Staff profile

I have taught the MA Literature and Religion module in the Department of Theology in Durham since 1999 and have interests in nineteenth and twentieth and twentyfirst century English Literature, from Romanticism to Post-Modernism, writing and thinking with particular interest in theological modernism from around 1880 - 1940 and writing primarily on woman novelists and poets, principally Mrs Humphry Ward (1851 - 1920) and Stevie Smith (1902 - 1971) though with a separate interest in the poetry of Elizabeth Jennings (1926 - 2001). 

I am a Fellow of St John's College, Durham and am currently also working part-time in St Chad's College during the academic year 2015/16 on pastoral and welfare issues. 

From 1996 until 2007 I was a member of the Board of Studies of the Department of English in Durham University and taught the Victorian Period and American Literature but principally the Novel in tutorial teaching in minority time set against majority time working as Vice-Principal of St Mary's College until 2014. 

Originally my doctoral work focussed on the writing, particularly the previously unpublished 1860s MSS juvenilia, of Mary Arnold (niece of Matthew Arnold) later Mrs Humphry Ward, eminent Edwardian novelist and friend of Henry James, and the relationship the juvenilia bear to her twenty five published novels. These interests continue to generate conference papers and publications. Mrs Humphry Ward's historically most significant three volume novel Robert Elsmere (1888) explores the theme of an evangelical clergyman whose reading of Biblical Criticism leads him to abandon the Church of England and form an idealistic socialist theism, which Mrs Humphry Ward herself espoused. This engaged agnosticism is also evident in the writing of Stevie Smith, on whom a chapter and a conference paper are in preparation for 2015/16.

In the past I regularly organised Durham University conferences in English Literature and Religion, originally with Moscow State University in a three cornered partnership which lasted until 2009. My next conference in Durham will involve organising literary contributions to the 'Exploring the Glory of God' conference to be held from 6 - 9 July 2016 in Durham.

 

 

Publications list in preparation.

 

• 2012: Durham Student Union Teaching Award:

Available for media contact about:

• Language, Literature & the Arts: Nineteenth Century Literary Juvenilia (writing and poetry by children and adolescents)
• Religion: Fictional Writing exploring Christian Theological Modernism by Mrs Humphry Ward and Stevie Smith.

Book review

• Boughton, Gillian (2000). 'Atlantic Literary Crossings', reviewing Blackwell: 'A Companion to Romanticism' ed. Wu; and 'A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture' ed. Tucker. The Times Higher Education Supplement (1,437).

Chapter in book

• Boughton, Gillian (2016). 'Stevie Smith's Serious Play: A Modernist Reframing of Christian Orthodoxy'. In Modernist Women Writers and Spirituality: A Piercing Darkness. Anderson, Elizabeth, Radford, Andrew & Walton, Heather Palgrave Macmillan UK. 55-68.
• Boughton, Gillian (2016). 'Coming to terms with "Home": Mary Arnold's Engagement with Domestic Norms in her Narrative Juvenilia of 1867 - 1869'. In Home and Away: the Place of the Child Writer. Owen, David & Peterson, Leslie. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 68-80.
• Boughton, Gillian (2005). 'Dr Arnold's Granddaughter: Mary Augusta Ward'. In 'The Child Writer: Austen to Woolf'. Alexander, Christine & McMaster, Juliet. Cambridge University Press.
• Boughton, Gillian (1999). '"Either fire or fire": explorations of heaven and hell in the writing of Golding and Dostoevsky'. In Through Each Others' Eyes. Gorbunov, Andrei, & Minney, Penny. Moscow: Rudomino Press. 66 - 80.
• Boughton, Gillian (1995). Mary C. Moorman (1905 - 1994). In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twentieth Century British Biographers. Serafin, Steven. Bruccoli Clark Layman. 155: 202 - 210.

Doctoral Thesis

• Boughton, Gillian (1995). The Juvenilia of Mrs Humphry Ward (1851-1920): a diplomatic edition of six previously unpublished narratives derived from original manuscript sources. Durham University. PhD.

Edited Sources, Research Data Sets and Databases

• (2016). Dictionary of National Biography: 'Etchells, (Dorothea) Ruth (1931-2012)'. Oxford University Press.

Journal Article

• Boughton, Gillian (1999). 'God and the Novelists 6. Stevie Smith'. The Expository Times 110(4): 101 - 107.
• Boughton, Gillian (1999). Obituary: Iris Murdoch. Third Way 22(2): 8 - 10.
• Boughton, Gillian (1999). '"Down the Nights and Down the Days": Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility', Edward L. Shaughnessy, Notre Dame Indiana (1996). Literature and Theology 13: 180 - 181.
• Boughton, Gillian (1998). 'Mary Moorman, 1905 - 1994'. The Worldsworth Circle XXIX(2): 91 - 97.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Boughton, Gillian (2012). Ruth Etchells: Obituary. The Guardian
• Boughton, Gillian (1999). Review of 'Literary Converts: Spiritual inspiration in an age of unbelief', Joseph Pearce (1999). Third Way 22(7): 28.
• Boughton, Gillian (1996). Literary Criticism - In Brief: 'A review of Charlotte Bronte, "High Life in Verdopolis". Times Literary Supplement 31.
• Boughton, Gillian (1994). Obituary: Mary C. Moorman. The Guardian (7 February 1994).

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Boughton, Gillian E. (Published). Mrs Humphry Ward (1851 - 1920). The Literary Encyclopedia 1.1.1.07.

Performance

• Boughton, Gillian (1996). 'Flight into Egypt'. BBC Radio Newcastle. Performed November 1999.

Presentation

• Boughton, Gillian (2015), 'Doggerel and "the dogs": Poetry by children of the Arnold family in the Fox How Magazines 1838 - 1840', International Juvenilia Conference. Autonomous University of Barcelona.
• Boughton, Gillian (2014), 'Framing/reframing orthdoxy in Stevie Smith's poetry and prose', Women Modernists and Spirituality Conference. University of Stirling.
• Boughton, Gillian (2013), 'Juvenilia accidentals', International Juvenilia Conference. Durham University.
• Boughton, Gillian (2009), 'Mary Arnold to Mrs Humphry Ward (1851 - 1920) and the Archaeology of Editing Juvenilia', Victorian Studies Centre, Seminar Series. University of Leceister.
• Boughton, Gillian (1995), The 'Fox How Magazine': Arnold family Juvenilia, International Juvenilia Conference. Durham University.

Translated Book

• Boughton, Gillian (trans.) (1976). 'Romulus der Grosse' by Friedrich Durrenmatt .