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Professor Linda Dryden is a distinguished scholar in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University, specializing in nineteenth-century literature with particular expertise in Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, and Robert Louis Stevenson. She serves as Director of Studies for multiple PhD candidates and leads the Centre for Literature and Writing (CLAW), contributing significantly to the university's research profile in literary studies.
Her research interests center on fin de siècle literature, exploring the intersections between Gothic literature, science fiction, and imperial romance. Dryden's work examines how authors like Conrad and Wells navigated the boundaries of national identity, empire, and emerging modernism. She has made significant contributions to understanding the literary friendship between Conrad and Wells, as well as Stevenson's influence on later writers. Her scholarship often addresses themes of transnational identity, postcolonial perspectives, and the evolution of narrative forms during the transition to modernism.
Dryden's publications reveal a consistent focus on literary relationships and genre evolution, with recent work analyzing Conrad's transnational identity in imperial fiction and Wells's science fiction as social commentary. Her research demonstrates how these authors engaged with contemporary scientific thought, particularly evolutionary theory, while challenging conventional narrative forms.
Among her notable scholarly contributions are major projects including the Edinburgh Editions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2019-2021), Conrad, Wells and Emergent Modernism (2012-2014), and foundational work establishing the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs). She has secured significant funding from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Carnegie Trust, and Scottish Funding Council to support these initiatives.
As an academic supervisor, Professor Dryden has guided numerous doctoral students through completion, with research topics ranging from nineteenth-century seafaring literature to representations of feminist consciousness in Victorian poetry. Her leadership extends to organizing major academic events, including Conrad workshops at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Robert Louis Stevenson Day celebrations.
