Oxford English Monographs: Women's Authorship and Editorship in Victorian Culture : Sensational Strategies by Beth Palmer read online book PDF, EPUB
9780199599110 0199599114 Beth Palmer brings new perspectives to the study of sensation fiction in the Victorian period, a popular genre often involving narratives of crime and madness. By examining the self-conscious and complex ways in which Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat used sensation as both authors and magazine editors she re-works the conventional perspective that sensation fiction was a hackneyed, formulaic, and limited genre. Palmer offers a new, broadercontext for the phenomenal success of works like Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Wood's East Lynne.The book also provides a larger context to this important relationship between sensation and the periodical by reaching back to explore the vital press conditions initiated byfigures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton in the mid-nineteenth century and by looking forwards to the New Woman writers of the 1890s to understand the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond., Drawing on extensive periodical and archival material, Beth Palmer brings new perspectives to the study of sensation fiction in the Victorian period. The sensation novelists Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat all operated as writers and editors in the 1860s and 1870s-a time when the literary and publishing industries were slowly opening up to women-and their work in the periodical press allowed them to realize and hone their skills for sensational performance., This book considers the ways in which women writers used the powerful positions of author and editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines ( Belgravia , Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialisation in the periodical press was not just reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer onto other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact, and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy, as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne . The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the New Woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.
9780199599110 0199599114 Beth Palmer brings new perspectives to the study of sensation fiction in the Victorian period, a popular genre often involving narratives of crime and madness. By examining the self-conscious and complex ways in which Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat used sensation as both authors and magazine editors she re-works the conventional perspective that sensation fiction was a hackneyed, formulaic, and limited genre. Palmer offers a new, broadercontext for the phenomenal success of works like Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Wood's East Lynne.The book also provides a larger context to this important relationship between sensation and the periodical by reaching back to explore the vital press conditions initiated byfigures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton in the mid-nineteenth century and by looking forwards to the New Woman writers of the 1890s to understand the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond., Drawing on extensive periodical and archival material, Beth Palmer brings new perspectives to the study of sensation fiction in the Victorian period. The sensation novelists Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat all operated as writers and editors in the 1860s and 1870s-a time when the literary and publishing industries were slowly opening up to women-and their work in the periodical press allowed them to realize and hone their skills for sensational performance., This book considers the ways in which women writers used the powerful positions of author and editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines ( Belgravia , Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialisation in the periodical press was not just reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer onto other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact, and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy, as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne . The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the New Woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.