianism the first half of the...