"How grey
Is black
When black
Is grey"

- J.P. Donleavy from A Fairy Tale of New York

J.P. Donleavy has rarely been considered "somewhere in the middle" by literary critics and academia. He's either been highly praised or brutally bashed. Fortunately, as time goes on, more and more scholarly critiques have become favorable, or at least fair.

Papers on Donleavy
Lectures and Presentations Given by Donleavy
Courses & Lectures on or Including Donleavy
Reviews of Donleavy Books

JPD and Academia 1950 - 1979
JPD and Academia 1980 - 1999
JPD and Academia 2000 - 2003
JPD and Academia 2004 - Present

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAPERS ON THE WORK OF J.P. DONLEAVY

"Three critical essays: Wordsworth's immortality ode: the perpetual benediction; Wordsworth's The Borders: the power of the poet; J.P. Donleavy: the progression of the protagonist"
Thesis/dissertation by Richard E. Dana, 1968

"J.P. Donleavy: behind the mask"
Thesis/dissertation by Dean Cohen, 1969

"A Study of Theme and Comic Technique in Two Novels by J.P. Donleavy"
Thesis/dissertation by Sharon M. Shivvers, Drake University, 1970

"Timothy O' Keeffe Papers" by Timothy O' Keefe.1953-1971
Includes study of Brendan Behan, Austin Clarke, J.P. Donleavy, Michael Farrell, John Montague, Sean O' Casey, James Plunkett and Francis Stuart.

"The Uses of the Grotesque and Other Modes of Distortion: Philosophy and Implication in the Novels of Iris Murdoch, William Golding, Anthony Burgess and J.P. Donleavy"
Thesis/dissertation/manuscript by John J. Stinson, New York University, 1971

"Singed by an Impudent Fire: The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B by JP Donleavy"
by Donald E. Morse. Unpublished paper read at the Modern Literature section of
the Midwest Modern Language Association meeting in Detroit, Michigan November,
1971

Donleavy Beyond Culture by John Stark
Unpublished paper read at the Modern Literature section of the Midwest Modern Language Association meeting in Detroit, Michigan November, 1971

"Final Words: Death and Comedy in the Fiction of Donleavy, Hawkes, Barth, Vonnegut, and Percy..."
Thesis/dissertation by Tom LeClair, 1972

"Bardic Style Matters"
Thesis/dissertation by Tom LeClair, 1972 - On JPD and The Unexpurgated Code.

"The ancient roots of modern satiric fiction: an analysis of 'Petronian' and 'Apuleian' elements in the novels of John Barth, J.P. Donleavy, Joseph Heller, James Joyce, and Vladimir Nabokov"
Thesis/dissertation by Charles E. Reilly, 1974

"The hero in the novels of J.P. Donleavy"
Thesis/dissertation by Thomas Lester Croak, 1975

"The integration of being self and the new world in three novels by J.P. Donleavy"
Thesis/dissertation by Giles Nicholas & Chessel Hawkins, University of New Brunswick, 1975

"The quest for social accommodation: the vision of black humor in J.P. Donleavy's A Fairy Tale of New York"
Thesis/dissertation by David Benson Bradford, Auburn University, 1976

"J.P. Donleavy: A Radical Re-reading of His Novels in Metafictional Terms with Special Reference to His Implicit Construction in Such Terms in the Existent Criticism"
Thesis/dissertation by W.J. Woods, 1989

"A Metafictional Reading of JP Donleavy's The Onion Eaters with Specific References to the Resultant Interrogation of the Construction of Sexuality Within Christian Ideology"
by Kirsten Braun. Unpublished paper in the library at Central Queensland University, Australia, 1994.

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LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS GIVEN BY J.P. DONLEAVY

JP Donleavy: 'Oscar Wilde'
Wednesday, October 22, 1997, 8:00 p.m., Days Produndis: The 4th Oscar Wilde Autumn School Chamber of Commerce House, Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Washington College's Sophie Kerr Series - Donleavy was among the guest writers to visit in this creative writing program. Date being researched.

L'Espirit Exhibition - L'Espirit, the work of 12 Irish sculptors and 21 members of Sculpteaurs Bretagne, Brittany was officially opened June 3, 2000 at 8 p.m. at the Mullingar Arts Centre, Ireland by J.P. Donleavy.

Barry Flanagan at the Irish Museum of Modern Art - The IMMA show was officially opened by writer/artist J.P. Donleavy on Tuesday 27 June 2006 at 6.00pm.

J.P. Donleavy introduces an evening celebrating Brendan Behan - Irish Film Institute, July 18, 2007. JPD opened the program, featuring the screening of two short documentaries on Behan, with a talk about the Brendan Behan he knew. Details on the News page.

J.P. Donleavy repeats "Lobbing Hand Grenades: Remarks on Barry Flanagan" - at the Mulingar Arts Centre for the Irish Museum of Modern Art to videotape for their archives. November 30, 2007. Transcript of the speech.

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COURSES & LECTURES ON OR INCLUDING J.P. DONLEAVY

Area 8: Contemporary Literature - English Department Ph.D. Degree - Western Michigan University, Feb. 7, 1997.

An Introduction to Modern Anglo Irish Poetry, Prose and Drama
Weeks 15 - 17: Donleavy's work assessed along with that of Flann O' Brien, Bernard Maclaverty and Edna O' Brien. Centre of Continuing Education, Department of Educational Studies, University of Surrey, Guildford, England 1998.

Engl 371 The Adolescent in Literature
Includes literary expression on the subject by writers such as Wolfe, Salinger, Capote, Knowles, McCullers Donleavy, Mishima, Golding, Lessing, Moravia, Mauriac and Sagan. University of Massachusetts, Fall, 1999.

AML 4121 Twentieth-Century American Novel
A study of major trends and influences in American prose fiction from 1900 to the present. Includes works by such writers as Hemingway, London, Wharton, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, West, Mailer, Bellow, Ellison, Donleavy, Updike, Vonnegut and others. University of San Francisco, Fall, 2000.

Boston Arts Academy, Summer 2001
JPD's Wrong Information Is Being Given Out at Princeton on the required reading list.

C701 Bohemian Subcultures and the Cold War
Course includes selected studies from Beats, Angry Young Men, Ian Fleming and others. Irish portion includes 3 of Behan's plays, and Donleavy's The Ginger Man. University of Indiana, Spring, 2004. Venue?

Contemporary Fiction Reading List - Wright State University, Department of English, December, 2004. List includes The Ginger Man.

Modern Authors Collection - Department of English and The Humanities Graduate Service, University of California Library contains works by J.P. Donleavy.

Contemporary American Novel - Department of English, Southeast Missouri State University, Spring 2005. Course includes The Ginger Man by JPD.

EN 273 Irish-American Literature - Department of English, Fairfield University, CT: College of Arts and Sciences. Course on Irish American authors, including JPD.

A Dublin Reading List - Univeritat Mannheim, Germany - 2007
The Ginger Man prominent on the fiction list.

The Fulbright Program at St. Petetrsgur State University, Russia and University of Nebraska - 2007
JPD included in the English portion of the program.

The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy Study Guides - Book Rags - 2007
Package contents: Summaries and Analysis, Short Guide, Table of Contents, Characters, Social Concerns, Techniques, Themes, Adaptations, Key Questions, Literary Precedents.

Lecture: Recent American Fiction: A Lecture Presented Under the Auspices of The Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund - Library of Congress, January 21, 1963 Lecture given by author Saul Bellow, examines writers and their craft. Included authors are J.P. Donleavy, Wylie Sypher, James Jones, John O'Hara, William Burroughs, and others.

Lecture: The Irish American Literary Experience - New Jersey Council for the Humanities' Irish in America series. Lecture given by Professor Julian Moynahan, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Rutgers University. Donleavy's The Ginger Man included in the works covered. Date?

Lecture: "Galloping Gargoyle: Structure of J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man." - by Robert D. Hammer, Hardin-Simmons University. Date?

ENGLISH 579 Special Topics Seminar - Irish-American and Jewish American Writing: Comparative Literary Ethnicity
Seminar given by a Professor Fanning. Donleavy included in the material covered. SIUC Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Campus, Spring, 2001.

C701: Bohemian Subcultures and the Cold War
Seminar on affairs of the 1950s and 60s. Non-fiction and fiction. The latter including JPD and The Ginger Man. University of Indiana, 2004.

"New Voices in Irish Criticism" International Postgraduate Conference 2007 - St. Patrick's College, Dublin - Friday, April 20th, 2007. Portion of the program titled: Oh but I will ring your heart yet: sex and savagery in Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Donleavy's The Ginger Man.

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