Dr Mark Knight

Room: Fincham 304
Office Hours (spring 2010): Tuesdays 11-12.30,
Thursdays 2-3.30

I came to Roehampton after studying English Literature,
History and Theology at the University of Hull and King’s
College London. While my teaching covers a range of
nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, my main
research interests are in religion and literature, Victorian
literature and G. K. Chesterton. Currently, I am working on a
new monograph provisionally entitled Good Words:
Evangelicalism and the Development of the Nineteeenth-
Century Novel, as well writing an article on "Religion and
Sensation" for the Blackwell Companion to Sensation
Fiction and an article on "Wirkungsgeschichte,
Reception History, Reception Theory" for a special issue of
the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. I am on
the editorial board of the journal Literature and
Theology and, with Emma Mason, I am co-editing a new
book series for Continuum entitled "New Directions in
Religion and Literature".

I would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in
coming to study with me at Roehampton.

Publications

Authored Books
- An Introduction to Religion and Literature. London:
Continuum, 2009.
- Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature: An
Introduction. Co-authored with Emma Mason. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Chesterton and Evil. New York: Fordham University
Press, 2004.

Edited Books
- Religion, Literature and the Imagination. Co-edited
with Louise Lee. London: Continuum, 2009.
- Biblical Religion and the Novel, 1700-2000. Co-
edited with Thomas Woodman. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
- Edition of Mary Cecil Hay’s Old Myddelton’s Money.
Vol 5 of Varieties of Women’s Sensation Fiction. Gen ed.
Andrew Maunder. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2004.

Articles
- "Saving Literary Criticism." (Co-authored with Emma
Mason). In Knight & Lee, Religion, Literature and the
Imagination.
- "Signs Taken for Wonders: Adverts and Sacraments in
Chesterton's London." Yearbook of English Studies
39.1-2 (2009): 126-36.
- "Sensation Fiction and the Bible." In The Blackwell
Companion to the Bible in English Literature. Eds.
Rebecca Lemon, Emma Mason, Jon Roberts & Chris Rowland.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2009.
- "Figuring out the Fascination: Recent Trends in Criticism
on Victorian Sensation and Crime Fiction." Victorian
Literature and Culture 37.1 (2009): 323-333.
- "'The Haunted the Haunters': Bulwer Lytton's Philosophical
Ghost Story." Nineteenth-Century Contexts 28.3
(September 2006): 245-55.
- "A Purely Pure Prayer would be Deadly: Religious Discourse
in the Early Novels of All the Year Round." In Knight and
Woodman, eds. Biblical Religion and the Novel.
- “Little Dorrit and Providence.” Dickens Studies Annual
Vol. 32. (2002): 179-193.
- “Rethinking Bibliolatry: Wilkie Collins, William Booth, and
the Culture of Evangelicalism.” Wilkie Collins Society
Journal New Series Vol. 3 (2000): 47-58.
- “Chesterton, Dostoevsky and Freedom.” English
Literature in Transition Vol. 43.1 (2000): 37-50.
- “Chesterton and the Cross.” Christianity and Literature
Vol. 49.4 (2000): 485-497.
- “Chesterton and the Problem of Evil.” Literature and
Theology Vol. 14.4 (2000): 373-384.

Book Reviews
I have written reviews for: Christianity and Literature,
English Literature in Transition, Journal of Victorian
Culture, Literature and Theology, Media History,
Modern Language Review, Victorian Studies,
Wilkie Collins Society Journal, Women's Writing,
and Yearbook of English Studies.

PhD Students

- Julia Jones. Family Fictions: The Working Life of
Herbert Allingham, 1867-1936. Awarded 2006.
- Louise Lee. Charles Kingsley and the Politics of
Authorship. Awarded 2009.
- Loni Reynolds. Spirituality and the Beats.
2007-.
- Maria Soultouki. Geoffrey Hartman and the Challenge
of Reading Postmodern Literature. 2008-.
- Lyn Poole. Postmodern ideas of the eschaton in the
fiction of J. G. Ballard, Alasdair Gray and Douglas
Coupland. 2008-.
- John Martin. Music and Mission in the Salvation Army.
2008-.
- Michael Zand. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: a
Contemporary Reinterpretation. 2009-.