Julyan Oldham

Thesis title: Deflowering Modernism: Virginity in Early Twentieth-Century British Writing

Supervisor: Rebecca Beasley

Research interests: twentieth-century literature and culture; literary modernism; queer and gender studies; compulsory sexuality and the history of (a)sexuality; national identity; temporality; the novel and narrative

Doctoral Research: My AHRC-funded DPhil research examines depictions of male and female virginities in early twentieth-century British novels. I am particularly interested in where the language of virginity recurs, and how it functions, in this period. How might virginity reframe discussions of (anti)sentimentality, temporality, Englishness, and spirituality in this period? Writers under consideration in this project include (but are not limited to) Wyndham Lewis, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, Dorothy Richardson, D.H. Lawrence, and Ford Madox Ford.

Teaching: I have worked with undergraduates and visiting students on a range of modern and contemporary authors and subjects, from asexuality in twentieth-century fiction to vampires in 2000s popular music.

Publications

'Growing Absurd: Sexuality, Development, and Virgin Time in Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage.' Studies in the Novel 55:4 (Winter 2023)