I am currently a Postgraduate Researcher in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol.
I have research interests in experimental fiction, non-linear narratives, verse novels, and the representation of the Gothic in modern fiction. My other research interests include illness narratives, the depiction of prehistoric culture in modern fiction, and totemism. A lot of my work is interdisciplinary, among creative writing, literary theory, anthropology, and medical humanities.
Research Outputs:
- – “The Land of Death: Gothic Prehistoric Environments” (Invited Talk) at Goths for Breakfast, Madeline Dyer Statham, 24 Mar 2024
- ‘“We only want authenticity if it’s neat and tidy”: vulnerability, chaos, and rule-breaking in GIRL, VANISHING” (Conference paper at the Brat Symposium, University of Bristol), Madeline Dyer Statham, 23 October 2024 – This paper explores whether mental anguish can ever be fully and adequately portrayed in novels, especially amid a publishing industry that values neatness of representation over authenticity. I examine how, on paper, my trauma-based young-adult novel was commended for its rawness and authenticity in its representation of mental health, yet industry professionals stated this same rawness prevented it from being suitable. “No one wants to read about people with voices in their heads who aren’t cured by the novel’s end,” advisors said, culminating in this manuscript being dropped from submission. Yet this novel was me—my chaos, my messiness, my vulnerability. Encouraged to be honest and authentic, I had found a way to portray my mental anguish, but I was denied a platform because my truth was messy, and authenticity is only acceptable if it is ‘tidy’.
- “Monster, Mage, Medicine Man, or Myth? Neanderthal Representations in Popular Culture from 1865 to the Present Day” (Conference paper at The British Society for Literature and Science Online Conference, May 8th and 9th 2025, Madeline Dyer Statham). Early archaeological discoveries of Homo Neanderthalensis took place amid concerns of degeneration and racial imperialism, constructing the Neanderthal as uncultured and brutish, a view that survived into 20th century fiction, such as H.G. Wells’s ‘The Grisly Folk’. Neanderthal as Monster held strong until the late 20th century, when discoveries of Neanderthals’ symbolic behaviour led to novels such as Jean M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980), which incorporate a softer, sympathetic, and spiritual Neanderthal as Mage, however not without overt Othering of Neanderthals due to perceived inferiority. While Western medical knowledge improved into the 21st century, so did our awareness of Neanderthal medicinal practice: their extraction of Poplar trees’ Salicylic acid as painkiller, successful amputations, and bone-healing abilities transformed beliefs around the Neanderthal. Neanderthal as Scientist emerged, such as in Robert J. Sawyer’s The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy (2002-2003), however, this did not reproduce enough in literary, artistic, and filmic representations. Instead, Neanderthal as Monster resurged, this time overtly emphasizing cannibalism and degeneration to dehumanise the Neanderthal—such as in Grendel’s Neanderthalic depiction in Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel (2005) and horror film Out of Darkness (2024); instead, Neanderthal has become Gothic Monster, Menace, and Myth.
