Doireann MacDermott Goodridge[6] was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 13 December 1923[4] to an Irish father, Anthony MacDermott, who was an officer in the British Royal Navy and a Canadian mother,[2] Evelyn Goodridge, who was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and educated in Germany. From 1924 to 1930 she lived with her family in Bad Ischl, Austria.[2] In 1930 they moved to the Isle of Wight, England.[2] In 1939, her brother, Diarmuid MacDermott, died in the sinking of the British warship HMS Royal Oak, which was sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, off the northern coast of Scotland, at the beginning of the Second World War.[2] In 1941 she enlisted in the Royal Navy,[2] serving in various ports in the south-west of England, all of which were heavily bombarded.
In 1953, the pair founded the School of Modern Languages at the University of Barcelona.[2] From 1953 to 1967 she was professor and head of the English section at the School of Modern Languages. In 1955, she was appointed the first professor of the newly created department of Germanic Philology at the University of Barcelona. In 1962, she graduated in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Madrid. In 1964, she received her doctorate cum laude in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Barcelona, for her thesis "La otra cara de la justicia" ("The other face of justice"), a study on the world of crime in English literature, for which she received the Barcelona City Award [es],[7] and was published in 1966 by Plaza & Janés.[8]
MacDermott won the position of Institute chair and taught English Language at the Menendez Pelayo Institute [ca] in Barcelona. In 1967, she was appointed first chair of English Language and Literature of the University of Zaragoza, becoming the first woman to hold such a position there,[6] as well as being one of the first nationally,[2] and between 1968 and 1971 she directed UofZ's Institute of Language. In 1971, she became chair of English Language and Literature at the University of Barcelona and directed the English Philology Department from 1971 to 1989.[5]
Between 1990 and 1996, she chaired the European branch of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS),[10][2] dedicated to the study of the language and literature of the English-speaking Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, India and Nigeria.[11] MacDermott was a pioneer in the introduction into Spain postcolonial studies and published numerous articles on this subject.[5][12][13] A conference named after her is held annually at the University of Barcelona.[14]
Along with Irish citizenship, MacDermott also had British and Spanish citizenship.[15]
She published books and numerous articles in Spain and other countries, and collaborated in magazines such as Laye and Historia y Vida [es] and in academic publications in Spain and abroad. She organised and participated in numerous academic conferences. She translated numerous books to/from English and also from German and French into Spanish, some in collaboration with her husband. She curated the Universal Classics series for the Editorial Planeta publishing house. She wrote encyclopedia articles on the topic of English authors, 16 for the Enciclopedia Salvat and 13 for the Gran Enciclopedia Rialp [es].
Death
MacDermott died on 13 November 2024, aged 100.[15]
Works
Essays and literary studies
"La representación de "Romeo y Julieta" en el teatro isabelino" [Representation of "Romeo and Juliet" in Elizabethan Theatre]. Estudios Escénicos, Cuadernos del Instituto del Teatro (in Spanish) (11). Barcelona: Institut del Teatre, Barcelona. 1965.
La otra cara de la justicia (Thesis). Barcelona: Plaza & Janés. 1966. OCLC807566128. Essay on the world of crime according to the testimony of English literature.
Novelistas ingleses [English Novelists] (in Spanish). Madrid: Sociedad General Española de Librería. 1976. ISBN8471431130. OCLC803117928. – A profile of 24 English writers with a selection of texts.
Aldous Huxley, anticipación y retorno [Aldous Huxley, anticipation and return] (in Spanish). Barcelona: Plaza & Janés. 1978. ISBN8401340586. OCLC642099577. Complete study of the life and work of Aldous Huxley.[9]
Civilización de los países de habla inglesa [Civilization of the English-speaking countries] (in Spanish). Barcelona. 1985. OCLC433993152.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
MacDermott, Doireann; Ballyn, Susan, eds. (1988). A passage to somewhere else : the proceedings of the Commonwealth Conference held in the University of Barcelona 1987 (Report). Barcelona. OCLC894775168.
Ballyn, Susan; MacDermott, Doireann; Firth, Kathleen, eds. (1995). Australia's changing landscapes : proceedings of the Second EASA Conference : Sitges, 1993 (Report). Barcelona. ISBN8447704750. OCLC892254121.
