Denis Donoghue (academic)

Denis Donoghue (born 1928) is an Irish literary critic. He is the Henry James Chair of English and American Letters at New York University.^[1]

He was born at Tullow, County Carlow, into a Roman Catholic family, and was brought up in Warrenpoint, County Down, Northern Ireland, where his father was sergeant-in-charge of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. He was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in Newry, County Down. He studied Latin and English at University College, Dublin, graduating in 1949; and then at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He completed a doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1957, and returned to Dublin, becoming a professor at UCD.^[2] Since the late 1970s he has been a professor at New York University.

Personal life

He married Frances Rutledge ; the couple has eight children, including Emma (born 1969), a Canadian novelist, literary historian, teacher, playwright, radio and film scriptwriter.

Works

Broadcasting

In 1982 the BBC invited Donoghue to present its annual Reith ectures. Across six lectures, entitled The Arts Without Mystery, he posited that society's rationalisation of art is purportedly destroying its mystery. ^{[citation needed]}

Sources

• Christopher J. Knight (2003) Uncommon Readers: Denis Donoghue, Frank Kermode, George Steiner, and the Tradition of the Common Reader.

References

1. ↑ Profile at New York University website
2. ↑ Denis Donoghue at Ricorso