Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of the current state of scholarship on nineteenth-century British journalism that would promote broader discussion of periodicals and highlights future avenues for research. It depends largely on digital archives of nineteenth-century periodicals, Kate Summerscale investigates the case of a child who committed an extreme act of transgression – matricide. The book also demonstrates how to situate the work of individual authors within specific journalistic contexts – the format, content, politics, distribution, circulation, geographical location, and editorial policies of particular periodicals and newspapers. It emphasizes the importance of full-text digital archives to their research methodology. The book also aims to place the excellent work of contributors in the context of current academic debates and to think through the conditions of scholarly production.