This essay explores the field of transnational neo‐Victorian studies, arguing that “transnational” does not so much signal a subcategory of the discipline of Victorian or neo‐Victorian studies as it does a recalibration of one's instruments of analysis and of one's position within a vast constellation of cultural producers and consumers, both within and without the academy. Transnational neo‐Victorian studies requires recognizing the value of what literary critic Juliet John has called “undisciplined knowledge.” It requires, moreover, a collaborative and tentative ethos that is often at odds with the structural realities of the academy. This essay first glosses some of the salient discussions around the terms “Victorian,” “neo‐Victorian,” and “transnational” before turning to an example of a transnational neo‐Victorian text, Japanese manga Kuroshitsuji (黒執事; 2007–) by Toboso Yana (枢やな), and its representation of a Chinese opium den in London's East End, in order to interrogate the possibilities and limitations of the discipline.

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