Member Profile

Name: Dr Ailise Bulfin Institution: University College Dublin
Academic Status: University/college academic Main Discipline: Literary Studies
Additional Disciplines: Cultural Studies
History
Other Scholarly Societies: VPFA
Research Interests: My research and teaching interests lie primarily in the cultural history of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on representations of empire, war and catastrophe. My current project investigates the prevalent concern with invasion and war in fin-de-siècle popular fiction, one strand in a wider contemporary ‘apocalyptic imaginary’ of catastrophe and collapse. Entitled Gothic Invasions: Imperialism and Fin-de-Siècle Popular Fiction, 1890-1914, the monograph traces the roots of invasion anxiety to fears concerning the downside of Britain’s continuing imperial expansion: fears of growing inter-European rivalry and colonial wars and rebellion and explores how these fears were expressed in narratives that draw strongly upon the conventions and themes of Gothic writing. My future research direction is into representations of child sexual abuse in Victorian culture.

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