Life
1928- ; b. Tullow, Co. Carlow; son of a Catholic in the RIC stationed
at Warrenpoint; UCD, Latin and English; soon entered Royal Irish Academy
to study Lieder [singing] with Brian Boydell; became Prof. of Modern English,
UCD, and later Henry James Chair of English and American Letters, NYU;
edited Irish issue of Times Literary Supplement (17 March 1972); Reith Lectures, 1983 (‘Art with Mystery’); American Academy
of Arts and Science, 1983; appointed official biography of W. B. Yeats
by Mrs. Yeats, but resigned this office to F. S. L. Lyons; The Ordinary
Universe: Soundings in Modern Literature (1968); Jonathan Swift
(1971); Warrenpoint (1990); The Pure Good of Theory (1992);
Walter Pater: Lover of Strange Souls (?1995); offers speech in
criticism of post-colonialism in Irish literary criticism, Yeats Summer
School 1997; debates same with Seamus Deane, NYU, Dec. 1997; Adam’s
Curse: Reflections on Religion and Literature (2001); also Speaking of Beauty (2003). DIW DIL
FDA
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Works
Literary Criticism, The Third Voice: Modern British and
American Verse Drama (Princeton UP 1959) [q.pp.]; ed., The Integrity
of Yeats [Thomas Davis Lectures] (Cork: Mercier Press 1964), 70pp.,
and Do. [facs. rep. edn.] (Penn: Folcroft Library Edns. 1971),
[3], 70pp.; ed., with J. R. Mulryne, An Honoured Guest: New
Essays on W. B. Yeats (London: Edward Arnold 1965), [8],196pp.; Connoisseurs
of Chaos: Ideas of Order in Modern American Poetry (London: Faber
& Faber 1966), 254pp., and Do. [2nd edn.] (NY: Columbia U.P.
1984), [7], 293pp.; ed., Swift Revisited [Thomas Davis Lectures]
(Cork: Mercier Press 1968), 89pp.; The Ordinary Universe: Soundings
in Modern Literature (London: Faber 1968), 320pp.; Jonathan Swift:
A Critical Introduction (Cambridge UP 1969, 1971), viii, 235pp.; William
Butler Yeats [Modern Masters] (London: Fontana 1971), 139pp. and Do.
(NY: Viking Press 1971), xiii, 160pp.; Thieves of Fire [T.S. Eliot
Memorial Lectures, 1972] (London: Faber & Faber 1973), 3-139pp. [on
D. H. Lawrence, John Milton, William Blake, Herman Melville]; The Sovereign
Ghost (California UP 1976), London 1978); Ferocious Alphabets (London:
Faber 1981; Columbia UP 1984), xiv, 211pp.; The Selected Essays of
Denis Donoghue [Vol.1:] We Irish (Brighton: Harvester Press
1986), ix, 275pp.; Reading America: Essays on American Literature (NY:
Knopf 1987; rep. Cal. UP 1988), xii, 320pp.; transcribed & ed., Memoirs
[of] W. B. Yeats: Autobiography [and] First
Draft Journal (London: Macmillan 1972, 1988), 318pp.; England,
Their England: Commentaries on English Language and Literature (NY:
Knopf 1988; Cal. UP 1989), x, 365pp.; The Old Moderns: Essays on Literature
and Theory (NY: A. A. Knopf 1994), xiv, 303pp.; The Pure Good of
Theory [Bucknell Lectures in Literary Theory] (Oxford: Blackwell 1992),
viii, 146pp.; Words Alone: The Poet T. S. Eliot (New Haven 2001);
Adam’s Curse: Reflections on Religion and Literature (Notre
Dame UP 2001), 188pp.; Speaking of Beauty (Yale UP 2003), 209pp. Autobiography, Warrenpoint
(London: Cape 1991; Syracuse UP 1994), 193pp., ports.
Shorter writings, Emily Dickinson (Minnesota UP 1969) [monograph]; The American “Waste land” at 50’ Art International, 16, 5, (1972), pp.61 -64, 67 [i.e., Eliot’s poem]; Imagination: The Twenty-fifth W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture [... 25th April 1974] (Glasgow UP 1974), 40pp.; ‘Romantic Ireland,’ in A. Norman Jeffares, ed., Yeats, Sligo, and Ireland (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), pp.17-30; The Politics of Modern Criticism [Bennington Chapbooks in Literature] (Bennington College [1981], 31pp.; with Desmond Guinness, Ascendancy Ireland [William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Seminar Papers, read on 28 September 1985] (W.A. Clark Mem. Lib. 1986); Being Modern Together, intro. Ronald Schuchard [Emory Studies in Humanities, No. 2] (Atlanta: Scholars Press, [1991]), xv, 76pp.; Who Says What [Lecture given ... 21 January 1991], with The Question of Voice [Princess Grace Irish Library Lectures, No. 9] (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1992), 47pp.; What Happens in Othello? [The Hilda Hulme Memorial Lecture; 6 December 1993 (University of London 1994), 30pp.; Three Ways of Reading [Lecture Delivered at the 69th General Meeting of ELSJ, 25th May 1997] (Tokyo: English Literary Society of Japan 1999), 33pp.
Miscellaneous, ed., Seven American Poets from MacLeish to Nemerov: An Introduction [Pamphlets on American Writers] (Minneapolis UP 1963), 329pp.; Jonathan Swift, A Critical Anthology (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1971); William Molyneux The Case of Ireland Stated, intro. by J. G. Simms, afterword, by Denis Donoghue [Irish Writings from the Age of Swift, Vol. 5] (Dublin: Cadenus Press 1977), 148 pp., ill.; intro., Poems of R. P. Blackmur (Princeton UP [1977]), xxix, 153pp.; with Robert W. Burchfield & Andrew Timothy, The Quality of Spoken English on BBC Radio: A Report (London: BBC 1979), 24pp.; Pref. to Liam O'Flaherty, The Informer (NY: Harcourt & Brace 1980); The Arts Without Mystery [Reith Lecture, 1982] (London: BBC 1983), 151pp.; ed. & intro., Selected Essays of R. P. Blackmur (NY: Ecco Press 1985 1986), 372pp.; with Leslie Berlowitz & Louis Menand, eds., America in Theory (NY & Oxford: OUP 1988), 302pp.; annot., Complete Stories [of] Henry James [Library of America] (NY: Library of America 1996), ix, 946pp.; intro., Henry James, The Golden Bowl [Everyman's library, N.S., No.117] (London: D. Campbell 1992), xxxi, 596pp. See also “Critical Theory” Issue of Times Literary Supplement(15 July 1994), pp.4-6 [lengthy discussion of literary theory]; ‘Fears for Irish Studies in an Age of Identity Politics’, in Chronicle of Higher Education, 44, 13 (21 Nov. 1997), pB4f. [taking post-colonialist critics to task for inappropriate application of ‘identity politics’ to Irish literature]; The Practice of Reading (Yale UP 1998); ‘Words Alone’, feature article in anticipation of the book-publication, dealing with ‘genesis’ of Words Alone: The Poet T. S. Eliot, Yale UP], The Irish Times, 16 Dec. 2000, p.12; ‘Ireland, Race, Nation, State’ [Part 1], in Partisan Review, Vol. LXVI, No. 2 (1999), pp.223-34; ‘Fiction and Fact’, interview, in The Village (2 Dec. 2004), Taken from www.bibliocentric.com; Denis Donoghue, ‘The Political Turn of Criticism’, in Irish Review, No. 5, Autumn 1988, p.59.
Reviews
Review of R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 2, in Harper’s Magazine (Dec. 2003), pp.95-102; Review of Terry Eagleton, Heathcliff and the Great Hunger, in The New Republic (21 & 28 Aug. 1995), pp.42-45; Denis Donoghue review of Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland (Irish Times, 1. Nov. 1995), p.8; Review of Alan Heuser’s Selected Literary Criticism of Louis MacNeice, in London Review of Books, 23 April 1987): Note that Peter McDonald replied to Donoghue in the issue of 21 May, while Edna Longley replied on 4 June, asking if Donoghue’s ‘own Irishness is of a kind that does not - will not? - admit MacNeice’s.’
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Criticism
Gerald Dawe, ‘Living in Our Time’, in Linen Hall Review
(Summer 1990), pp.42-43, discusses new perspectives and revised editions
from an Irish poet and two Irish critics, taking issue with Donoghue’s
failure to get to grips with the Thatcherite era in Ireland in We Irish,
Essays on Irish Literature and Society (?1990).
Terry Eagleton, review The Practice of Reading [Yale 1998], in Times Literary Supplement (29 Jan. 1999).
Adam Kirsch, review of Denis Donoghue, Words Alone, The Poet T. S. Eliot (New Haven), in NY Times Review of Books, 26 Nov. 2000. See also review by Stephen Moore in Washington Post, Book World (16-20 Dec. 2000).
Frank Kermode, reviewWords Alone, in The Irish Times (23 Dec. 2000).
Angela Leighton, review of Denis Donoghue, Words Alone: The Poet T. S. Eliot (Yale UP), in Times Literary Supplement (9 Nov. 2001), p.14-15.
A Norman Jeffares, Yeats, Sligo, and Ireland, ed., Colin Smythe, 1980; rep. in Donoghue, We Irish: Essays in Irish Literature and Society, 1986, pp.27-28.
Ronsley, Myth and Reality in Irish Literature, Laurier UP, 1977, p.322.
Noelle King, review of Speaking of Beauty, in Studies, Summer 2004, p.243.
Augustine Martin, ‘What Stalked in the Post Office?’ ([1977], rep. in Crane Bag Book, 1982).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)