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Makale Özeti:
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The sensation genre in the 1860s stirred fierce discussions regarding scandalous,
sensational and unconventional representations of women in fiction. This is because
the 1860s sensation novels appealed more to a female readership, and thus potential
influences of adulterous, bigamous and/or criminal women characters on women
readers alarmed literary circles of the said period. On the other hand, feminist literary
critics in twentieth century tended to read such unusual and controversial fictional
representations in women’s writing as a sign of resistance and feminist revival in
Victorian literature. There were opposing views too, though. They rather focused on
anti-feminist and at times disciplinary treatment of women characters, who
transgressed rooted sexual, social and cultural norms. The approach in this study is
closer to the latter view in that the article aims to reveal the ambivalent nature of such
narratives by paying attention to the contradiction between feminist and subversive
content and its anti-feminist treatment. To do this, the article offers a detailed analysis
of one of the best examples of the sensation genre, which is Lady Audley’s Secret
(1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
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