1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910822342803321

Autore

Ifill Helena

Titolo

Creating character : theories of nature and nurture in Victorian sensation fiction / / Helena Ifill

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester, UK : , : Manchester University Press, , 2018

©2018

ISBN

1-5261-3627-9

1-5261-2658-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 pages) : digital file(s)

Collana

Interventions : Rethinking the Nineteenth Century

Disciplina

823.8

Soggetti

English fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

Personality in literature

Characters and characteristics in literature

Literature

Literary Studies: C 1800 To C 1900

LITERARY CRITICISM / General

Ireland

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Part I: Self-control, willpower and monomania -- 1. Basil and No Name -- 2. John Marchmont's Legacy -- Part II: Heredity and degeneration -- 3. The Lady Lisle -- 4. Armadale -- Part III: Education, environment and circumstance -- 5. Man and Wife -- 6. Lost for Love -- Conclusion -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores the ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about personality formation and the extent to which it can be influenced either by the subject or by others. Innovative readings of seven sensation novels explore how they employ and challenge Victorian theories of heredity, degeneration, inherent constitution, education, upbringing and social circumstance.



Far from presenting a reductive depiction of 'nature' versus 'nurture', Braddon and Collins show the creation of character to be a complex interplay of internal and external factors. Drawing on material ranging from medical textbooks, to sociological treatises, to popular periodicals, Creating character shows how sensation authors situated themselves at the intersections of established and developing, conservative and radical, learned and sensationalist thought about how identity could be made and modified.