Dr Sinéad Mooney

I joined De Monfort University in 2014 as a Research Fellow and in 2016 was appointed a Senior Lecturer in English. My research interests include Irish literature, modernism, the work of Samuel Beckett, and women’s writing, particularly Irish women's writing of the late 19th and early 20th century. I have taught and published widely in these areas. 

My publications include A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation (Oxford University Press, 2011), which won the American Conference for Irish Studies Robert Rhodes Prize; Samuel Beckett (Writers and Their Work, Northcote House, 2006); and Edna O’Brien: New Critical Perspectives. Co-edited with Kathryn Laing and Maureen O’Connor (Carysfort, 2006). Recent work includes essays on early English productions of Waiting for Godot and their traces in provincial theatre archives, and essays on Mary Lavin, Edna O'Brien, and the anti-nationalist politics of Beckett's fiction. I am currently working on the 'decadent' novelist Katherine Cecil Thurston as part of a book project on Irish women’s modernism. 

I am the co-organiser with Kathryn Laing (Mary Immaculate, Limerick) of the interdisciplinary conference 'Occluded Narratives': Researching Irish Women's Writing 1890-1910' (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick 25-26th November 2016) and a founder member of the Irish Women's Writing Network.

Forthcoming publications include an essay on Edna O'Brien in A History of Modern Irish Women's Literature, an essay on Beckett's narrators in The Oxford Handbook of Irish Fiction, and essays on the early production history of Waiting for Godot in Contemporary Theatre Review and Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui.

A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation. (Oxford University Press, 2011). Winner of the American Conference for Irish Studies Robert Rhodes Prize (2012).

Samuel Beckett. Writers and Their Work series. (Northcote House, 2006).

Edited Collections:

Edna O’Brien: New Critical Perspectives. Co-edited with Kathryn Laing and Maureen O’Connor. (Dublin: Carysfort, 2006).

Selected Journal Articles:

'Demented Particulars': Traces of Godot and the Provincial Theatre Archive.' Contemporary Theatre Review vol. 27 no 1 (2017).

'"Radish, One Per Night": Early Godots in the Regional Theatre Archive.' Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 28 (2017).

‘“Others’ words”:  Traces of Translation in Beckett’s Trilogy.’ The Beckett Circle vol 30 no 1 (Spring 2007): 35-42.

‘“Unstable compounds”: Bowen’s Beckettian Affinities.’  Modern Fiction Studies 53.2 (Summer 2007): 238-256.

‘“Kicking Against the Thermolaters”: Beckett Reading Irish Poetry.’ Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 15 (2005): 30-42.

‘A Roving Cancellation: Self-Translation as Self-Divestiture.’ Journal of Beckett Studies 10 (2002): 222-234.

‘“An Atropos all in black”, or Ill Seen Worse Translated.’ Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 12 (2002): 163-177.

‘“Integrity in a surplice”: Samuel Beckett’s (post-) Protestant Poetics.’ Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 9 (2000): 223-239.

Selected Contributions to edited volumes:

'Edna O'Brien.' In Heather Ingman and Cliona O'Gallchoir, eds.,  A History of Irish Women's Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

‘“Up the Republic!”: Nation, Narration and Translation in Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy.'  In Liam Harte, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2017).

‘Stranded objects’: Topographies of Loss in Mary Lavin’s Widow Stories.’ Mary Lavin, ed Elke D’hoker. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013), 187-205.

‘Beckett in French and English.’  Blackwell Companion to Samuel Beckett, ed SE Gontarski. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2009), 196-208.

‘Ghost Writer: Beckett and Irish Gothic.” Beckett and Ireland, ed Seán Kennedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 131-149.

‘“Unstable compounds”: Bowen’s Beckettian Affinities.’ Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives, ed Susan Osborn. (Cork: Cork University Press, 2009), 13-33. Expanded version of Modern Fiction Studies essay (see above).

“Elizabeth Bowen and the Modern Ghost.” Elizabeth Bowen, ed Eibhear Walshe. Irish Writers and Their Time. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2008), 77-94.

‘“I, say I”: Beckett, Ventriloquism, Translation.’ Beckett – Screens of Silence; Beckett – Écrans de silence, eds, Irene Gilsenan Nordin and Véronique Simon. (Np: Compostela Group of Universities/Marysak University Press, 2008), 107-129.

“Edna O’Brien, ‘A Rose in the Heart of New York.’” A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story in English, eds David Malcolm and Cheryl Alexander. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2008), 431-439.

“Dark, established currents: Molly Keane’s Gothic.’ Molly Keane: Centenary Essays, eds Eibhear Walshe and Gwenda Young. Four Courts Press, 2006 pp195-211.

“Sacramental sleeves: Fashioning the Female Subject in the Fiction of Edna O’Brien.’ Edna O’Brien: New Critical Perspectives, eds Kathryn Laing, Sinéad Mooney, Maureen O’Connor. (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2006), 196-218.

• The work of Samuel Beckett; modernism; Irish literature; women’s writing.
• Recent projects include research on productions of Waiting for Godot outside theatrical centres for the Theatre Archive Project, an investigation into British theatre history 1945-68 co-hosted by De Montfort University and the British Library, a survey essay on the work of Edna O'Brien, an essay on the Irish ‘decadent’ novelist Katherine Cecil Thurston and an ongoing book project on Irish women’s modernism.

Irish literature, modernism, women's writing, contemporary fiction.

D.Phil in English University of Oxford (2002)

MA in English University College Cork (1996)

Joint Honours B.A. in English and French University College Cork (1993)

2016-17 ENGL1011 Introduction to the Novel

2012: American Conference for Irish Studies Robert Rhodes Prize for A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation (Oxford University Press, 2011).

2010: MARBL Fellowship University of Emory.

2008-9: Research Fellowship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

2007-8: National University of Ireland Millennium Award.

1997-2000 Scatcherd European Scholarship (University of Oxford); National University of Ireland Travelling Studentship Award; Prendergast Bequest Scholarship (University of Oxford).

MLA; International Association for the Study of Irish Literature; British Association for Irish Studies; British Association for Modernist Studies; European Federation of Associations and Centres for Irish Studies; Gender, Culture and the Knowledge Society Advanced Research Consortium; Women on Ireland Research Network; London Beckett Seminar. Co-founder of the Irish Women's Writing Research Network (1890-1910).

Research on Katherine Cecil Thurston. Ongoing book project on Irish women's modernism.

I am co-organiser of a major international symposium Occluded Narratives: Researching Irish Women's Writing 1890-1910 (Mary Immaculate, University of Limerick, November 25th-26th 2016.

https://irishwomenswritingsymposium.wordpress.com/symposium

'Feminism in the Archive: Katherine Cecil Thurston, Modernism and the Popular Novel.' Occluded Narratives: Irish Women's Writing 1890-1910, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, November 25th-26th 2016.

"‘Centre and Circumference’: Traces of Provincial Godots in the Theatrical Archive, 1955-1970." Staging Beckett and Contemporary Theatre and Performance Cultures. University of Reading, 9th-11th April 2015.

'Beckett. Non-sense, and the Limits of Translation .'  Nonsense, Madness, Modernism, a one-day interdisciplinary symposium. Long Room Digital Hub, Trinity College Dublin, March 6th 2015. Invited paper.

'Masquerade and Revolutionary: the Female Boy in Katherine Cecil Thurston's Max (1910).' Making It New: Victorian and Modernist Literature and Periodicals, 28th February 2015.

‘“Attractive Modern Homes”: Houses, Hotels and History in Elizabeth Bowen.’ IASIL 2011, Catholic University of Leuven, 18^th-22^nd July 2011.

‘Beckett, Translation and the “Grey Canon.”’ Beckett Out of the Archive conference, University of York, 23^rd-26^th June, 2011.

“Samuel Beckett’s Drama: Famous throughout the civilised world and the Irish Free State.” Irish Theatrical Diaspora Conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, April 17th-19th 2009. Invited paper.

‘“Silence, exile and cunning?” Gendering the Diaspora in Irish Women’s Writing.’ Writing the Irish Diaspora, University of Limerick, 30th October-Nov 1st 2008.

“ the sear of every metamorphosis: Beckett and surrealism.” Invited paper. Seminar series Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies. Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, June 1st, 2007.

“Desire and the Diva: the Erotics of Song in the Work Kate O'Brien.” Invited paper. Kate O'Brien Weekend Colloquium. University of Limerick, February 23rd, 2007

‘ “sinning through the ear”: Feminine Madness and Music as Discursive Boundary in Kate O’Brien’s As Music and Splendour.’ Galway Irish Studies Conference: Orality in Modern Irish Culture, National University of Ireland, Galway, June 1st-5th 2006.

‘Beckett in Others’ Words’. Plenary paper at Beckett: Screens of Silence – Beckett: Écrans de silence, Karlstad University, Sweden, 1st -2nd December, 2006.

“a project for the moment: Ghosting the Subject in Beckett’s Trilogy.”  La trace de Beckett / Beckett's Traces. Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille3, 8th -9th December, 2006.

“Beckett’s Ventriloquism.”  100 Years a-Dying: A Post-Mortem on the Work of Samuel Beckett - An International, Interdisciplinary Conference in Beckett Studies, University College Cork, 26-27 May 2006.

“Being Difficult: Kate O’Brien, Edna O’Brien and Provocative Femininity.” Contemporary European Women Writers: Gender and Generation, University of Bath, 30th March-1 April 2005.

‘‘Dark established currents: Molly Keane’s Gothic.” Molly Keane Centenary Conference, University College Cork, November 26th-27th, 2004.

 “Antiquarians and Others: Beckett’s “Recent Irish Poetry.”  International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, National University of Ireland, Galway, 20-24th July 2004.

“Ghost Writer: Beckett and Protestant Gothic.”  What Rough Beasts? an Irish and Scottish Studies Conference at the University of Aberdeen, March 26-28th, 2004.

“A Fart in his Corduroys: Beckett’s Translations of the 1920s and 30s.” New Voices in Irish Criticism 4, Trinity College Dublin, February 2nd, 2002.

“Beckett and Modern Irish Drama.” Beckett and Contemporary Theatre, University of Westminster, January 12th, 2002.

“Reading Beckett, Writing Theory.”  University of Oxford Twentieth-Century Literature Graduate Seminar, Linacre College, February 15th, 2001.

“these untenanted Is: Beckett’s Self-Translation as Poetics of Self-Divestiture.” Other Becketts: a Colloquium. Birkbeck College, University of London, 9-10th June, 2000.

“The Word Made Flesh: Translating the Body in Beckett.” Beckett Against the Grain, University of York, 8-9th May 1999.

“Towards a reading of Beckett’s Prose’.” Modern Languages Research Seminar, All Souls, University of Oxford, May 11^th 1998.

 “The Eye Returns: Beckett, Ireland and Textual Betrayal.” Beckett/Aesthetics/Politics, University of Sussex, 3-5^th July 1997.

 'Demented Particulars': Traces of Godot and the Provincial Theatre Archive.' Contemporary Theatre Review vol. 27 no 1 (2017).

'"Radish, One Per Night": Early Godots in the Regional Theatre Archive.' Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 28 (2017).

'Edna O'Brien.' In Heather Ingman and Cliona O'Gallchoir, eds.,  A History of Irish Women's Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

‘“Up the Republic!”: Nation, Narration and Translation in Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy.'  In Liam Harte, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2017).

‘Stranded objects’: Topographies of Loss in Mary Lavin’s Widow Stories.’ Mary Lavin, ed Elke D’hoker. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013), 187-205.

A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation. (Oxford University Press, 2011).

‘Beckett in French and English.’  Blackwell Companion to Samuel Beckett, ed SE Gontarski. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2009), 196-208.

‘Ghost Writer: Beckett and Irish Gothic.” Beckett and Ireland, ed Seán Kennedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 131-149.

‘“Unstable compounds”: Bowen’s Beckettian Affinities.’ Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives, ed Susan Osborn. (Cork: Cork University Press, 2009), 13-33. Expanded version of Modern Fiction Studies essay (see above).

“Elizabeth Bowen and the Modern Ghost.” Elizabeth Bowen, ed Eibhear Walshe. Irish Writers and Their Time. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2008), 77-94.

A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation. (Oxford University Press, 2011).

'Edna O'Brien.' In Heather Ingman and Cliona O'Gallchoir, eds.,  A History of Irish Women's Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

‘“Up the Republic!”: Nation, Narration and Translation in Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy.'  In Liam Harte, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2017).

'Demented Particulars': Traces of Godot and the Provincial Theatre Archive.' Contemporary Theatre Review vol. 27 no 1 (2017).

'"Radish, One Per Night": Early Godots in the Regional Theatre Archive.' Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 28 (2017).

‘Stranded objects’: Topographies of Loss in Mary Lavin’s Widow Stories.’ Mary Lavin, ed Elke D’hoker. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013), 187-205.

‘Beckett in French and English.’  Blackwell Companion to Samuel Beckett, ed SE Gontarski. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2009), 196-208.

‘Ghost Writer: Beckett and Irish Gothic.” Beckett and Ireland, ed Seán Kennedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 131-149.

‘“Unstable compounds”: Bowen’s Beckettian Affinities.’ Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives, ed Susan Osborn. (Cork: Cork University Press, 2009), 13-33. Expanded version of Modern Fiction Studies essay (see above).

“Elizabeth Bowen and the Modern Ghost.” Elizabeth Bowen, ed Eibhear Walshe. Irish Writers and Their Time. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2008), 77-94.

Irish literature, women's writing, Samuel Beckett. Available.

2008-9: Research Fellowship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences for the completion of A Tongue Not Mine: Beckett and Translation.

Member of editorial advisory board of the journal Contemporary Women’s Writing (OUP).

Peer reviewer for Modern Languages Review, Irish University Review, Irish Literary Supplement, Translation and Literature, and Nua: Studies in Contemporary Irish Writing, Études irlandaises and Frontiers.