Biography

Benedict O'Donohoe was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he held an Open Exhibition in Modern Studies as an undergraduate, and a DES Major State Studentship as a postgraduate. He took his BA (MA) in French, and wrote his DPhil on the theatre of Jean-Paul Sartre. He was an Assistant d'anglais at the Lycée Descartes, Antony, and a Lecteur d'anglais at the IUT de Sceaux (1972-73), and an Out-College Tutor for Magdalen, Wadham, and St Hugh's Colleges, Oxford, before a ten-year stint in secondary teaching at Merchant Taylors' School (Northwood), Charterhouse (Godalming), and Bedford School, where he was Head of French (1982-87). He then moved as Head of Modern Languages to LSU College of Higher Education, Southampton, where he remained for ten years until the College was merged with the University of Southampton's Department of Adult and Continuing Education. He joined the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) as Head of the French School in 1998/99, later becoming a Director of Undergraduate Programmes. He came from UWE to Sussex, as a Deputy Director of the SLI (as it then was), in June 2007. Ben's main recreation is amateur drama. As an undergraduate, he was President of Magdalen College Players and appeared with OUDS in Oxford, London and Southampton, and on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Subsequently he has acted in and/or directed numerous productions, most recently with the Rottingdean Drama Society near Brighton. He is divorced and has two sons and two daughters. He has a house in Woodingdean and divides his time between Brighton and Bristol.

Role

Senior Lecturer in French and Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Language Studies (SCLS), responsible for Modern Languages; Admissions Tutor for Languages degree programmes; Academic Director of International Programmes for Study Abroad (Europe).

Benedict O'Donohoe is a specialist in the work of the French existentialist philosopher, novelist, playwright, biographer, essayist, critic and political activist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). He has published a book on Sartre's theatre, a critical edition of his only filmed screenplay, two co-edited volumes of essays, and a score of articles or chapters in UK, France, USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. He will shortly publish a third, solo-edited volume of essays. He has also published articles on Albert Camus in France, Canada, USA and UK. Benedict has given more than twenty-five conference papers, a dozen of them invited, at international venues including San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, New York, London, Zurich, Dublin and Paris. He is a founder-member of the Groupe d'études sartriennes (Paris) and of the UK Sartre Society, of which he was Secretary 2002-06 and President 2006-10. He is UK Reviews Editor for, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of, the journal Sartre Studies International. 

Year 1: Cultural Encounters, Introduction to France; Year 2: European History & Culture 1945-2000, Aspects of France; Final year: ML Project, French-English Translation, Genres in European Prose, Themes in European Theatre & Cinema (A & B), French Special Subject: Existentialist Writing.

Student Consultation

Tuesday 11.30-12.30, Wednesday 12.30-1.30.

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2012) Revolution or revolt? "Les Mains sales" and "Les Justes". Sartre Studies International, 18 (2). pp. 72-88. ISSN 1357-1559

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2011) Jean-Paul Sartre: Huis clos [In Camera / No Exit]. The Literary Encyclopedia. ISSN 1747-678X

Boulé, Jean-Pierre and O'Donohoe, Benedict, eds. (2011) Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. ISBN 978-1-4438-2949-6

O'Donohoe, Benedict, trans. (2011) Francois Noudelmann: Sartre's timetable. In: Jean-Paul Sartre: mind and body, word and deed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 65-70. ISBN 9781443829496

Boulé, J-P and O'Donohoe, Benedict (2011) Introduction. In: Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 1-6. ISBN 9781443829496

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2011) Murakami, Obama, Sarkozy: What is an Intellectual? In: Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 149-163. ISBN 9781443829496

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2010) Living with Mother: Sartre and the Problem of Maternity. In: New Perspectives on Sartre. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 178-190. ISBN 9781443822282

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2009) Jean-Paul Sartre: Les Mains sales [Crime passionnel / Dirty Hands]. Literary Encyclopedia. ISSN 1747-678X

O'Donohoe, Benedict and Elveton, Roy (2009) Introduction. In: Sartre's Second Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, ix-xiii. ISBN 9781443801614

O'Donohoe, Benedict and Elveton, Roy (2009) Contemporary Perspectives: Sartre, Clooney, McCarthy, Murakami. In: Sartre's Second Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 173-90. ISBN 9781443801614

O'Donohoe, Benedict and Elveton, Roy, eds. (2009) Sartre's Second Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. ISBN 978-1-4438-0161-4

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2008) Living with Mother: Sartre and the Problem of Maternity. Sens Public International Web Journal.

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2007) Sartre and Camus: "Les Mouches" and "Le Malentendu" : Parallel Plays. Sartre Studies International, 13 (2). pp. 113-25. ISSN 13571559

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2007) "L'Étranger" and the Messianic Myth, or Meursault Unmasked. PhaenEx Journal of Existenial and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, 2 (1). pp. 1-18. ISSN 19111576

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2007) Sartre en Grande Bretagne. In: Sartre, penseur pour le XXIe siècle? Actes du colloque international. Editions Shichosha, pp. 292-303. ISBN 9784783728719

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2006) Sartre, Jean-Paul. In: Encyclopaedia of Erotic Literature. Routledge, pp. 1179-82. ISBN 9781579584412

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2005) Why Sartre Matters. Philosophy Now (53). pp. 7-10. ISSN 09615970

O'Donohoe, Benedict, Howells, Christina and Ree, Jonathan (2005) In Sartre's Time. Philosophers' Magazine (30). pp. 73-77. ISSN 1354-814X

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2005) Sartre's Theatre: Acts for Life. Modern French Identities, 34 . Peter Lang. ISBN 9783039102808