Hating Victorian Studies Properly

What does Victorian studies look like from the vantage point of Pan-African anticolonialism? Writers like W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, C. L. R. James, and others frequently turned to Victorian texts in formulating their critiques of empire and race. And yet these thinkers have been almost completely overlooked by the field of Victorian studies. This essay argues for a return to Saidian contrapuntal reading as a way to introduce Pan-Africanism into the itinerary of the Victorian century.