Anna

Got so much done during today's @vpfa.bsky.social virtual writing retreat and met some really nice people. Being a PhD student, esp a long-distance one, can be very lonely, but connecting with people online and chatting about research almost gives the impression of having 'course mates'.

Don't miss my account of what it was like for a first-timer at this summer's #vpfaextremes conference. A very exciting read indeed ;-)

This is one of my favourite Agatha Christie stories!

Join us for a virtual writing retreat designed for VPFA members! Working on a conference paper, article, thesis, or admin tasks? this structured retreat offers dedicated time, body doubling, and proven productivity techniques inspired by Rowena Murray. Drop in or stay the full day!

Also: the information on how to access the 'new' Microsoft account is only available in the 'new' account, so if you can't access it, you can't find out how to access it... #Catch22

Back home after three glorious weeks in England and Wales, which began with the VPFA conference in Birmingham, ended with my graduation in Portsmouth and inbetween my time has been filled with hiking, sightseeing, food & drink and lots of quality time with hubby. Work for my PhD continues tomorrow!

It was my graduation for my MA on Tuesday and it was a great day which I got to celebrate worth mum and dad, my younger brother and my husband! In 3-4 years I hope to do it again, but with a doctor’s bonnet on my head instead!

Thanks to everyone at @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAExtremes for welcoming this first-timer with open arms. I’m unable to attend tomorrow but have had an absolutely lovely time, listened to several very interesting papers and met lots of friendly, intelligent and knowledgeable people. I’ll be back!

Yeah, ”almost”… 🤓

I’ve just now presented my paper at #VPFAExtremes. It builds on the work I did for my MA dissertation and it was a lot of fun to re-visit these stories again.

During the extended lunch break we have divided into different groups to learn more about Birmingham. A few of us have decided to stay in the BMI for a talk on Victorian Birmingham, the BMI and its library.
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Keynote 2 is Richard Fallon: Before De-Extinction: Encountering Prehistoric Animals in Victorian Popular Fiction.
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Grill extends the metaphor of the Victorian asylum to include Audley court and reads Lady Audley herself as a character who wields medical agency instead of as a patient/mad person.
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Our third paper in the Braddon panel is also on 'Lady Audley's Secret'. Anna-Maria Grill: "The Mad-Doctress and her Patients: Negotiating Female Medical Agency in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 'Lady Audley’s Secret'".
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"In order to erase her past, Lady Audley erases herself"
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Shevchenko also presents ideas of how Lady Audley can be seen as a vampire figure: female vampirism is linked to violent appetites, predatory sexuality, hysteria and dangerously insatiable women. #VPFAExtremes

"Anorexic vocabulary" is used to describe Lady Audley and how her secret 'eats' her (pun definitely intended!). Eating tropes are also used to drive suspense and as plot structure.
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The second paper in the Braddon panel is on one of my favourite novels of the Victorian Era: 'Lady Audley's Secret'. Marta Shevchenko's paper is delivered online from Kharkiv, Ukraine is called "Vanishing Women: Anorexic Metaphors and Psychological Extremes in 'Lady Audley’s Secret'".
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Carina Koh Hui Ling calls 'The Fatal Three' a "cautionary tale of subverting gender-specific expectations", as Mildred becomes unwell towards the end of the novel, and it is unclear whether this deterioration is a 'punishment' for going against gender expectiations or not.
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Victorian belief was that men were better at managing their emotions as they had greater wills and mental faculties, and women were unstable and unpredictable because of their reproductive systems. Also, women were expected to suppress their emotions and men to actively regulate theirs
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Good morning! This morning I'm tweeting from panel 11: Mental illness in Braddon. Our first paper is delivered online, Carina Koh Hui Ling's paper is about Subverting Gender-Specific Expectations of Grief and Mental Illness in M.E. Braddon’s The Fatal Three (1888).
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My favourite fact of the first day! #VPFAExtremes

And that’s the end of the first-day panels! Such interesting papers and what a positive and friendly atmosphere there has been throughout. This is my first time at a VPFA conference, but it won’t be the last! And of course I’m returning to keep you updated again tomorrow!
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Cecilia Fabaro is now speaking about George Egerton's last short story collection 'Fantasias' and the "extreme experiments will allegory" in these stories.
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One way of doing this is through a descriptive techinque that makes characters and setting seem both familiar and specific.
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Jonathan Potter argues that certain authors were able to generate an illusion that they were depicting real life, for example Mary Russell Mitford in 'Our Village' and Charles Dickens in 'Sketches by Boz'.
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My final panel for the day is Conventions and Innovations of the Literary Marketplace 2. The two papers by Jonathan Potter and Cecilia Fabaro are presented online.
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An interesting comment by the panel chair links the two papers: the 'seepage' from paper to mind Audrey Jaffe talked about and prisoners' limited access to reading material as their minds were not to be contamintated by the 'wrong' types of influence in Carolyn Oulton's paper #VPFAExtremes

The 2nd paper in the Literary marketplace panel is "Melodrama as Mental Theatre" by Audrey Jaffe. The concept of a "porous reader" who absorbs the subject of the read text in such a way that it becomes the reader's weakness and fears is discussed through a quotation from 'Oliver Twist' #VPFAExtremes