Sensation fiction
A Victorian literary genre emphasising emotional intensity, plot twists, shocking revelations, and sensational events designed to provoke reader reaction. Sensation fiction blurs boundaries between highbrow literary fiction and popular fiction.
Real World
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White (1859) used secret identities, wrongful imprisonment, and a bigamy plot to keep Victorian readers gripped across serial instalments — contemporary critics worried its thrilling popularity was corrupting literary taste.
Exam Focus
Use AO3 to link sensation fiction's shock tactics to Victorian anxieties — examiners reward connections between genre conventions and the historical moment of production.
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