RÓNÁN McDONALD

Research interests
My research interests in Beckett are evident in my first book, Tragedy and Irish Literature: Synge, O’Casey and Beckett (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). I have also authored the Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett (2006) and numerous scholarly articles and reviews relating to Beckett. I wrote the Preface for the new edition of Endgame published by Faber (2009). I assisted the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in their touring exhibition, ‘Samuel Beckett: A Centenary Celebration’, and wrote the pamphlet to accompany the exhibition Samuel Beckett: The Life and the Work.

I also have research interests in Irish literature more generally, literature and ‘value’ and the history and theory of literary criticism. My most recent book was The Death of the Critic (Continuum, 2007, pb. 2009)

Ongoing research projects
I am currently completing a book entitled Darwinism, Degeneration and the Irish Revival. I am Principal Investigator in two major research bids pertaining to Beckett, one on Beckett and the Visual Arts, the other on Franco-Irish Contexts for Beckett’s work in the 1940s.

« Back to Staff Research