Cross-Cultural History of Britain and Belgium, 1815–1918

Marysa Demoor is Full Professor Emerita of English Literature and Culture at Ghent University in Belgium, where, since 1995, she has been the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies. She has published widely on Victorian and modernist culture, including the books Marketing the Author: Authorial Personae, Narrative Selves and Self-fashioning (Palgrave, 2004) and The Lure of Illustration in the Nineteenth Century: Picture and Press (Palgrave, 2009).

“Demoor’s monograph is ambitious in covering more than a century of interactions across different cultural spheres. … The book offers plenty of thought-provoking material on the connected cultures of two European countries, based on the author’s original reading of a vast range of materials.” (Daniel Laqua, Victorian Studies, Vol. 66 (4), 2024) “This is a uniquely rich and stimulating study, which is sure to expand the horizons of researchers working in any of the numerous fields with which it engages.” (Adrian Armstrong, BAVS Newsletter, Vol. 24 (1), 2024)“A Cross-Cultural History of Britain and Belgium, 1815-1918 explores the artistic connections and socio-cultural exchanges between the two countries from the Battle of Waterloo to the First World War. In a remarkable count of ten chapters, the book achieves its main objective … . Demoor’s revitalisation of the ‘historical, cultural, economic, and genetic’ (261) links between Britain and continental Europe serves as a timely reminder and celebration of their shared heritage and futures.” (Yimon Lo, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, Vol. 138, 2023) “Cross-Cultural History of Britain and Belgium is particularly interesting. The way in which Demoor brings together death, mud and the birth of an identity is simply fascinating … .” (Marnix Verplancke, the-low-countries.com, August 12, 2022)

• 1. British Identity in Belgian Soil.- 2. Waterloo Visitors: The Immediate Aftermath.- 3. The Fiction of Belgium.- 4. The Allure of the Middle Ages: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood meets Jan van Eyck.- 5. A Royal Example: Creating a European Family.- 6. Surrealist Entanglements.- 7. From Ashes to Soil to Mud.- 8. "There is no art more exciting than English art": Belgo-British Artistic Liaisons, 1890-1919.- 9. Epilogue: The Colour of National Identity.