Sarah Winter

PhD, English Literature

Biography

During my BA (Hons) and MA, my research interests lay predominantly in the overlapping fields of Victorian and Gothic literature, and historical, psychological and feminist approaches. For instance, for my undergraduate dissertation, I explored the representation of women in nineteenth-century novels through analyzing depictions of ‘fallen women’, and the phenomenon of the ‘New Woman’ figure. I then had the opportunity to combine my steadfast interest in the Gothic with Victorian novels in my MA dissertation, as I explored the roles of the Gothic in canonical Victorian texts, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), through specific and in-depth analyses of the mode. I also maintained a perennial interest in drama throughout my studies in English Literature – thus in my current research, I am investigating the Gothic in long-nineteenth-century melodrama, and aim to illustrate the genre’s cultural significance in my thesis.

Qualifications

MA in Literary Studies: Writing, Memory, Culture (Newcastle University)

BA (Hons) English Language and Literature (Newcastle University)

Thesis

The aim of my PhD thesis is to demonstrate the development of stage melodrama across the long nineteenth century, through the framework of closely examining the plays’ important cultural presence and roles.