Sensation novel

The sensation novel, also sensation fiction, was a literary genre of fiction that achieved peak popularity in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s,^[1] centering taboo material shocking to its readers as a means of musing on contemporary social anxieties.

Its literary forebears included the melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies; it also drew on the Gothic, romance, as well as mass market genres. The genre's popularity was conjoined to an expanding book market and growth of a reading public, by-products of the Industrial Revolution.^[2] Whereas romance and realism had traditionally been contradictory modes of literature, they were brought together in sensation fiction. The sensation novelists commonly wrote stories that were allegorical and abstract; the abstract nature of the stories gave the authors room to explore scenarios that wrestled with the social anxieties^[3] of the Victorian era. The loss of identity is seen in many sensation fiction stories because this was a common social anxiety; in Britain, there was an increased use in record keeping^[4] and therefore people questioned the meaning and permanence of identity. The social anxiety regarding identity is reflected in novels such as The Woman in White and Lady Audley's Secret.^[5]

Sensation fiction is commonly seen to have emerged as a definable genre in the wake of three novels: Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1859–60); Mrs. Henry Wood's East Lynne (1861); and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret (1862).^[6] Perhaps the earliest use of the term "sensation fiction" as a name for such novels appears in the 1861 edition of the Saunders, Otley, & co.'s Literary Budget.^[7]

Sensation novels were the precursor of pulp fiction, which were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955.^[8]^[9]

^ I. Ousby ed., The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 844
^ Muller, C. "Victorian Sensationalism: The Short Stories of Wilkie Collins." Unisa English Studies. 11.1 (1973): 12-13. Web. 8 Jun. 2014.
^ Hughes, Winifred. The Maniac in the Cellar. Princeton: Princeton University, 1980. Print.
^ Pykett, Lyn. "The Newgate novel and sensation fiction, 1830-1868." Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin Priestman. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2003. 19-39. Print
^ Cite error: The named reference auto1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Loesberg, Jonathan. Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation. University of California, 1986. JSTOR. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.
^ Saunders, Otley, & Co.'s. "Literature." Literary Budget 1 Nov. 1861: 38. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.
^ Hoglund, Johan (2016-03-16). The American Imperial Gothic: Popular Culture, Empire, Violence. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-04519-9.
^ Acting with the Voice: The Art of Recording Books. Hal Leonard Corporation. 2004. ISBN 978-0-87910-301-9.

[auto-1] I. Ousby ed., The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 844

[2] Muller, C. "Victorian Sensationalism: The Short Stories of Wilkie Collins." Unisa English Studies. 11.1 (1973): 12-13. Web. 8 Jun. 2014.

[Hughes-3] Hughes, Winifred. The Maniac in the Cellar. Princeton: Princeton University, 1980. Print.

[Pykett_Lyn_1868-4] Pykett, Lyn. "The Newgate novel and sensation fiction, 1830-1868." Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin Priestman. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2003. 19-39. Print

[auto1-5] Cite error: The named reference auto1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] Loesberg, Jonathan. Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation. University of California, 1986. JSTOR. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.

[7] Saunders, Otley, & Co.'s. "Literature." Literary Budget 1 Nov. 1861: 38. Web. 10 Jun. 2014.

[8] Hoglund, Johan (2016-03-16). The American Imperial Gothic: Popular Culture, Empire, Violence. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-04519-9.

[9] Acting with the Voice: The Art of Recording Books. Hal Leonard Corporation. 2004. ISBN 978-0-87910-301-9.

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