Dr. Daragh Downes, B.A., PhD. (Dublin)
Research and Teaching Interests
Dr. Daragh Downes wrote his doctoral thesis, The Fear and Trembling of Malte Laurids Brigge, on parapsychological and mystical themes in a number of key texts of European modernism. His current primary research interest is the long nineteenth century, with an especial focus on Charles Dickens and his milieu. Other research interests include: Shakespeare; children's literature; theories of narrative; the intersections of Christian thought and Marxist theory.
Dr. Downes is responsible for two Sophister Option courses, 'Dickens' and 'The Revolutionary Muse: Form and Theme in Romantic Poetry and Poetics.' He has taught on a range of Freshman courses including 'Enlightenment,' 'Shakespeare: Text, Stage & Screen,' 'Non-Realist Writing,' 'Theories of Literature,' 'Romanticism' and 'Irish Writing.'Recent and forthcoming publications and papers
'The Best of Time, the Worst of Time: Temporal Consciousness in Dickens,' in Victorian Time: Technologies, Standardizations, Catastrophes, ed. Trish Ferguson (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2012)
''Excellent Monsters:' The Railway Theme in Dickens's Novels,' English. Special Issue: Dickens and Travel (Oxford University Press, 2012) [Originally presented at ‘Republics of the Imagination’: Dickens and Travel conference, University of London, October 2011.]
''Morley was alive: to begin with.:' The Curious Case of Dickens and his Principal Household Wordsmith,' in Charles Dickens and the Mid-Victorian Press, 1850-1870, ed. Hazel Mackenzie, Ben Winyard and John Drew (University of Buckingham Press, 2012/13). [Originally presented at Charles Dickens and the Mid-Victorian Press, 1850-1870 conference, University of Buckingham, March 2012.]
''A Something or a Nothing:" Towards a Sensibilious Reading of Sense and Sensibility', Persuasions On-Line: A Publication of the Jane Austen Society of North America (Vol. 32, No. 2, Summer 2012). [Originally presented at 200 Years of Sense and Sensibility conference, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, September 2011]
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollowness: A Narratological and Ideological Critique of J. K. Rowling's Magical System,' International Research in Children's Literature, Volume 3 (Edinburgh University Press, December 2010)
''If You'll Excuse My Shakespeare:' BBC's ShakespeaRE-Told Series,' in Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century, eds. Gabrielle Malcolm & Kelli Marshall (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012)
''A response, simply, to normality:' Clive Barker and the Spectre of Realism,' Clive Barker: Dark Imaginer, ed. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (forthcoming). [Originally presented at Clive Barker: Dark Imaginer conference, Trinity College Dublin, July 2011.]
""I'll drown my book:" Travels Between the Lines of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Dickens' A Christmas Carol’ (paper delivered at Literature in English Symposium [L.I.E.S.] 8 Conference, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, May 2012)
"Wordsworth’s Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Poem" (Paper delivered at Poetry in Process Conference, Mater Dei Institute, Dublin, June 2011)