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Serializing sensation : the dynamics of genre in Victorian popular fiction

'Serializing Sensation' examines the correlation between two major trends of the mid- nineteenth century: sensation fiction and periodical serialization. The project studies five popular novels published during the 1860s and early 1870s within the original periodicals in which they were first published, evaluating how periodical location influenced contemporary readings and interpretations of the texts. Specifically, the study examines how the distinctive structure and identity of a periodical - its range of articles, the type of fiction it published, its readership - heightened, augmented, subverted, or enhanced the sensational attributes of the serialized novels. By doing so, the study endeavours to reconsider standard interpretations of the sensation genre and develop new methodological approaches to studying and evaluating the sensation novel. Overall, in reading the novels intertextually with the periodicals, the project aims to gain a more developed understanding of how the sensation genre engaged with some of the major cultural discourses of the period. By incorporating a mix of well-known novels and lesser-known texts, as well as a range of journals spanning from the popular to the political, the cross-sectional, comparative approach of the study allows the project to extend beyond authors, novels, and periodicals characteristically associated with the sensation genre. The variety of novels also provides a concentrated scrutiny of the sensational narrative techniques popularized in the 1860s, as well as the scope to examine how sensational methodology was rewritten and revised .as the sensational sixties gave way to the 1870s.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:553830
Date January 2012
CreatorsBizzotto, Julie
ContributorsGilmartin, Sophie
PublisherRoyal Holloway, University of London
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/22fd6aa4-4a07-ab4a-db4f-fb916e00ad69/9/

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