Seamus Deane | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1940-02-09)9 February 1940 |
| Died | 12 May 2021(2021-05-12) (aged 81) Dublin, Republic of Ireland |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Literary criticism,poetry,fiction,postcolonialism |
Seamus Francis Deane (9 February 1940 – 12 May 2021) was a NorthernIrish poet,novelist, critic, and intellectual historian. He was noted for hisdebut novel,Reading in the Dark, which won several literary awards and was nominated for theBooker Prize in 1996.
Seamus Francis Deane was born inDerry,Northern Ireland,[1] on 9 February 1940.[2] He was the fourth child of Frank Deane and Winifred (Doherty),[3] and was brought up as part of a Catholicnationalist family.[4] Deane attendedSt. Columb's College in his hometown, where he befriended fellow studentSeamus Heaney. He then attendedQueen's University Belfast (BA and MA) andPembroke College, Cambridge (PhD). Although he too became noted for his poetry, Deane chose to go into academia instead. He worked as a teacher in Derry, withMartin McGuinness being one of his students. McGuinness later recalled how Deane was "gentle, kind and never raised his voice at all, an ideal teacher who was very highly thought of".[1]
After graduating from Cambridge, Deane taught atReed College,Portland, Oregon during the 1960s and theUniversity of California, Berkeley during the 1970s.[1] Over the next two decades, he taught American college juniors part-time at the School of Irish Studies in the Ballsbridge section of Dublin. He was a professor of Modern English and American Literature atUniversity College Dublin until 1992. Deane subsequently relocated to theUniversity of Notre Dame,Indiana, as the Donald and Marilyn Keough Chair of Irish Studies, from which he retired as professor emeritus.[1][5]
Deane was a member of theRoyal Irish Academy and a founding director of theField Day Theatre Company,[6] together with Heaney,Tom Paulin, andDavid Hammond.[1]
Deane was the co-editor ofField Day Review, an annual journal of Irish studies. He also served as general editor of the Penguin Classic James Joyce series and ofCritical Conditions, a series inIrish Studies which was jointly published by theUniversity of Notre Dame Press andCork University Press. He co-founded the book series Field Day Files, which contained key works by David Lloyd, Joe Cleary, Marjorie Howes, andKerby A. Miller.[1]
Deane's first marriage was to Marion Treacy. Together, they had four children: Conor, Ciarán, Cormac and Émer. He was in a civil partnership with Emer Nolan until his death; they had one child together (Iseult).[1]
Deane died on 12 May 2021 atBeaumont Hospital inDublin. He was 81, and suffered a short illness prior to his death.[1][7]
The first collection of Deane's poetry,Gradual Wars, was published in 1972 and received the AE Memorial Award for Literature.[1][8] His first novel,Reading in the Dark, was published in 1996 and was partly autobiographical.[1][4] It won the 1996Guardian Fiction Prize and the 1996South Bank Show Award for Literature, is aNew York Times Notable Book, won theIrish Times International Fiction Prize and theIrish Literature Prize in 1997, besides being shortlisted for theBooker Prize in 1996.[1] The novel was translated into more than 20 languages.
He was also the general editor of the monumentalField Day Anthology of Irish Writing,[6] which was 4,000 pages long and whose first three volumes were released in 1990. It was later criticised for excluding the voices and experiences of Irish women. Deane responded, saying, "To my astonishment and dismay, I have found that I myself have been subject to the same kind of critique to which I have subjected colonialism … I find that I exemplify some of the faults and erasures which I analyse and characterize in the earlier period".[1] He went on to commission an additional two volumes of women's writing, which were published in 2002.
In his criticism, Deane brought a postcolonialist interpretation to historical and literary works from the Irish, British, and French traditions in particular.[1][7] His critical writings include:
His poetry includes:
