TY - GEN T1 - Creating character : theories of nature and nurture in Victorian sensation fiction T2 - Interventions: rethinking the nineteenth century (Series) A1 - Ifill, Helena LA - English PP - Manchester PB - Manchester University Press YR - 2018 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_on1028803922 AB - 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. CN - PR4989.M4 Z64 2018 SN - 9781526126597 SN - 1526126591 SN - 9781526126580 SN - 1526126583 SN - 9781526136275 SN - 1526136279 SN - 9781784995133 KW - Braddon, M. E. : (Mary Elizabeth), : 1835-1915 : Criticism and interpretation. KW - Collins, Wilkie, : 1824-1889 : Criticism and interpretation. KW - Braddon, M. E. : (Mary Elizabeth), : 1835-1915 KW - Collins, Wilkie, : 1824-1889 KW - Collins, Wilkie : 1824-1889 KW - Braddon, Mary Elizabeth : 1835-1915 KW - English fiction : 19th century : History and criticism. KW - Personality in literature. KW - Characters and characteristics in literature. KW - Roman anglais : 19e siècle : Histoire et critique. KW - Personnalité dans la littérature. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : European : English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : General. KW - Characters and characteristics in literature KW - English fiction KW - Personality in literature KW - Sensationsroman KW - Literatur KW - Identitätsfindung : Motiv KW - Englisch KW - 1800-1899 KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. ER -