Sensational Subjects

Under what conditions does ‘sensation’ become ‘sensational’? By the early nineteenth century murder had become the staple of the sensationalizing popular press, and gruesome descriptions were deployed to make a direct impact on the ‘sensations’ of the reader. Later, concern with the thrills, spills, and shocks of modern life was being articulated in the language of sensation, and media sensationalism was already being seen both as contributing to this process and as magnifying its impact, just as sensation was, in turn, taken up by literature, art and film. Finally, it seems as though the dramatization of these experiences in an era of media panics over terrorism, paedophilia, etc, has taken an overtly melodramatic form, in which battles of good and evil play out across the landscapes of our lives. Sensational Subjects develops an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to exploring these themes, their impact and their implications for understanding the modern world.