| dc.description.abstract | This thesis argues that new media technologies’ impact on real-life romantic relationships opened the door for authors to portray new modes of desire and intimacy in nineteenth-century fiction. While a variety of new media will be discussed, I primarily focus on photography, the reformed postal system, and electric telegraphy. These mediums all have the metonymic capacity to substitute an absent beloved, which enables amorous narratives to progress without the need for in-person scenes and raises the question of how presence is mediated through these new discourse systems. How—and why—are feelings affected when a sweetheart’s presence is rendered small and possessable by the photographer’s camera lens; when it is enclosed within a handwritten letter and passed through the public and impersonal postal network; and when heartfelt conversation is facilitated by an eavesdropping telegraphist? While extensive research has been done on new media technologies and romantic relationships in the Victorian era respectively, very little has been done on the intersection between the two fields. I address this scholarly gap by analysing a mix of canonical and non-canonical fictional texts, ranging from the Brontës to Thomas Hardy to Amy Levy, an informational source that allows for the inclusion of metaphorical depictions of technologies and which delineates contemporary reaction to a changing media ecology. Studying technological advancements’ influence on courtship reveals that many of the concerns we have today on dating culture, like privacy leaks or long-distance-relationships or the potential insincerity of virtual bonds, similarly troubled Victorians and demonstrates that, regardless of time period, technology will be viewed as both a blessing and bane to love. | en_US |
