The Genre of New-Gate Novel in the Artistic Conception of Sarah Waters

Abstract

The article explores Sarah Waters ‘Neo-Victorian novels «Affinity»(1999) and «Fingersmith» (2002) as an original genre textures which include a sensational subgenre – the «Newgate» novel. The article considers the documentary evidences of the «Newgate Calendar» and its significance in the formation of a separate tradition of criminal sensational literature (plots, motives, narrative modes, etc.). The established Newgate literary canon is reproduced in Water’s novels with elements of genre self-reflection, generally characteristic for contemporary stylizations. Water’s innovation is in demonstrating her own position as a writer-historiographer, who carefully recreates the criminal world of Victorian England and configures the complex of emotional and social relations of the era in a new way.

Keywords

• sarah waters
• «newgate» novel
• «newgate calendar»
• sensational crime fiction
• genre self-reflection