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Abstract

This thesis shall consider the evolution of sensational journalism during the 19th century through a series of real crime murder cases that included the involvement of spectral evidence. As the cases occur between 1815 and 1888, this research shall consider the changing social responses to supernaturalism in response to the fluctuating cultural influences of science, religion and class during the 19th century. Such influences are further reflected in the changing figure of the apparition itself, whose symbolic representations also evolve to facilitate the immediate needs of the ghost seer. Where the initial cases of spectral evidence involve the revelatory and the prophetic spirits of the murder victims, mid-century Victorian spiritualism manipulates the apparition into a political form of spectral evidence. Toward the end of the century, the apparitions revert to a revelatory position, directly communicating to identify their killer.
Whilst the fictional ghost story became popular during the 19th century, this study focuses on the ghost of non-fictional material. The research shall consider the illustrated street literature produced for the lower classes alongside the text filled newspaper presses of the upper classes before examining its evolution as sensational reporting becomes increasingly popular and the combined image and text style presses appear. For the Victorians, non-fictional murders and supernatural events unite in response to the growing leisure industry that developed. These three areas of 19th century interest then achieved something quite unusual for the Victorians. They offered a curious form of entertainment enjoyed by all classes of society.

Course: Victorian Gothic - MA - P2927FTD

Date Deposited: 2024-11-07

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14478.html