BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//132.216.98.100//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.4// BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20250312T171903EDT-6644SVZv7d@132.216.98.100 DTSTAMP:20250312T211903Z DESCRIPTION:Explore a Victorian-era newspaper phenomenon called “The Agony Columns.” Characterized by anonymity\, lack of censorship\, and encryption \, the “agonies” rapidly became some of the most widely-read texts in Vict orian England. Encoded messages were often featured in the columns\, writt en and enjoyed by forlorn lovers\, cunning criminals\, savvy detectives\, and newspaper readers who reveled in the dramas unfolding on the newspaper s’ front pages. This exhibition seeks to recount some of the encrypted sto ries of the Times\, understand their influence on Victorian society\, and explore their lasting fascination.\n\nBy 1855\, newspapers had become expo nentially more available and affordable to Victorian Britons with the repe al of the stamp tax and newspaper duty. In an increasingly saturated marke tplace\, newspapers began to vie with another popular form of print media for readers’ attention: the novel. From then forward\, newspapers and nove ls entered a sustained a dialogue that would have wide-ranging effects on their mutual development. While authors began to incorporate aspects of ne wspaper culture into their novels\, newspapers capitalized on the themes a nd narratives of sensation fiction to bolster readerly interest.\n\nIn the exhibition cases\, you will encounter different stories shared by Victori an newspapers and sensation novels over the course of their mutual develop ment. On the touch table\, you can try your own hand at becoming a Victori an consulting detective to decipher a mystery hidden in plain sight in tha t most popular column of the newspaper: the Agony Column.\n\nThe ‘narrativ e turn’ of nineteenth-century newspapers toward the sensational is nowhere more apparent than in the widely popular ‘Agony Column’ of The Times\, wh ich published anonymous submissions from correspondents across the British Empire. Cryptic in nature and occasionally veiled in code\, by the mid-18 50s the Agony Column had grown into a bona fide sensation. Serial readers of agonies were captivated by the often mysterious and sometimes sordid st ories unfolding in extended exchanges\, returning day after day as narrati ves slowly emerged.\n\nThe exhibition is accessible during the opening hou rs of the McLennan Library Building. See details here: https://www.mcgill. ca/library/services/hours \n\n\nAbout the curators\n\nCiphers of The Times  is a SSHRC-funded research project that investigates the Agony Columns of Victorian newspapers and their influence on Victorian society and literat ure. Using an interdisciplinary methodology of computational analysis and close reading we seek to interrogate and expand existing understandings of how the newspaper featured in Victorian novels.\n\nThe team is led by Nat halie Cooke and supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research C ouncil of Canada and the ϲ Library. Explore the Project website: http s://libraryponders.github.io/about.html\n\n \n\n \n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230110 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230404 LOCATION:main floor lobby\, McLennan Library Building\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\ , H3A 0C9\, 3459 rue McTavish SUMMARY:Exhibit | News and Novel Sensations URL:/library/channels/event/exhibit-news-and-novel-sen sations-344248 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR