WiSe 22/23: PS-Surveying English Literatures: Victorian Sensation Novels
Jan-Peer Hartmann
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The early 1860s saw the rise of a new type of fiction, which was soon to be referred to by contemporaries as ‘sensation fiction’ due to the extreme nature of the mental experiences through which writers put their characters — and, by extension, their readers. Combining stylistic devices from different genres — the epistolary novel, gothic romance, realist and silver-fork novels — sensation fiction drew on a number of established literary forms to create dynamic narratives reflecting the velocity and uncertainty of ‘modern’ life while simultaneously hinting at a dark underside of Victorian middle-class life involving bigamy, madness and outright murder. At the same time, the novels used their suspense-driven plots to comment on social and domestic issues. Despite criticism from conservative quarters, who accused novelist of amorality and of providing cheap thrills, sensation fiction proved hugely successful. Many works were serialized in periodicals before appearing in book form, keeping readers (which included seasoned novelists like Thackeray and Trollope) in a fever of excitement as they waited for the stories to be continued.
In this class, we will read two sensation novels, Wilkie Collins’s genre-defining The Woman in White and Mary Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, as well as what may be regarded as a precursor to the genre, Charlotte Bronte’s Villette. Students are expected to have read all texts (some 1,500 pages!) before the respective sessions (dates will be provided in a syllabus), to participate in the discussions, and to write a term paper. Please make sure to enroll in the Blackboard class.
Ideally, you should use the following editions: Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White [1859-1860], ed. Matthew Sweet (London: Penguin, 2004). [ISBN: 978-0141439617]; Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret [1862], ed. Lyn Pykett (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). [ISBN: 9780199577033]; Charlotte Bronte, Villette [1853], ed. Margaret Smith and Herbert Rosengarten (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) [ISBN: 978-0199536658]
We will start discussing The Woman in White in the third session.
close16 Class schedule
Regular appointments