My field is Modernism, with expertise in Malcolm Lowry and Samuel Beckett, and research interests in Nabokov, Eliot, Pound, Joyce, J. G. Farrell, Borges and Roa Bastos. My research speciality is annotation.
I am willing to supervise sensible theses on the above authors but also on some aspects of Irish Literature or Literature and Science (but not Science Fiction). I have annotated Lowry and Beckett extensively, and while interested in all aspects of these authors, I am also willing to supervise editorial and/or annotation projects on other texts and writers. Theoretical orientation: I am unsympathetic to what Alan Sokal calls the "intellectual impostures" of postmodernism, but I am at ease with genetic criticism, although most of my research interrogates or reflects the principles and problems of validity in interpretation.
Current Research
My current major projects are: (1) a study of Samuel Beckett and Science (London: Continuum); (2) annotating three works by Malcolm Lowry: (i) a long-lost but newly-discovered novel, In Ballast to the White Sea, (ii) the 1940 Volcano, and (iii) Swinging the Maelstrom; as part of the EMiC (Editing Manuscripts in Canada) project, in association with the U Ottawa Press; (3) a Marsden-funded study of the modernist aesthetic, with reference to its Medieval roots and traditions, in association with the Centre for Modernism and Christianity (University of Bergen).
I am on the advisory boards of the Journal of Beckett Studies, Samuel Beckett Today (Amsterdam), Historicising Modernism (London: Continuum P), Modernism and Christianity (U Bergen), Otago French Notes (U Otago) and the Ionesco-Beckett Research Centre (National University of Theatre and Cinematography, Bucharest).
Publications
Ackerley, C. J., & Gontarski, S. E. (2004). The grove companion to Samuel Beckett: A reader's guide to his works, life, and thought. New York: Grove Press, 686p.
Authored Book - Research
Ackerley, C. J. (Ed.). (2009). Watt: Samuel Beckett. London: Faber, 223p.
Edited Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2010). Obscure locks, simple keys: The annotated 'Watt'. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 296p.
Authored Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2010). Demented particulars: The annotated 'Murphy'. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 264p.
Authored Book - Research
Ackerley, C. & Large, D. (2009). The Malcolm Lowry Project: Under the volcano: A hypertextual companion [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.otago.ac.nz/english/lowry
Other Research Output
Ackerley, C. J. (1996). 'Do not despair': Samuel Beckett and Robert Greene. Journal of Beckett Studies, 6(1), 119-124.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. J. (1995). 'Pale Fire': three notes towards a thetic solution. Nabokov Studies, 2, 86-102.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. J. (2010). Samuel Beckett and science. In S. E. Gontarski (Ed.), A companion to Samuel Beckett. (pp. 143-163). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2007). Paradise Street blues: Malcolm Lowry's Liverpool. In M. Murphy & D. Rees-Jones (Eds.), Writing Liverpool: Essays and interviews. (pp. 55-71). Liverpool University Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2009). The 'distinct context of relevant knowledge': Samuel Beckett's 'Yellow' and the phenomenology of annotation. In U. Maude & M. Feldman (Eds.), Beckett and phenomenology. (pp. 194-209). London: Continuum.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2010). ″Delite in swynes draf″: Husks and lees, sugarbeet pulp and roses in Samuel Beckett's ″Draff″. In E. Tonning, M. Feldman, M. Engelberts & D. van Hulle (Eds.), Samuel Beckett: Debts and legacies. (pp. 39-50). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2011). Style: Coetzee and Beckett. In T. Mehigan (Ed.), A companion to the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 23-38). Rochester, NY: Camden House.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2009). ″The past in monochrome″: (In)voluntary memory in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. In D. Guardamagna & R. M. Sebellin (Eds.), The tragic comedy of Samuel Beckett: ″Beckett in Rome″: 17-19 April 2008. (pp. 277-291). Rome, Italy: UniversitÀ degli Studi di Roma.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2006). 'Schapiro, Boris (1909-2002)'. In Oxford dictionary of national biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/88702
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. J. (2006). Samuel Beckett and Max Nordau: Degeneration, sausage poisoning, the bloodied rafflesia, coenaesthesis, and the Not-I. In S. E. Gontarski & A. Uhlmann (Eds.), Beckett after Beckett. (pp. 167-176). Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2011). Monadology: Samuel Beckett and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Sofia Philosophical Review, 5(1), 122-145.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. (2007). Fairy-tales and flagellation: Samuel Beckett's 'Sanies II'. Fulcrum, 6, 584-603.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. (2004). ″Perfection is not of this world″: Samuel Beckett and mysticism. Mystics Quarterly, 30(1-2), 28-55.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. (2011). Éléments recyclés dans Words and music/Paroles et musique. Revue des Lettres Modernes, (Samuel Beckett 2), 57-76.
Journal - Research Article
Ackerley, C. (2009). Afterword: Samuel Beckett's cemeteries. In S. Barfield, M. Feldman & P. Tew (Eds.), Beckett and death. (pp. 206-222). London: Continuum.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2007). Samuel Beckett and anthropomorphic insolence. In D. van Hulle & M. Nixon (Eds.), ″All sturm and no drang″: Beckett and romanticism: Beckett at Reading 2006. (pp. 77-90). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. (2011). Samuel Beckett and Faber & Faber. In M. Nixon (Ed.), Publishing Samuel Beckett. (pp. 171-186). London: British Library.
Chapter in Book - Research
Smith, R., & Ackerley, C. (2009). Samuel Beckett's reception in Australia and New Zealand. In M. Nixon & M. Feldman (Eds.), The international reception of Samuel Beckett. (pp. 108-128). London: Continuum.
Chapter in Book - Research
Ackerley, C. J. (2011). "Primeval mud impenetrable dark": Towards an annotation of Comment c'est/How it is. Modernism/Modernity, 18(4), 789-800. doi: 10.1353/mod.2011.0090
Journal - Research Article