Topic
The City in Steampunk Novels: Vilnius in Andrius Tapinas’s The Hour of the Wolf and Madrid in Eduardo Vaquerizo’s The Dance of Darkness
This paper discusses the representations of Vilnius and Madrid in the first steampunk novels in Lithuania and Spain: Andrius Tapinas’s The Hour of the Wolf (2013) and Eduardo Vaquerizo’s The Dance of Darkness (2005). The selection of these texts is based on the steampunk genre that unites them and on the importance of the city in both works. It has been observed that in the analyzed novels the reimagining of history makes it possible to transform unpleasant historical facts related to place: Lithuania’s dependence on the Russian Empire and the decline of the Spanish Empire.
The mythologization characteristic of steampunk novels makes it possible to create a new urban legend and to view the past more critically. In The Dance of Darkness and The Hour of the Wolf, the atmosphere of the city is revealed through the reinterpretation of real objects and the naming of actual places. The steampunk aesthetic allows the depiction of a different kind of city: Vilnius seen from flying devices and Madrid enveloped in shadows.
In these novels, the reconstructed city opens up new meanings. The texts reveal problems and stereotypes that have persisted from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. The cities themselves become distinctive, almost mythical places.
Gerda Pilipaitytė (Vytautas Magnus University)
Gerda Pilipaitytė is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Lithuanian Studies at Vytautas Magnus University. Her research interests include comparative literature, dramaturgy, Spanish literature, and cultural trauma studies. In 2024, she defended her PhD thesis entitled “Trauma Narratives in Contemporary Lithuanian and Spanish Dramaturgy.” She has published the results of her research in Lithuania and Spain, with articles on the representation of cultural trauma in drama and prose as well as on the Lithuanian diaspora.