Post-Doc, Department of English
Thesis Title: 'Empire of the Imagination': Victorian Popular Fiction and the Occult, 1880 - 1910.
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Rick Rylance
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About
I'm a three-times graduate of Exeter, having started with a BA in English Medieval Studies in 1998. I followed that up with an MA in English (with an emphasis on the Victorian period), and then rolled on to a PhD, which kept me off the streets from 2003 to 2008, thanks to school funding.
My PhD explored the influence of a variety of occult disciplines on popular fiction in the late nineteenth century. I offered case studies on spiritualism, theosophy and an occult group known as the Golden Dawn, before assessing the ways in which the ideas circulating among 'genuine' occultists permeated wider late-nineteenth century literature and culture.
My research interests include, unsurprisingly, the academic study of magic (including witchcraft, western esotericism and various magical groups), together with the adventure romance of the sort written by H. Rider Haggard (whose writing was the focus for one of the chapters of my thesis). I'm also interested in Arthur Conan Doyle, John Masefield, and various chaps with links to the development of esotericism. I have a quiet intention to do a spot of digging into Masefield when time permits.
At present, I work for the University of Exeter's Education Enhancement unit, developing e-learning materials to support face-to-face tuition. I've given conference papers on topics from Conan Doyle's short stories to Rider Haggard's interpretation of occultism, and am hoping to get around to doing this more often in the future.
