PhD Title: Queer Weirdness, Weird Queerness: The Bachelor and Queer Deviancy in British Weird Fiction, 1890 – 1914
Milly's doctoral research explores the origins and implications of British social anxieties surrounding deviant masculine identities and their connection to the emergence of Weird fiction in the late nineteenth century. Through considering the Weird’s preoccupation with anxiety, liminality, and the human impulse to define, Milly’s thesis investigates how late-Victorian authors harness the contentious figure of the bachelor to critique contemporary issues around masculinity, queerness, and resistance to heteropatriarchal norms in the years leading up to the Great War.
Milly’s broader research interests include Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture; supernatural and occult entities and practices; British folklore; gender, sexuality, and identity; queer history; game narratives; and fan culture, including fandom and fan works.
Milly’s doctoral research investigates expressions of androcentric queer desire in British Weird fiction, with a particular focus on the long fin de siècle. Her research considers where we may locate queer potential within the Weird mode, exploring notions of belonging, ancestry, and erotic desire in works from Algernon Blackwood, E. F. Benson, and Robert Hichens, amongst others.
Her further research interests include: Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture; Aestheticism and Decadence; supernatural and occult entities and practises; British folklore; gender, sexuality, and identity; queer history; game narrative; fandom, fan-culture, and fan-works.
Professional Memberships:
- British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS)
- British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS)
- Victorian Popular Fiction Association (VPFA)
Publications
‘The Cosmos and The Cage: Queer Masculinity and Mysticism in Blackwood’s ‘The Eccentricity of Simon Parnacute’’, Gothic Studies, [Forthcoming 2025].
‘“Most Modest in the Shadows”: Robert Hichens, Oscar Wilde, and the Problem of Queer Discretion’, Victorian Popular Fiction Journal, [Forthcoming 2025].
‘On Women Writers: Edith Nesbit and the Case for Women’s Weird’, The International Centre for Victorian Women Writers Newsletter, 18 (2023), 8-10.
Conference Papers
‘Queer Codes and Cosmic Horrors: Exploring Queer Desire in Late-Nineteenth Century Weird Fiction’, Sex, Scandal and Sensationalism Conference (Falmouth University, July 2024).
‘Neither Queer nor There: Uncovering Queer Space in Arthur Machen’s ‘The Lost Club’ (1890)’, Victorian Popular Fiction Association 15th Annual Hybrid Conference (Bishop Grosseteste University, July 2023).