Some Hypothetical PhDs in Victorian Literature

#victober
In which I talk about some PhDs in Victorian literature that I will never do . . .
More about disability within Victorian literature: • Disability and Deformi...
More about serialisation: • Serialisation and the ...
More about the New Woman movement: • Victober 2023 | Announ...
Books Mentioned
The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens: / 229432.the_pickwick_pa...
Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens: / 325085.nicholas_nickleby
Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens: / 1990.martin_chuzzlewit
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens: / 50827.dombey_and_son
Bleak House, Charles Dickens: / 31242.bleak_house
Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens: / 31250.little_dorrit
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens: / 31244.our_mutual_friend
Plotting Disability in the Nineteenth Century Novel, Clare Walker Gore: / plotting-disability-in...
Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik: / 898983.olive
Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell: / 54620.mary_barton
My Lady Ludlow, Elizabeth Gaskell: / 1227202.my_lady_ludlow
Drama in Muslin, George Moore: / 361275.a_drama_in_muslin
John Halifax, Gentleman, Dinah Mulock Craik: / 1892249.john_halifax_g...
The Odd Women, George Gissing: / 675037.the_odd_women
A Struggle for Fame, Charlotte Riddell: / a-struggle-for-fame
Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900, Florence Dixie: / gloriana
The Beth Book, Sarah Grand: / 1019669.the_beth_book
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley: / frankenstein
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson: / dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde
Hard Times, Charles Dickens: / 5344.hard_times
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell: / 156538.north_and_south
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells: / 2493.the_time_machine
The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells: / the-island-of-doctor-m...
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[@deblawrence8341]

What a great topic! So enjoyed this!!!

[@larrymilliken288]

The old adage, "never say never", is trite, but true. We have no idea what lurks around the next corner of life. Your clever idea about a supposed PhD is a great topic for more group discussion. What about doing a live chat on the subject? Thanks, Katie, you always invent new ways to look at literature. I'm enjoying your Victober videos!

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

All of these are so interesting! I especially like the one about serialization. Honestly, the best part of writing a dissertation is finding quotes for the chapter titles. It's one of the few things I'm enjoying about the process. 😆 The title for my chapter on The Doctor's Wife uses a quote from Sigismund: "What the penny public want."

[@lizh9497]

All of these sound fascinating. I studied English literature and history at university then did my honours thesis in history but ended up weaving in Victorian (Australian) literature. It was on a convict narrative published in 1856 so I also looked at other convict narratives, a novel about convicts that was also published in the same year and another novel, published slightly later, that included references to many of the same real life convicts mentioned in the primary narrative I was looking at. I miss those days of having a wonderful excuse to read novels all day!

[@davebonello1944]

(Melanie here) A topic of interest to me - Influence of place on Victorian literature (Dickens - city, Bronte - polluted town they lived in, which led to the deaths of many in the family, and the moors). Another topic might be The Influence of authors' class or personal tragedy on Victorian literature.

[@Melissa_77789]

Absolutely love, love, love this idea for a video!

[@MarcelaChandía]

Fascinating topic! You could write a non-fiction book about any of those themes, thus combining your passion for research and your writing career. About one of the theme that you proposed, the representation of disability in Victorian literature vs now, I think that one of the reasons could be that if an author in the present day writes a villain or a victim with disability they will receive the wrath of all. Everyone has to tiptoe about so many topics nowadays, and I'm not saying that writing stereotypes is good, just that so many choose to omit them instead of damaging their own career. Just a thought. Thanks for another wonderful video!

[@betinaceciliafeld9854]

These are very interesting topics! I love the two video-essays you made on disability representation and on LGBTQ themes in Victorian literature and I'd love to see one on mental health in it by you, if you're sometime interested on the topic. One theme I'd like to research is the presentation of Jewish characters in Victorian literature. I've actually started a small list of novels I could read about it but haven't done anything else yet 😂

[@stephenn3727]

Thank you Katie!

[@Bryndisdaugtherofgunnar]

This was so interesting. I'm working on my PhD in education, but think I would have loved to do a PhD in literature in another life. I just finished reading Lois the witch by Elizabeth Gaskell, and I think the Victorian perspective on the Salem witch trials and Puritans might be a really interesting topic to study.

[@deborahwager5883]

Well, I'm in the midst of writing my PhD dissertation now, since you ask. I'm looking at discourse patterns in American Sign Language conversation (Linguistics PhD). Once I finish, I want to look at portrayals of deaf and hard of hearing characters and how that has changed over time (Secrets of Hartwood Hall is on the list!). It might be a paper, or it might come out on a KZbin channel if I decide to start one. Your topics all sound really interesting. If you ever do write one, I'd love to read it!

[@LedgerAndLace]

I ♥your hypothetical PhDs! I have some of my own, but the English classes I took at college were so dull and serious that it sucked the joy out of reading. So I don't think I'll ever go back. My brother told me that I sounded like a graduate student in the middle of her PhD because of all the research I've been doing for my novel. Ha!

[@MarthaDunstablesCurls]

I also have the sense that there are more disabled characters in Victorian literature than in literature today. I've wondered if that reflects a higher disabled population? But improvements in medicine have lead to many people living with long term illness and disability today, when in the past they would have died, so I don't know if that's correct. I've wondered about differences in the portrayal of disabled men and women in Vic literature. I remember thinking that Trollope perhaps saw physical illness and frailty as more likely to represent a character flaw in men than in women. Louis Scatcherd is the only example I can think of now. The treatment of Josiah Crawley's illness would be so interesting to look at in detail. Great video, thanks. I need to read that book on disability!

[@Lokster71]

Interesting video. I was going to do my thesis at University on 'The Use of Fiction as a Historical Source with particular reference to the Preston Cotton Strike of 1853-1854'. I've just signed up to do a History MA with the Open University 32 years after I graduated so I'm going to have to give this some proper thought. I am fascinated by how popular perceptions of history are influenced by fiction more than academic history and so are often incomplete or inaccurate. Not sure where to take that though.

[@Victoria_C_33]

These are all wonderful ideas and sound so interesting! No need to do a PhD. You could write any of these as a nonfiction book. You surely have the expertise!

[@jillellert3319]

I would love to see a non-fiction book written by YOU on any of these topics! So interesting!

[@michaelldennis]

This isn’t phd topic but a project I’ve wanted to do. As I read Victorian literature, there are a lot of direct and indirect references to other pieces of literature. Actually mentioning books, quoting something, characters, etc., and I’ve wanted to create some sort of web diagram of how the books reference each other. This could lead to a re-envisioning of which what novels and characters and authors were most influential within literature at the time. For example, one year I read 8 novels sequentially that all directly referenced Robinson Crusoe.

[@gg_23452]

This is really fun video now I'm gonna think about my hypotheical phds too 😆 Also for the serialization topic, you can also look at modern books like web novels and maybe make a comparison 🤔

[@madebylora]

Some great ideas! Of course, if you ever find yourself with lots of spare time on your hands (haha), you could always do some more research on those subjects anyway, without it specifically being for a phd. Maybe they could be ideas for non-fiction books to add to your collection of published books, they are obviously subjects that you are passionate about!

[@MartinDSmith]

All fascinating topics! I am afraid I would be in the same boat as you as a hypothetical PhD in my case would run into thousands upon thousands of words. It would probably treat with Intellectual/Psychological and Physical Disabilities Operating As Pivotal Forces Of Attraction And Repulsion In The Novels Of Charles Dickens.

[@davebonello1944]

(Melanie here) I would love to read your dissertation!

[@eilisosullivan1035]

My own hypothetical PhD topic would look at the representation and presence of climate change and weather in the Victorian Novel, particularly Wuthering Heights and Bleak House, as strong contrast between each other. There is also a really interesting correlation and presence of pathetic fallacy in the weather and atmosphere of Gothic literature that I always thought would be interesting to look at through the lens of eco criticism. We'll see if anything comes of these topics. 😊

[@lorrainetaylor9852]

This was lots of fun. My PhD fantasy topic is around religion in the Victorian era, specifically the position of women in a breakaway denomination from the Anglican Church ( which is the origin of the church I currently attend) I think about how to weave Victorian literature into what would likely be more a history project than English literature. Nice to dream but will never happen. 😊

[@jamesduggan7200]

While planning my college career in the 1970s the first idea came to mind was 'Women in Shakespeare', which now seems far too vague. Well, believe it or not men writing about women sometimes pursue disfavored gender perspectives so it was fortuitous to accept a slight detour toward 'Suicide in Shakespeare'. However, before I could graduate with a degree in English I graduated with a degree in History and finished my Master's degree while at Law School. In short, no topic in English Lit. is available to me now, but that said I think today I might write about 'Territorial Foundations of the Nature of Evil in the Novels of Stephen King.'

[@onourpath]

Conveniently, you're already an author, so just write a book about it! Literary criticism was not a huge section of my store, but its fans are legion. I don't know what it's like in the UK, but are there university presses that specialize in lit crit? If you can get some professors to use it in their lit classes as required reading, you're golden. 💚 Lit crit is surprisingly appealing; write some interesting bit about my favorite author's life, and I'm sold!

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

Looking at Dickens' fear of machines taking over, you could compare the machines that existed back in Victorian era to today's iPhones, computers, television, and the internet. How machines have evolved and if Dickens fears are justified.

[@clarepotter7584]

Hypothetical PHDs are such a great idea. I had such an interesting and fun time reading 'Cambrian Pictures' by Ann of Swansea (Kemble). She is so fascinating, in a compare and contrast with Miss Austen (my favourite author), she might been seen as lacking in the quality of the writing but being a Kemble you can really see the influence of stagecraft and there's an interesting focus on a working class perspective (a scary demonic creation to teach a upper class man a lesson, devised by a working class man).

[@sarahhall4107]

Hi Katie. All of these subjects seem really interesting. Have you considered writin g a book about one of them instead of doing a PhD. I think people would be intrigued to here more about your ideas and realizations. You have obviously thought a lot about them. For someone who loves reading but didn't pass English G C S E ideas like this are always interesting.

[@acratone8300]

I was surprised about the female characters in Edwin Drood. For instance Helena Landless sister to Neville Landless. Without Helena to guide, Neville would early on have probably been arrested for assault or other charges even. Very early on.

[@NicoleACottageWitch]

My imaginary PhD would be on mental illness in contemporary gothic literature or on the psychology of the climate crisis in gothic literature.