Dr Linden Bicket (MA M.Phil PhD AFHEA)
Lecturer in Literature and Religion

Address
- Street
-
Tower Room, School of Divinity, Mound Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
In May 2020 I took up the post of Lecturer in Literature and Religion in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, having previously been Senior Teaching Fellow in the School. Before that, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, also at the University of Edinburgh.
I completed my doctorate on the Catholic imagination of the Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown (1921-1996) at the University of Glasgow in 2012, and my publications to date reflect my inter-disciplinary work in the fields of literature and religion. I am particularly interested in twentieth-century Catholic fiction and poetry, modern Scottish literature, and children's literature, but my research interests also include patterns of faith and scepticism in literature (and film and theatre) more broadly.
I am responsible for postgraduate tutor support, development, and mentorship in the School, and work closely with tutors throughout the academic year.
Qualifications
MA M.Phil PhD AFHEA
Responsibilities & affiliations
I am a member of the newly-formed Scottish Network for Religion and Literature.
External appointments
Assistant Editor for the journal of Scottish Catholic history, Innes Review
Member of Council and Trustee of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association
Associate Member of the St Andrew's Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education
Member of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies
Useful Links
Innes Review - http://www.euppublishing.com/journal/inr
Undergraduate teaching
Scottish Literature and the Religious Imagination
The Bible in Literature
Film, Religion and Ethics
Modern Religious and Ethical Debates in Contemporary Literature
Popular Religion, Women and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding
Theatre, Religion and the Search for Peace
Postgraduate teaching
Scottish Literature, Imagination, and Faith
Research summary
The Catholic imagination in twentieth-century British and American fiction and poetry
Patterns of faith and scepticism in literature
Twentieth century and contemporary Scottish Literature
Film and religion
The Bible in literature
Children's literature and religion
Current research interests
Current research focuses on the role of religion in Scottish and British poetry and fiction, particularly of the twentieth century.Affiliated research centres
-
Catholic and Protestant sensibilities in Scottish literature: Stevenson to Spark
(17 pages)
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Unlocking Scottish balladry and folklore in George MacDonald's "The Golden Key"
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
George Mackay Brown and the Scottish Catholic Imagination
(208 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Two neglected poets of late Victorian Scotland: John Luby and James Lynch
In:
Scottish Literary Review, vol. 9, pp. 59-81
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The Fiction of Robin Jenkins: Some Kind of Grace
(280 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Football colours allowed: Sectarianism and contemporary Scottish theatre
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Reprise or Resolution? A Would-Be Saint, and Robin Jenkins's Final Novel, The Pearl Fishers
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Our peace is to do God's will: Peacebuilding through hagiography in the work of George Mackay Brown
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
George Mackay Brown's 'Celia': The Creative Conversion of a Catholic Heroine
In:
Studies in Scottish Literature, vol. 40, pp. 167-182
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The Short Stories of George Mackay Brown
(82 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
George Mackay Brown's Marian Apocrypha: Iconography and enculturation in Time in a Red Coat
In:
Scottish Literary Review, vol. 5, pp. 81-96
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
When stories are told in the sea a magic gets into them: George Mackay Brown's Fiction for Children
(14 pages)
Research output: › Chapter (Published)
Conference details
11 November 2017, Day Conference: 'George Mackay Brown: Spirituality and Community in his Life and Work'. Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace.
1-2 February 2018, 'Muriel Spark and Scottish Catholic Fiction', Muriel Spark Cententary Symposium, University of Glasgow.
12 February 2018, 'George Mackay Brown: "To Wonder is to Praise"', St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy, University of Edinburgh.
19 April 2018, 'Rough Jottings and Early Shapings: George Mackay Brown in the Archives', Colloquium for the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections, National Library of Scotland.
16 May 2018, '"The Knox-ruined nation"? Scottish Catholic Fiction in the Twentieth Century', Literature, Theology and the Arts Network, University of Glasgow.
15 October 2018, '"The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: Scottish Catholic Fiction', Stirling Literary Society.
4 May 2019, 'The Catholic Imagination of George Mackay Brown', Faith in the North: Reviving Cultures (symposium), Pluscarden Abbey.
14 May 2019, '"Rhythms and Images and Legends Are Everywhere" - George Mackay Brown's Orkney', Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies (seminar paper), University of Glasgow.