Research Project Chat

Now is the time to get help and encouragement on your research projects.  Please tell the class what your proposal is and how you plan to prove your point.  This is your chance to collaborate.

Sensation Fiction vs "Literature"

Can you, as a literary critic, determine a difference in quality of the writing between Braddon and any of the other, usually considered more serious, women writers of the nineteenth century?

Also, do you agree with Beth Palmer that the novel seems to be self-conscious (aware) of the place and audience and viability of serialized fiction?

Lady Audley??

In Volume I, the reader immediately becomes suspicious, along with Robert Audley, of Lady Audley. What is suspicious about her and her behavior?  But which of the characters can we really trust?

Maggie's Lovers

The middle half of the book introduces Maggie as a young woman.  It seems to me that Stephen and Philip, while similar in some ways, appeal to very different aspects of Maggie's personality and psyche--and are almost two sides to one whole.  You are certainly free to disagree with this assessment of them, but I ask you this week to consider what each offers to Maggie, what they help her to discover about herself, and how they complicate her life and the story.  And as a side note, how does Tom fit into this storyline?