Immediately upon its release in 2022 HBO’s The Gilded Age had acquired the reputation of “transatlantic Downton” (Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian). The moniker points to frequent comparisons of the series to ITV’s Downton Abbey (2010-2015) – not only because The Gilded Age sprang from the imagination of the same creator, Julian Fellowes, but also because of its obvious period drama flair which it flaunts with gusto. Painstakingly constructed interiors, spectacular costumes, intense emotionality – The Gilded Age ticks all the usual boxes of the genre’s hallmarks (hats in particular appear to have captured universal attention). Although the show was generally well received and scored several Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2023, critics have repeatedly criticized the flatness of its conflicts, especially in its earlier seasons. Set in the 1880s New York, The Gilded Age conjures up the complex eponymous epoch of American history – the time of “robber barons,” rapid industrialization which drove not only progress but also social inequalities, and “the incorporation of America” (Alan Trachtenberg). And yet, “to watch it is to sink into a comfortable fugue, and think mostly of hats,” argues Rebecca Nicholson (among others). This talk will explore the ways in which The Gilded Age navigates the generic space of period drama and constructs its vision of the Gilded Age between “realism and fantasy” (Woods, Period Drama 1).

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Dr. Svetlana Seibel is a postdoctoral research associate in North American Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University and coordinator of the certificate study program “Applied Pop Studies.”