When we think of the Victorian era, images of shrouded piano legs, dismal factories and smoggy streets often come to mind. However, the 19th century has been rediscovered in recent years as the home of something quite different: bold utopian visions of the future. William Morris’ great literary utopia News from Nowhere, first published in 1890, is an interesting case study in this context. Morris’ text is the point of departure for a number of recent returns to Victorian utopianism, including Sarah Woods’ updated radio adaptation of News from Nowhere (2016) and the BBC’s historical reality television series The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts (2019). In this article, I analyse these Morris-inspired texts with the aim of exploring the place of old visions of the future in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Building on previous work in neo-Victorian studies and utopian studies, the claim is made that the return to 19th-century dreams is a plural phenomenon that has a number of divergent effects. More specifically, neo-Victorian utopianism can function to demonstrate the obsolescence of old visions of utopia, prompt a longing for the clarity and radicality of the utopias of the Victorian moment, or encourage a process of rejuvenating the utopian impulse in the present via a detour through the past.

当我们想到维多利亚时代时，常常会想到笼罩着钢琴脚，惨淡的工厂和烟雾弥漫的街道的图像。但是，近年来，人们重新发现了19世纪，这是一个完全不同的地方：对未来的大胆乌托邦式愿景。威廉·莫里斯（William Morris）于1890年首次出版的伟大的文学乌托邦新闻《无处来》是一个有趣的案例研究。莫里斯（Morris）的文字是维多利亚女王时代乌托邦主义近期回归的出发点，包括莎拉·伍兹（Sarah Woods）更新的广播改编自《无处来的新闻》（2016）和英国广播公司的历史现实电视连续剧《维多利亚时代的工艺美术家》（2019）。在本文中，我将分析这些受莫里斯启发的文本，以期探索未来的旧视野在当代文化想象中的地位。在新维多利亚主义研究和乌托邦研究的先前工作的基础上，有人声称回到19世纪的梦是一种具有多种不同影响的多元现象。更具体地讲，新维多利亚时代的乌托邦主义可以发挥作用，以证明乌托邦的旧观念已经过时，促使人们渴望维多利亚时代乌托邦的清晰和激进，或者鼓励人们通过绕道而恢复目前的乌托邦冲动。过去。