Donoghue, Daniel 1956–

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Donoghue, Daniel 1956–

(Daniel Gerard Donoghue)

PERSONAL:

Born April 14, 1956, in Portland, OR; son of James Joseph and Marcella Agnes Donoghue; married Ann Cawley, August 7, 1982; children: Nathaniel, Kevin, Hannah. Education: University of Dallas, B.A., 1978; University College, Dublin, M.Phil., 1981; Yale University, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Harvard University, Department of English, 8 Prescott St., Cambridge, MA 02138-3929. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, assistant professor, 1986-91, professor of English, 1991—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies.

WRITINGS:

Style in Old English Poetry: The Test of the Auxiliary, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1987.

(Editor) Beowulf: A Verse Translation; Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism, translated by Seamus Heaney, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Lady Godiva: A Literary History of a Legend, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2003.

Old English Literature: A Short Introduction, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

English professor Daniel Donoghue's scholarly interests include the history of the English language, medievalism, and Old and early Middle English literature. He is the author of Style in Old English Poetry: The Test of the Auxiliary and Old English Literature: A Short Introduction, as well as the editor of Beowulf: A Verse Translation; Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. He wrote Lady Godiva: A Literary History of a Legend when he noticed that people today had forgotten the story behind the legend, which had been reduced to the image of a nude woman on horseback or, worse, the name of a box of chocolates. The origins of the story remain fairly obscure, and most historians today doubt that Lady Godiva actually took her famous ride. However, the literature behind the story and the elements of historical fact that underlay it are relayed by Donaghue in his book.

Organizing the book into several thematic chapters, Donoghue begins by exploring the historical facts related to Lady Godiva. He traces these to an eleventh-century English woman named Godifu, who was the wife of a wealthy and powerful lord in Coventry. Chroniclers of her day make little mention of Godifu, and it is not until the thirteenth century that her famous story is recorded when monks at a "Benedictine abbey of St. Albans inserted a fully developed narrative into their Latin histories," according to Donoghue, quoted by Charles Coe in the Harvard Magazine. In the story, the people of Coventry are suffering under heavy tax burdens that have been imposed on them by their lord. In desperation, they appeal to Lady Godiva to ask her husband to be more merciful. He tells her that taxes are none of her affair, but when she persists he says that the only way he will lift taxes is if she rides through the center of town, naked and in broad daylight. Lady Godiva rises to the challenge, and in a great show of respect, the people stay indoors and do not watch the display. Thus, Lady Godiva forces her husband to hold true to his word while maintaining her chaste nature. Later, in the seventeenth century, a side story is added by writers who tell of "Peeping Tom," a man who peeks at the naked Godiva and is punished for his lust with blindness or, in some versions, death.

The Godiva myth, as Coe pointed out in his review, is fascinating for its contradictions: "The Godiva myth is filled with contradictions. The lady is obedient to her husband, yet boldly challenges his position on taxes. She rides naked through the streets of the city, yet remains chaste. She is a member of the ruling class who nonetheless sympathizes with the plight of ordinary people." Donoghue uses such contradictions to explore how literature helps pass down social values from generation to generation. He follows versions of the legend from medieval times through the Victorian era and into modern treatments in the media and commercials. Katherine L. French, writing in Albion, felt that the book does not go into the details that a "specialist might want. What Donoghue does admirably show readers, however, is the many different ways that medieval stories continue to have resonance for subsequent periods, and offers ways of understanding how the medieval past can be continually recreated and retold to suit contemporary needs."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Katherine L. French, review of Lady Godiva: A Literary History of a Legend.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 2003, C.P. Jamison, review of Lady Godiva, p. 1746; October, 2004, C.P. Jamison, review of Old English Literature: A Short Introduction, p. 292.

Comparative Literature, spring, 1991, James W. Earl, review of Style in Old English Poetry: The Test of the Auxiliary.

English Language Notes, June, 1990, Robert P. Creed, review of Style in Old English Poetry, p. 73.

Harvard Magazine, July-August, 2003, Charles Coe, "Togless Trotting," review of Lady Godiva.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 1991, Roberta Frank, review of Style in Old English Poetry, p. 239.

Medieval Review, February, 2005, Liesl Smith, review of Old English Literature.

Medium Aevum, fall, 1991, Mark Griffith, review of Style in Old English Poetry.

Modern Language Review, April, 1990, A.S.G. Edwards, review of Style in Old English Poetry, p. 400.

Review of English Studies, May, 1990, E.G. Stanley, review of Style in Old English Poetry, p. 233.

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, April, 1989, Bruce Mitchell, review of Style in Old English Poetry, p. 407.