The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction

This dissertation seeks to evaluate how Victorian sensation fiction engages with means of truth finding and systematic inquiry through aesthetic and scientific discourse of the time. With the introduction of new and influential scientific studies, the authority of religion and prior metaphysical cer...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Goh, Hillary Anqi
Other Authors: Tamara Silvia Wagner
Format: Thesis-Master by Research
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164821
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-164821
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1648212023-03-11T20:15:19Z The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction Goh, Hillary Anqi Tamara Silvia Wagner School of Humanities TSWagner@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Literature::English This dissertation seeks to evaluate how Victorian sensation fiction engages with means of truth finding and systematic inquiry through aesthetic and scientific discourse of the time. With the introduction of new and influential scientific studies, the authority of religion and prior metaphysical certainties of knowledge were increasingly undermined in the Victorian period, setting the stage for redefining knowing and the knowable in order to address existential questions. This process of re-evaluating past knowledge and the pursuit of truth can be seen in the genre of sensation fiction, which experimented with ideas of suspense and inquiry through mystery arcs based on the sensationalised crimes of the day. Setting up intriguing mystery plots only to conclude with scandalous revelations within the typically safe domestic space articulates the changing Victorian outlook of how things were not as they seem. Nevertheless, the elements of the aesthetic and the scientific within these texts contribute to shedding light and resolving these mysteries. I propose analysing sensation fiction which explicitly engages with current aesthetic or scientific theories as methods of uncovering the truth. These texts include M.E Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone (1868) of the mid-nineteenth century to the later part of the century with Collins’ Heart and Science (1882). A critical analysis of these texts shows how the evolution of aesthetic and scientific discourse work to reveal not just the truths of mysteries, but ultimately the conceptions and realisations of the nature of Man at the heart of these mysteries. Master of Arts 2023-02-20T00:16:42Z 2023-02-20T00:16:42Z 2022 Thesis-Master by Research Goh, H. A. (2022). The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164821 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164821 10.32657/10356/164821 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Humanities::Literature::English
spellingShingle Humanities::Literature::English
Goh, Hillary Anqi
The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
description This dissertation seeks to evaluate how Victorian sensation fiction engages with means of truth finding and systematic inquiry through aesthetic and scientific discourse of the time. With the introduction of new and influential scientific studies, the authority of religion and prior metaphysical certainties of knowledge were increasingly undermined in the Victorian period, setting the stage for redefining knowing and the knowable in order to address existential questions. This process of re-evaluating past knowledge and the pursuit of truth can be seen in the genre of sensation fiction, which experimented with ideas of suspense and inquiry through mystery arcs based on the sensationalised crimes of the day. Setting up intriguing mystery plots only to conclude with scandalous revelations within the typically safe domestic space articulates the changing Victorian outlook of how things were not as they seem. Nevertheless, the elements of the aesthetic and the scientific within these texts contribute to shedding light and resolving these mysteries. I propose analysing sensation fiction which explicitly engages with current aesthetic or scientific theories as methods of uncovering the truth. These texts include M.E Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone (1868) of the mid-nineteenth century to the later part of the century with Collins’ Heart and Science (1882). A critical analysis of these texts shows how the evolution of aesthetic and scientific discourse work to reveal not just the truths of mysteries, but ultimately the conceptions and realisations of the nature of Man at the heart of these mysteries.
author2 Tamara Silvia Wagner
author_facet Tamara Silvia Wagner
Goh, Hillary Anqi
format Thesis-Master by Research
author Goh, Hillary Anqi
author_sort Goh, Hillary Anqi
title The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
title_short The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
title_full The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
title_fullStr The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
title_full_unstemmed The truth of the matter: truth finding in Victorian sensation fiction
title_sort truth of the matter: truth finding in victorian sensation fiction
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164821
_version_ 1761781376078577664