Georgina Gale
Research title: Chapters of Horror: Gothic Narrativisation of Gender Violence in Late-Victorian Journalism
Research Summary
My research focuses on how late-nineteenth-century journalists created gothic narrativizations of violence against women prior to the Whitechapel murders of 1888. Examining specific cases of news reporting, my thesis considers how the rhetoric and motifs of contemporary gothic fiction were used by the press as both a means of advocating for social reform and as a tool to apoliticise stories of gender violence and poverty.
My broader research interests include:
- The gothic
- Sensational journalism
- Scissors-and-paste journalism
- Periodical publishing
- Fantasy horror fiction
- Gender in the nineteenth-century
Supervisors
Grants
- RSA-RSTG funding, £146.30 to visit the British Library's 'Barry Ono' collection. (2022)
- RSA-RSTG funding, £396.24 to attend the RSVP annual conference in Normandy. (2023)
- RSVP merit-based travel grant, $500.00 to attend the RSVP annual conference in Normandy. (2023)
- RSA funding, £397.70 to attend the University of Vechta's 'Victorian Darknesses' conference in Germany. (2024)
- RSVP merit-based travel grant, $250.00 to attend the RSVP annual conference in Scotland. (2024)
Conference
- RSVP annual conference 'Currents in the Periodical Press', presenting 'Blame him (in)Stead: Manipulating Australian News to Attack ‘Maiden Tribute’'. July 2023
- Victorian Darknesses conference at the University of Vechta, presenting 'Transformed by the Darkness: The Gothic Othering of Working-class Girls in Stead’s ‘Maiden Tribute’ (1885)'. February 2024
- (Upcoming:) RSVP conference 'Place in the Victorian Periodical Press', presenting '“Grant me one hour of horrors fed full”: The St James’s Gazette’s use of horror to attack ‘Maiden Tribute’ (1885)'. June 2024
Teaching
GTA for English Literature 1A: Poetry & Poetics
Additional Information
Affiliations
- Member of BAVS
- Member of the Centre of Fantasy and the Fantastic
- Member of the IGA
- Member of RSVP
Projects
- Victorian Gothic An open access repository of nineteenth-century gothic texts, author biographies, and an accompanying blog. The aim of this project is to make texts more accessible, and to promote study of the Victorian era and gothic literature.