Volunteer Readers Needed for a Study of Serial Form in Victorian Novels
"Project Endings"
Application Deadline: June 30, 2025
Like to Read Victorian Serial Novels?
Please join Helena Michie, Robyn Warhol, and Huw Edwards-Evans in a new, crowd-sourced study of Victorian serial novels. For “Project Endings,” we are seeking volunteers to look at the strategies novelists used for ending serial parts and for connecting them to the beginnings of the next parts. They used cliffhangers, you say? We were surprised to discover that this well-known fact is not true. Cliffhangers are rare in Victorian serial fiction! So what did novelists do to keep their readers coming back, month after month, to see what happens next?
If you volunteer to help with this “medium data” study (it’s not “big data” because no computer application could do the required analysis), we will ask you to:
- Read one Victorian novel in its original serial parts (which can be easily accessed at Reading Like a Victorian: readinglikeavictorian@osu.edu);
- Read through the Project Endings Code Book, which lists the strategies for ending and beginning that we have so far observed;
- Fill out a simple Google form for each part of your serial novel and return the forms to us.
- If you notice a strategy that isn’t already on the form, we ask that you flag it so we can add it to our taxonomy.
We will send you a list of some 200 novels that are as-yet unspoken for and ask you to list your top three choices. We will do our best to accommodate your preference.
No special knowledge of Victorian literature is required. Our volunteers include recreational readers as well as scholars, researchers, and students. The timeframe for completing the task begins now and ends June 30, 2025.
Any questions? Feel free to email Robyn (warhol.1@osu.edu) or Helena (michie@rice.edu) and ask.
If you are ready to volunteer, please email Huw Edwardes-Evans at hme3@rice.edu . Huw will enroll you in the project and send you the list of novels that are still available, along with instructions for the task.
We look forward to hearing from you and learning from your participation!