Doireann MacDermott

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Doireann MacDermott
Born (1923-12-13) 13 December 1923 (age 100)
Dublin, Irish Free State
NationalityIrish
CitizenshipSpanish
Alma mater
Occupation(s)translator, academic, writer
EmployerUniversity of Barcelona
TitleProfessor, Chair
SpouseRamón Carnicer Blanco

Doireann MacDermott (/ˈdɔːriən məkˈdɜːmət/ DOR-ee-ən mək-DUR-mət;[1] born 13 December 1923) is an Irish translator, writer, an academic in the field of Spanish philology, and a retired professor of English studies at the University of Barcelona.[1][2][3] She pioneered the study of the language and literature of the English-speaking countries of the former Commonwealth.[4]

Early life[edit]

MacDermott was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1923 to an Irish father, Anthony MacDermott, who was an officer in the British Royal Navy and a white Canadian mother,[1] Evelyn Goodridge, who was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and educated in Germany. From 1924 to 1930 she lived with her family in Bad Ischl, Austria.[1] In 1930 they moved to the Isle of Wight, off the southwestern coast of England.[1] In 1939, her brother, Diarmuid MacDermott, died in the sinking of the British warship HMS Royal Oak, which was sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, off the northern coast of Scotland, at the beginning of the Second World War.[1] In 1941 she enlisted in the Royal Navy,[1] serving in various ports in the south-west of England, all of which were heavily bombarded.

Academic career[edit]

In 1947, she began her studies at the Royal Holloway College at the University of London and obtained a degree in 1950.[1] She took a French course at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where she met her future husband, Ramón Carnicer Blanco.[1] From 1950 to 1952 she taught at an international school in Switzerland.[1] In 1952, she settled in Barcelona, Spain,[1] where she was a professor at the British Institute until 1956. In June 1953, she married Ramón Carnicer in Vallvidrera.[1]

In 1953, the pair founded the School of Modern Languages at the University of Barcelona.[1] From 1953 to 1967 she was professor and head of the English section at the School of Modern Languages. In 1955, she was appointed as the first professor of the newly created department of Germanic Philology at the University of Barcelona. In 1962, she graduated in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Madrid. In 1964, she received her doctorate cum laude in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Barcelona, for her thesis "La otra cara de la justicia" ("The other face of justice"), a study on the world of crime in English literature, for which she received the City of Barcelona prize,[5] and was publisher in 1966 by Plaza & Janés.[6]

MacDermott won the position of Institute chair and taught English Language at the Menéndez Pelayo Institute in Barcelona. In 1967, she was appointed first chair of English Language and Literature of the University of Zaragoza, becoming the first women to hold such a position there,[7] as well as being one of the first nationally,[1] and between 1968 and 1971 she directed UofZ's Institute of Language. In 1971, she became chair of English Language and Literature at the University of Barcelona and directed the English Philology Department from 1971 to 1989.[4]

In 1978 she published the book Aldous Huxley, anticipation and return (Plaza & Janés, 1978) after a long research on Aldous Huxley and his work and a period at the University of California, San Diego.[8] In 1978 she gave a course at the University of Barcelona on the colonisation of Australia. In 1980, she toured Australia, at the invitation of the Australian government.

Between 1990 and 1996, she chaired the European branch of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS),[9][1] dedicated to the study of the language and literature of the English-speaking (Commonwealth) countries such as Canada, Australia, India or Nigeria.[10] MacDermott was a pioneer in the introduction into Spain postcolonial studies and published numerous articles on this subject.[4][11][12] A conference named after her is held annually at the University of Barcelona.[13]

She has published books and numerous articles in Spain and other countries, and has collaborated in magazines such as Laye and Historia y Vida and in academic publications in Spain and abroad. She has organised and participated in numerous academic conferences. She has translated numerous books to/from English and also from German and French into Spanish, some in collaboration with her husband. She curated the Universal Classics series for the Editorial Planeta publishing house. She has written encyclopedia articles on the topic of English authors, 16 for the Enciclopedia Salvat and 13 for the Rialp Encyclopedia.

Works[edit]

Essays and literary studies[edit]

  • "La representación de "Romeo y Julieta" en el teatro isabelino" [Representation of "Romeo and Juliet" in Elizabethan Theatre]. Estudios Escénicos, Cuadernos del Instituto del Teatro (in Spanish) (11). Barcelona: Instituto del Teatro Nacional, Barcelona. 1965.
  • La otra cara de la justicia (Thesis). Barcelona: Plaza & Janés. 1966. OCLC 807566128. Essay on the world of crime according to the testimony of English literature.
  • Smelfungus and Yorick. Zaragoza: Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Zaragoza. 1969. OCLC 807681445.
  • Novelistas ingleses [English Novelists] (in Spanish). Madrid: Sociedad General Española de Librería. 1976. ISBN 8471431130. OCLC 803117928. – A profile of 24 English writers with a selection of texts.
  • Aldous Huxley, anticipación y retorno [Aldous Huxley, anticipation and return] (in Spanish). Barcelona: Plaza & Janés. 1978. ISBN 8401340586. OCLC 642099577. Complete study of the life and work of Aldous Huxley.[8]
  • MacDermott, Doireann, ed. (1984). Autobiographical and biographical writing in the Commonwealth: proceedings of the EACLALS Conference 1984 (Report). Sabadell: EACLALS. ISBN 8439837291. OCLC 15369385.[14][15]
  • Civilización de los países de habla inglesa [Civilization of the English-speaking countries] (in Spanish). Barcelona. 1985. OCLC 433993152.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  • MacDermott, Doireann; Ballyn, Susan, eds. (1988). A passage to somewhere else : the proceedings of the Commonwealth Conference held in the University of Barcelona 1987 (Report). Barcelona. OCLC 894775168.
  • Ballyn, Susan; MacDermott, Doireann; Firth, Kathleen, eds. (1995). Australia's changing landscapes : proceedings of the Second EASA Conference : Sitges, 1993 (Report). Barcelona. ISBN 8447704750. OCLC 892254121.
  • Ballyn, Susan; MacDermott, Doireann; Firth, Kathleen, eds. (1996). Who's who in EACLALS. Barcelona. ISBN 8447705404. OCLC 431700193.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Theatre[edit]

  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead but they Won't Lie Down. Barcelona: University Barcelona, 1982[16]
  • No Nunneries for Us, (1982).

As author of the introduction, chronology and bibliography[edit]

About Doireann MacDermott[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Firth Marsden, Kathleen (9 January 2015). "15 minuts amb... Doireann MacDermott" [15 Minutes with...] (in Catalan and English). University of Barcelona. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  2. ^ Reckwitz, Erhard; Vennarini, Lucia; Wegener, Cornelia, eds. (1994). Yearbook of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English. Vol. 3. Die Blaue Eule. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English, p. 300. ISBN 3892065454. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Gaitero, Ana (18 March 2023). "La pionera de los estudios de inglés que se enamoró de El Bierzo" [The pioneer of English studies who fell in love with El Bierzo]. DiarioDeLeon.es.
  4. ^ a b c Breto, Isabel Alonso (1 January 2014). "Doireann MacDermott: Una Pionera de los Estudios Universitarios de Inglés en España" [Doireann MacDermott: A Pioneer of the University study of English in Spain]. Anuari de Filologia. Literatures Contemporànies (in Catalan). No. 4. pp. 99–108. ISSN 2014-1416. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  5. ^ Noticia sobre los premios Ciudad de Barcelona en el diario La Vanguardia del 27 de enero de 1966.
  6. ^ Reseña de la tesis en el diario ABC (Madrid) del 19 de marzo de 1966.
  7. ^ "Solo el 13% de las cátedras de la Universidad de Zaragoza están ocupadas por mujeres" [Only 13% of UofZ Cathedras occupied by Women]. Heraldo de Aragón (in Spanish). Zaragoza: Europa Press. 11 April 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  8. ^ a b Entrevista Archived 4 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine en el diario El País (Madrid) del 29 de noviembre de 1978.
  9. ^ Sitio web de la EACLALS (European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies).
  10. ^ "The Commonwealth". Commonwealth.
  11. ^ "Postcolonial Studies in Spain" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  12. ^ "Trove". trove.nla.gov.au.
  13. ^ "The Doireann MacDermott Lecture". www.ub.edu. 2014. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  14. ^ "Review in Atlantis Journal" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2014.
  15. ^ Ferrer-Vidal, Jorge. "ABC article". ABC.
  16. ^ "6661509 They%2520Wont%2520Lie%2520Down" (PDF).
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