Fraser Buchanan

Thesis Title: Early Modern Literature and the Invention of Atheism

Supervisor: Lorna Hutson

Doctoral Research: My thesis aims to explain and document the literary processes that led to the 'invention' of atheism as a distinct, recognisable concept in late sixteenth-century England. Given the small number of 'real' people who openly rejected God during this period, I am interested in why fictional representations of atheists in plays, dialogues, and sermons were so popular, and how they contributed to the conceivability of disbelief in a society dominated by Christianity.