Declan Kiberd
Declan Kiberd (born 24 May 1951) is a professor, literary theorist, author and journalist, who lives and teaches in Dublin.
Early life and education
Kiberd was born in Dublin and went to Belgrove Primary School, where he was taught by the distinguished novelist John McGahern, before moving to St. Paul's College, Raheny. In 1969 he won an award to study Irish and English at Trinity College Dublin, where he got a double first and a Gold Medal. He then went to Oxford where he took a DPhil under the late Richard Ellmann, the biographer of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats.
Academic career
Professor Kiberd is Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama in University College Dublin. He joined UCD as lecturer in Anglo-Irish literature in 1979. He taught English previously in the University of Kent at Canterbury (1976-7), and Irish in Trinity College Dublin (1977-9). He was appointed Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD in 1997.
He has also been Director of the Yeats International Summer School (1985-7), patron of the Dublin Shaw Society (1995-2000), a columnist with the Irish Times (1985-7) and the Irish Press (1987-93), the presenter of the RTE Arts programme, Exhibit A (1984-6), and a regular essayist and reviewer in the Irish Times, the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and the New York Times.
Dr Kiberd is one of Ireland's foremost intellectuals. He was a friend of the late Palestine-born intellectual Edward Said, author of one of the most important books of post-colonial theory,Orientalism. Kiberd has lectured on Irish Literature in more than 30 countries.
Inventing Ireland
He is best known for a major critical assessment of Anglo-Irish literature and culture, Inventing Ireland. The book gives a post colonial perspective on the Irish literary tradition, essentially arguing that the English "invented" their own view of Ireland by making it a subconscious dumping ground for a colonising world-view. As a speaker of the Irish language and a student of the old Celtic culture, Dr Kiberd is well-placed to understand the dichotomy between the Anglo and the Celt view of Ireland and its people.
The importance of Inventing Ireland stems from its ground-breaking post-colonial treatment of a country where poetry and story-telling, in oral and written forms, acted as a crucial antidote to political and intellectual suppression by a dominant occupying imperial culture. The continuing political divisions in a partitioned country may have contributed to a fracturing of a clear post-colonial theory of Ireland, but it may be argued that there is no all-encompassing model for colonised nations.
Inventing Ireland is a long text, which includes careful assessment of neglected issues such as the importance of Irish women writers. It is a comprehensive look at practically every Irish author of international acclaim. In this sense it can serve as a reference book of no small note for the Irish literary canon.
Other works of note
Another publication of note is Irish Classics, which was given the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in 2002.
Kiberd also wrote the introduction to the Penguin edition of Ulysses, which was re-released after an attempt by a German team to correct the text in English was shown to be flawed.
Academic Qualifications
Educated at Trinity College Dublin (First Class Degree with Gold Medal in English and Irish); D.Phil (Oxford)
Research Supervision, and interests
Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama, Children's Literature and Post-colonial theory
Publications
Books:
- Synge and the Irish Language, Macmillan: London 1979; second edition with new Introduction, London 1992.
- Men and Feminism in Modern Literature, Macmillan: London 1985; second edition 1987.
- Idir Dhá Chultúr (Essays on Interaction of Gaelic and English-language culture), Coiscéim Áth Cliath 1993; second edition with new preface 2002.
- Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation, Jonothan Cape London 1995; Harvard University Press 1996; Vintage Paperback 1996; Winner Michael Durkan Prize of American Committee of Irish Studies for Best Book of Cultural Criticism 1996; Oscar Wilde Award for Literary Achievement, 1996; Winner of Irish Times Literature Prize for Non-Fiction
- Irish Classics, Granta London 2000; Harvard University Press 2001; Granta and Harvard Paperback 2001; Winner Truman Capote Prize for Best Work of Literary Criticism in the English-Speaking World 2002; Winner Robert Rhodes Prize of American Committee of Irish Studies for Best Book of Literary Criticism 2001.
- The Irish Writer And The World,Cambridge University Press 2005
Ulysses and Us 2009
Edited:
- An Crann Faoi Bhláth: Contemporary Irish Poetry with Verse Translations, Wolfhound Press Dublin 1989; 1997 (with Gabriel Fitzmaurice)
- The Student's Annotated Ulysses, Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, London 1992
- The London Exiles: Wilde and Shaw' and 'Contemporary Irish Poetry' sections, Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Derry 1991
- Two issues of The Crane Bag magazine
Pamphlets:
- Anglo-Irish Attitudes, Field Day Derry 1985
- Multiculturalism and Artistic Freedom: Rushdie, Ireland and India, Cork University Press 1992
- Multiculturalism: The View from the Two Irelands (with Edna Longley), Cork University Press 2000
Scripts written:
- Samuel Beckett Silence to Silence BBC 1984
- A Short History of Ireland BBC TV 1986:
- Plus many scripts for BBC Radio 3 on Irish themes 1990 - present
Public Roles
- Chair, Public Libraries and Arts Government Commission 1996-9
- Member, Forum on Future of Broadcasting 2002
- Visiting Lecturer in over 30 countries 1982 - present
- Member, Irish Manuscripts Commission and Cultural Relations Committee 1995-2002
- Elected member of the Royal Irish Academy 2003
- Appointed to the new board of the Abbey Theatre
- Funding Awards
In addition to Books' Prizes listed above, received President's Award for 1998-9 and Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowship 2003-4.
