Emotional Density, Suspense, and the Serialization of The Woman in White in All the Year Round

Analyzing serialized texts using quantitative methodology destabilizes our understanding of how emotion functions in serial fiction. It also allows us to visualize the text’s emotionality and broader emotional patterns. Rather than privileging particular characters or scenes, a practice characteristic of close reading, my distant reading analysis accounts for every character emotion expressed or observed throughout The Woman in White’s forty serialized installments. Calculating the emotional density of each installment reveals that female character emotion is not only crucial to the suspense level of each installment but also prompts female investigative action and cultivates homosocial emotional bonds between women.