Dr Miles Leeson
Reader in English Literature
About
Dr Miles Leeson is the Director of the IMRC and Visiting Research Fellow at Kingston University.
He is the lead editor of the Iris Murdoch Review, the Series Editor of ‘Iris Murdoch Today’ with Palgrave Macmillan, and has published widely on Murdoch鈥檚 work.
He published Iris Murdoch: Philosophical Novelist (Continuum) in 2010, the edited collection Incest in Contemporary Literature (Manchester University Press, 2018), the festschrift Iris Murdoch: A Centenary Celebration (Sabrestorm Fiction, 2019), the edited collection Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)聽and is currently writing Iris Murdoch: Feminist. All enquiries related to the IMRC should be directed to him in the first instance.
Professional
Module Co-ordinator for:
- Year 1聽 Decadence and Desire:聽Late 19th Century Literature
- Year 1 Conflicts and Controversies in Victorian Literature
- Year 1 Contemporary Fiction: War, Women, and the World
- Year 2 Agents of Change: Women’s Writing in the 20th聽and 21st Centuries
- Year 3聽 聽European Literary Legacies: Writing the City (Venice)
- 聽MA聽聽Literature in the Present Moment
- MA Activating Research
Research
Dr Leeson focuses on areas including:
- Contemporary British and European fiction
- Intertextuality in Fiction
- Transdisciplinary work in philosophy and ethics in relation to Literature
- Trauma Studies
He is also the Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre.
Key Publications
Monographs and Edited Collections
- Iris Murdoch: Philosophical Novelist London聽Continuum Press, 2010 (Paperback, October 2011)
- Incest in Contemporary Literature聽 Manchester University Press, 2018 (Paperback, 2019)
- Iris Murdoch: A Centenary Celebration聽 Sabrestorm Fiction, 2019
- Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination聽 Palgrave Macmillan 2022
- Iris Murdoch, Feminist聽 (In development)
Articles and Essays
- 鈥楳orality in a World without God: Iris Murdoch and Martin Heidegger鈥� in Simone Roberts and Alison Scott-Baumann (eds.) Iris Murdoch and the Moral Imagination: Essays Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press June 2010 [p.221-237]
- 鈥業ris Murdoch鈥檚 A Severed Head 鈥� A Revision of Ideas: Freud and Nietzsche鈥� in The McNeese Review McNeese University, Lake Charles, Louisiana Vol. 47, November 2009 [p.66-84]
- 鈥楾he Engendered and Dis-engendered Other in Iris Murdoch鈥檚 Early Fiction鈥� in Claire Westall and Rina Kim (eds.) Cross-Gendered Voices: Appropriating, Resisting, Embracing Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan May 2012 [p.113 鈥� 127]
- 鈥楾he French Connection: Iris Murdoch and Raymond Queneau鈥� in Mark Luprech (ed.) Iris Murdoch: Influence and Influences Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press (2014)
- 鈥樷�淸T]he thing that makes us different from other people鈥�: Narrating incest through 鈥榙iff茅rance鈥� in the work of Angela Carter, A.S. Byatt and Doris Lessing鈥� (Co-authored) in聽Miles Leeson (ed.)聽Incest in Contemporary Literature聽 Manchester University Press, 2018
- 鈥楢vuncular Ambiguity: Ethical virtue in Murdoch鈥檚 The Black Prince and Simone de Beauvoir鈥檚 The Mandarins鈥� in聽Miles Leeson (ed.) in聽聽Incest in Contemporary Literature聽 Manchester University Press, 2018
- ‘Encoding Love: Hidden聽Correspondence in the fiction聽of Brigid Brophy and Iris Murdoch’ in Richard Canning and Gerri Kimber (eds.) Brigid Brophy in Transition, 2019
- ‘Iris Murdoch: Fictive Theologian’ in Andrew Taylor and Paul Fiddes (eds.) Iris Murdoch and Theology, Oxford: Firedint Press, 2019
- ‘Encoding Love: Hidden聽Correspondence in the fiction聽of Brigid Brophy and Iris Murdoch’ in Richard Canning and Gerri Kimber (eds.) Brigid Brophy in Transition, Edinburgh University Press, 2020
Media Work
Miles has appeared on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5Live, as well as writing for The Guardian, English Review, Books Ireland, and the Northern Ballet, and featuring on the Netflix聽documentary series ‘Myths and Monsters’.
Reviews and Contributions
- Member of the Editorial Board for the Postgraduate English Journal, University of Durham
- Reader for Miscelanea, University of Zaragoza
- Reader for University of Iowa Press
- Review of Bran Nicol, Iris Murdoch: The Retrospective Fiction Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004 in Textual Practice Vol. 20 2006 [p.573 – 576]
- Review of Roula Oikonomakia, Metaphysical Ethography: ‘Gods, Godgames and Goodness’ in John Fowles’ The Magus and Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea Bern: Peter Lang, 2008 in The Iris Murdoch Review Vol 1, 3 [p.46 鈥� 47]
- Review of Matt Kimmich, Offspring Fictions: Salman Rushdie鈥檚 Family Novels Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2008 in The European Journal of English Studies (2012)
- Review of Eibhear Walshe (ed.), Irish Writers in their Time: Elizabeth Bowen Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2009 in The European Journal of English Studies ( 2012)
- Review of Anne Rowe and Avril Horner (eds.), Iris Murdoch and Morality Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 in Miscelanea, University of Zaragoza ( 2012)
Research Output
Book Sections
Leeson, M. (2023) In: The Schopenhauerian Mind. Routledge Philosophical Minds . Routledge, London, pp. 544-555. ISBN 9780367501532 (In Press)
Leeson, M. (2023) In: Iris Murdoch and the Literary Imagination. Iris Murdoch Today . Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 147-162. ISBN 9783031272158
Leeson, M. (2022) In: The Murdochian Mind. Routledge philosophical minds . Routledge, London, UK, pp. 363-375. ISBN 9780367468019
Leeson, M. (2020) In: Brigid Brophy Collection. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 143-161. ISBN 9781474462662
Leeson, M. (2018) In: Incest in Contemporary Literature. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 9781526122162
Leeson, M. and Miller, E. (2018) In: Incest in Contemporary Literature. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 9781526122162
Leeson, M. (2014) In: Iris Murdoch Connected. Tenn Studies Literature . The University of Tennessee Press, Tennessee, pp. 45-57. ISBN 978-1-62190-056-6
Leeson, M. (2012) In: Cross-Gendered Literary Voices: Appropriating, Resisting, Embracing. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, pp. 113-131. ISBN 978-0-230-29978-0
Books
Leeson, M. and White, F. (2023) Iris Murdoch Today . Palgrave Macmillan, London. ISBN 978-3-031-27215-8
Leeson, M. (2019) Saberstorm Fiction, Devizes. ISBN 9781912972005
Leeson, M. (2018) Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 9781526122162
Leeson, M. (2010) Continuum Literary Studies . Continuum, London. ISBN 978-0-8264-4370-0
