Caricature and Realism in the Romantic Novel

Olivia Ferguson is an editorial consultant, writer and independent scholar based in North East Scotland. She has degrees in Literature and Linguistics from McGill University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Edinburgh. She has published research articles in Studies in Romanticism, Persuasions On-Line, Notes and Queries and Gothic Studies, and has a chapter in the forthcoming Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts. Olivia was a research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, in 2018–19, and Lecturer in Romanticism at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2019–20.

• Part I. Caricature Talk: 1. Defining Caricature; 2. Denying Caricature; 3. Caricature Talk and the Spectator; Part II. Novel Caricatures; Caricature Talk and Characterisation Technique: 4. Jane Austen and Anti-Caricature; 5. Walter Scott and Historical Caricatures; 6. Mary Shelley, Flesh-caricature and Horrid Realism.

'Ferguson's most compelling contribution lies in her redefinition of caricature as an organizing principle within realism. Her analyses of Austen, Edgeworth, and Godwin are most vigorous when they reveal how authors balance typological abstraction with individual specificity. … Her central claim - that realism and caricature function as interwoven strategies - is historically grounded and conceptually useful. … Ferguson's readings open avenues for intermedial analysis, tracing connections between fiction, graphic satire, theatrical performance, and the grotesque.' Farid Mohammadi, European Romantic Review