Professor Colin Duckworth
Emeritus Professor and Professorial Fellow
Contact
email: colinrd@ unimelb.edu.auBiography
Colin Duckworth was Professor of French at Melbourne University from 1978 until taking early retirement in 1988. Previous to that he was Professor of French at Auckland University (1972-78), having lectured at Bedford College, University of London (1953-71), after tutoring at Cambridge and lecturing in the English Department at Montpellier University. He holds a B.A. in French and Spanish and M.A. from Birmingham University, a Cambridge Ph.D., and a Melbourne D.Litt. He is a Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques.
He has been
a Visiting Professor at the University of California (Davis), and at La Trobe
Uni (Drama). While Founder-Warden of Commonwealth Hall, 1963-71 (a London University
intercollegiate hall of residence for 400 students) he trained as a non-directive
student counsellor.
He
now teaches (from time to time) Surrealist-Absurdist theatre in the Drama Department
at La Trobe University, and French diction and mélodie interpretation
at the VCA and the M.U. Music Faculty.
Since “retirement” he is a freelance writer, novelist, broadcaster, lecturer, actor and theatre director, and he has participated in several works for the stage, radio television and film, drawing together his experience of performance and his scholarly pursuits. His novels are based on his research in French history and his passion for French music.
Offices, Committees
University
London University
Intercollegiate
Halls of Residence Committee 1963-71
Academic Board
Staff rep., Bedford College 1966-70
Staff-Student
Liaison Committee, Bedford College 1958-62
House Committee,
Bedford College 1959-61
Athletics
and Welfare Committee Committee, Bedford College 1958-66
Chairman,
University of London French Society 1964-71
Chairman,
Intercollegiate Board of Examiners in French (B.A.) 1969-71
Auckland University
Deputy Dean
of Arts 1976-77
Co-ordinator,
N.Z. Professors of French 1973-75
Chairman,
Committee on Comparative Studies in European Literature and Arts 1976-77
University
Theatre Building Committee 1972-77
Audio-Visual
Committee 1976-77
Drama Diploma
Advisory Committee 1976-77
Theatre
Management Committee 1976-77
Melbourne University
Drama Advisory
Committee 1978-80
Chairman,
Theatre Board 1984-88
Language
Departments Review Committee 1984-85
Chairman,
Arts-Library Liaison Committee 1985-87
Friends
of the Faculty of Music Committee 1992-95
Friends
of the Grainger Museum Committee 2001-03
Public
U.K. Delegate for Student Welfare, Council of Europe, 1964
Secretary-General, International Society for 18th-century Studies 1970-75
Founding committee member, British Society for 18th-century Studies 1961-71
President, Australasian-Pacific Society for 18th-century Studies 1980-84; Committee
1973-76
Institute for the Study of French-Australian Relations Committee 1987-90
Founder-Secretary, Society for French Studies (UK) 1957-59
President, Alliance Française, Auckland 1972-78
Vice-President, Alliance Française, Melbourne 1978-84 (elected Life
Member, 1997)
President, Cambridge Society of Australia 1986-92; Vice-Pres., 1994-99
Fellow of Ormond College since 1992
N.Z. Convenor for Comparative Studies, AULLA 1973-75
Auckland City Festival Committee 1976-77
Drama Advisor, Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council (N.Z.) 1973-75
Castlemaine Arts Festival Committee 1990-95
Co-ordinator, Concours d’Art dramatique, Institut Français du
Royaume-Uni, London 1954-71
Research field
Colin Duckworth has directed research in modern (i.e., 18th-20th centuries) French theatre and literature. The specialised areas he has become particularly interested in (for both teaching and research) are:(1) Beckett and Voltaire;
(2) étude de genèse, investigating the creative process through manuscript and performance variants;
(3) the page-to-stage process, based on his firm belief that a play text is fully realised only when carefully studied for performance and staged.
(4) comparative French-English theatre studies.
Creative and Research Profile:
Dramaturgy
Appointed dramaturg for Ngundalelah Godotgai, an Aboriginal translation and production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, as part of the Festival of Dreaming, Sydney Sept. – Oct. 1997.
French-related Productions directed
“EN ATTENDANT, IN THE MEANTIME”: A bi-lingual centenary tribute to Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). Devised and performed by Uschi Felix and Colin Duckworth. Alliance Française de Melbourne, 2 November 2006.
Musset, On ne badine pas avec l’Amour (my adaptation), Melbourne French Theatre (MFT), 2004.
Beckett, En attendant Godot, (Australian première of original French version), MFT, 2001.
Rostand, Cyradio de Bergerac (adapted extracts), MFT, 2000.
Tardieu, The Sonata and Conversation-Sinfonietta performed in my translations as part of “Words and Music” presentation at M.U. Faculty of Music Musicology Conference, 1995.
Beckett, Rough for Theatre I (Australian première); and Tardieu The Enquiry Office (my translation), La Mama and Castlemaine Arts Festival, 1992.
Jarry, Ubu Deceived/Cocu and Enslaved/Enchaîné (my bi-lingual adaptation), 1990.
Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape (with Robin Cuming as Krapp), La Trobe University Media Dept. T.V. production, for Deakin Uni.
Beckett, Ohio Impromptu, Rockaby (Australian premières) , and Play, La Mama, Melbourne, 1981.
Voltaire/Vanbrugh, La Vertu en Danger, or The French Relapse (my bi-lingual adaptation and conflation of Le Comte de Boursoufle and The Relapse), MFT, 1981.
Ionesco, Le Roi se meurt, MFT, 1980.
Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Maidment Theatre, Auckland, 1975.
Tardieu, Le Guichet, Un geste pour un autre, Il y avait foule au Manoir, La Sonate, Le Style enfantin, Conversation-Sinfonietta. Student productions in French, and professional productions in English: Auckland, 1975-77, Melbourne, 1978-81.
Tardieu, Les Amants du Métro (1st prize, Institut Français Concours d’Art dramatique, 1967).
Eugène Scribe, Le Verre d’Eau (centenary production), London University, 1961.
Works written for performance
Marcel and Albertine: Proust on Love, translated and adapted for the stage, from Marcel Proust’s A la Recherche du Temps perdu. Performed at The Stork Hotel, Melbourne, 2007.
A King No More: Opera libretto, translated and adapted from Ionesco’s Le Roi se meurt. Music by Michael Bertram, 2006-7.
Plague: translated and adapted for the stage, from Camus’s La Peste. Performed at The Stork Hotel, Melbourne, 2006.
The Misfit (aka The Outsider): translated and adapted for the stage, from Camus’s L’Etranger. Performed at The Stork Hotel, Melbourne, 2005 and 2006.
Beauty and the Beast (Libretto. Music by Michael Easton), Victoria State Opera, directed by Wendy Hume, 1989. Nominated for Sounds Australia award for music drama.
Cinderella (Libretto. Music by Michael Easton), ABC recording, under my direction, 1988. Australia Council grant for tour by Opera Melbourne, 1989.
Publications
Books
Summer Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements, Melbourne, Mongrel Jazz (Black Pepper): 2005, 334pp.
Digging in Dark Places, Melbourne, Ryan: 1997, 337pp.
Edition critique de Voltaire, Nanine (with Marie-Rose de Labriolle) (The Complete Works of Voltaire, 31B), Oxford, The Voltaire Foundation: 1994, pp. 3-61 (Introduction), 62-179 (Text, Notes and Variants).
Steps to the High Garden, London, Calder, and New York, Riverrun Press: 1992, 288pp.
Critical editions of Voltaire, Le Comte de Boursoufle (comédie et conte), (The Complete Works of Voltaire, 14), Oxford, The Voltaire Foundation: 1989, pp. 213-262 (Introduction to play), 263-342 (Text, Notes and Variants of play), 345-349 (Introduction to conte), 351-355 (Text of conte and Notes).
Critical edition of Voltaire, L’Ecossaise (The Complete Works of Voltaire, 50), Oxford, The Voltaire Foundation: 1986, pp. 221-340 (Introduction), 341-468 (Text, Notes and Variants).
The D’Antraigues Phenomenon: The Making and Breaking of a Revolutionary Royalist Espionage Agent, Newcastle upon Tyne, Avero: 1986, 416pp.
Alienation in Literature: Samuel Beckett (with Douglas Kirsner), Melbourne, Deakin U.P.: 1982, 81pp.
Angels of Darkness: Dramatic effect in Beckett and Ionesco, London, Allen & Unwin; New York, Barnes & Noble: 1972, 153pp.
The Underground Lovers and other experimental plays by Jean Tardieu: Preface and Translation, London, Allen & Unwin: 1968, xix + 113 pp.
Critical edition of Samuel Beckett, En attendant Godot (foreword by Harold Hobson), London, Harrap: 1966, cxxxv + 101 pp.
Critical edition of Ernest Renan, Le Broyeur de Lin, London, Harrap: 1963, xciii + 35 pp.
Critical edition of Flaubert, Trois Contes (Introduction, Notes, and Commentary), London, Harrap: 1959 (repr. 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1969), 243 pp.
Mirrors (by Serge Roche), London, Gerald Duckworth & Co.: 1956, 300 pp (translation).
A Study of Leon Bopp. the Novelist and the Philosopher, Genève, Droz: 1955, 287 pp.
Articles and chapters of books
“Re-evaluating Endgame”, Beckett’s Endgame, (the first to appear in the new Rodopi Dialogues series, 2007).
"En attendant Godot: Notes on the Manuscript", Australian Journal of French Studies, Vol. XLIII No. 2 (May-August 2006), pp. 150-167.
“100 years and Waiting: Why the Beckett centenary is being celebrated the world over”, The Age (18 Feb. 2006).
“Distortions of Space and Sound in recent Beckett productions: Play and Waiting for Godot”, Assaph: Studies in Theatre, 17-18 (2003), pp. 239-246; and in Drawing on Beckett: Portraits, Performances, and Cultural Contexts, Ed. Linda Ben-Zvi, Tel Aviv, Assaph Book Series, 2003, pp. 239-246.
“Beckett and the Missing Sharer”, Beckett and Religion (Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 9) (2000), pp. 133-144.
“John Calder’s ‘Godot Company’”, The Beckett Circle, 26 (2), (2003), pp. 3-4.
“Beckett’s theatre: Beyond the stage space”, Beckett and Beyond, Ed. Bruce Stewart, The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) 9, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe: 1999, pp. 93-101.
Obituary of Jean Tardieu, The Australian (17 Feb. 1995), p. 17.
Obituary of Professor L.J. Austin, The Australian (17 Jan. 1995), p. 15.
“Voltaire’s 300th Birthday: his voice on human rights can be heard across the centuries”, The Australian (23 Nov. 1994), p. 36.
“Directing Beckett Down Under”, Directing Beckett, Ed. Lois Oppenheim, Ann Arbor, Univ. of Michigan Press: 1994, pp. 220-238.
“Advice on a Strategy for Life”, The Age (Student Update) (7 Mar. 1994), p. 3.
“Compagnie et Solitude: notes rapportologiques sur l’oeuvre jouable de Samuel Beckett”, Australian Journal of French Studies, XXX(3) (1993), pp. 404-411.
“Les ténèbres grandissantes: Tardieu et la comédie”, Jean Tardieu, Les Cahiers de l’Herne, Paris, Eds. de l’Herne: 1991, pp. 308-315.
“Religion and World Conflict”, Overland, 124 (Spring 1991), pp. 12-14.
“Phantom of the Opera: a Political Allegory” , The Australian Weekend Review (26-27 Jan. 1991).
“From stage space to inner space in Beckett’s drama: signposts to Elsewhere”, Proceedings of the Xllth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, 3 (Space and Boundaries in Literature): 1990, pp. 131-138.
“Gaston Leroux and the Legend of the Phantom of the Opera”, The Age (Arts Extra) (1 Dec. 1990), p. 13.
“Still Waiting, still wondering: Godot in Perspective” The Age (Arts Extra) (16 June 1990), p. 11.
“The Old Curtain falls on a great spirit” (a personal appreciation of Samuel Beckett), The Age, (28 Dec. 1989).
“Voltaire’s Relapse: a structural and social analysis”, Enlightenment Essays in memory of Robert Shackleton, Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation: 1988, pp. 109-119.
“Writing Libretti: Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast”, ANT News, 23 (Aug. 1988), p. 6.
“The Absence and Presence of God in Beckett’s World-view”, The Bible and European Literature: History and Hermeneutics, Ed. Eric Osborn and Lawrence McIntosh, Melbourne, Academia Press: 1987, pp. 111-120.
“Beckett’s New Godot”, Essays on Beckett’s Later Fiction and Drama: Texts for Company, Ed. James Acheson and Kateryna Arthur, Basingstoke, Macmillan: 1987, pp. 175-192.
“An Unpublished Letter to Beckett (with Scholarly Annotations)”, As No Other Dare Fail: For Samuel Beckett on his 80th Birthday, Ed. John Calder, London, Calder and New York, Riverrun Press: 1986, pp. 50-55.
“Performance: Betrayal or Consummation?”, Australasian Drama Studies, 7(2) (1985), pp. 23-30.
“Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposeis: a French 18th-century sighting” (with Eric Osborn), Journal of Theological Studies, 36(1) (1985), pp. 67-83.
“Montfaucon’s antiquarian shopping-list: d’Antraigues’s delayed deliveries”, Voltaire and his World, Ed. H.T.Mason, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation: 1985, pp. 349-361.
“Transpositions: Musique et Parole, Traduction et Représentation”, Sud (Tardieu issue), 50-51 (1984), pp. 222-242.
“Performance and Interpretation of two recent Beckett plays: Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu, Australasian Drama Studies, 2 (1) (1983), pp. 34-41.
“Jean Tardieu and Comedy: so frolic music wards off the gathering dark”, Modern Drama, 254 (1983), pp. 514-533.
“Beckett’s Educations sentimentales: from Premier amour to La Dernière Bande and Ohio Impromptu”, Australian Journal of French Studies,, 20(1) (1983), pp. 61-70; reprinted in Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett, Ed. Lance St John Butler, Aldershot, Scolar Press: 1993, pp. 293-301.
“Georgiana Spencer in France, Or the Dangers of Reading Rousseau”, Eighteenth-Century Life, 7(3), (1982), pp. 85-91.
“Beckett’s Early Background”, N.Z. Journal of French Studies, I, (2) (1980), pp. 59-67.
“D’Antraigues’s Feminism: Where Fact and Fantasy meet”, Woman and Society in 18th-century France, London, Athlone Press: 1979, pp. 166-182.
“Louis XVI and English history: a French reaction to Walpole, Hume and Gibbon on Richard III”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century, CLXXVI (1979), pp. 385-401.
“Literature under Fire”, Australian Journal of French Studies, XVI (1979), pp. 133-135.
“Voltaire at Ferney: an unpublished description”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century, CLXXIV (1978), pp. 61-67.
“French Lessons: Vitez and French experimental theatre”, N.Z. Listener (25 Oct. 1976).
“The Fortunes of Voltaire’s Foppington”, Eighteenth-century Studies (3), Canberra: ANU Press (1976), pp. 121-135.
“D’Antraigues and the quest for happiness: nostalgia and commitment”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century (CLI-CLV), 1976, pp. 625-645.
“Text, Sub-text, Pretext”, Proceedings: Inter-University French Seminar, Wellington (May 1974), pp. 12-29.
“Artaud and Edward Bond: The Value of Violence”, N.Z. Listener (3 Nov. 1973), pp. 52-53.
“All the little time, All the little strength: Samuel Beckett at 67”, N. Z. Listener (16 July 1973), pp. 10-11.
“Voltaire’s L’Ecossaise and Palissot’s Les Philosophes: a strategic battle in a major war”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century, LXXXVII (1972), pp. 333-351.
“Beckett’s Dramatic Intensity”, New Theatre Magazine (Samuel Beckett Special Issue) (1971) XI (3), pp. 20-25. And in the same issue, “Beckett Symposium” (with Martin Esslin, Raymond Federman, John Calder and A.J. Leventhal), pp. 10-19.
“Madame Denis’s unpublished Pamela: a link between Richardson, Goldoni and Voltaire”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century, LXXVI (1970), pp. 37-53.
“Objectives in the Teaching of French Literature”, Proceedings: Conference on Objectives in Higher Education (Univ. of London Institute of Education) (1970), pp. 80-84 and App. B2, pp. 130-132.
“Flaubert and the Legend of St. Julian: A Non-exclusive view of sources”, French Studies (Apr. 1968), p. 107-113.
“Albert Thibaudet at War”, Studi Francesi (July 1966), pp. 280-286.
“The Making of Godot”, Theatre Research (1966) 7 (3), pp. 123-145. Reprinted in Casebook on Waiting for Godot (ed. Ruby Cohn), New York, Grove Press: 1967, pp. 89-101; as “Genesis and Composition” in Beckett: Waiting for Godot, Ed. Ruby Cohn, London, Macmillan (1987), pp. 81-86; and as “Entstehung und Aufbau”, Materialen zu Samuel Becketts ‘Warten auf Godot’, Suhrkamp (1973), pp. 89-115.
“Gérard de Nerval and Eugène Scribe: ‘Celui qui tient la corde nous tue’”, Modern Language Review (Jan. 1965), pp. 32-40.
“Flaubert and Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique”, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th century, XVIII (1961), pp. 141-167.
“Pour le centenaire d’Eugène Scribe: Le Verre d’Eau et le Rideau de Fer (Scribe en Russie)”, Recherches théâtrales/Theatre Research (Jan. 1961), pp. 43-49.
“Comment Scribe composait Le Verre d’Eau”, Revue d’Histoire du Théâtre (Oct. 1959), pp. 315-326.
“The historical and dramatic sources of Scribe’s Verre d’Eau”, French Studies (Jan. 1959), pp. 30-43.
“Albert Thibaudet, poète bergsonien”, Revue des Sciences Humaines (Oct. 1957), pp. 461-468.
“Albert Thibaudet and the Berger de Bellone”, French Studies, (Jan. 1953), pp. 43-49.
Reviews
“The [Dublin] Gate Theatre brings Beckett to Melbourne”, The Beckett Circle, 20(1), (1998), pp. 3-4.
Waiting for Godot, dir. Peter Hall (the Old Vic, London), The Beckett Circle, 19(2), (1997), pp. 2-3.
James Knowlson, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett and Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, The Australian Weekend Review (14-15 Dec. 1996).
Lois Gordon, The World of Samuel Beckett, The Australian Weekend Review (27-28 July 1996).
Mark Polizzotti, Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, The Australian Weekend Review (17-18 Feb. 1996).
Albert Camus, The First Man, The Australian Weekend Review (16-17 Dec. 1995).
Colin Jones, The Cambridge Illustrated History of France, The Australian Weekend Review (29-30 Apr. 1995).
Julia Frey, Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, The Australian Weekend Review (15-16 Oct. 1994).
Graham Robb, Balzac, The Australian Weekend Review (3-4 Sept. 1994).
Joanna Richardson, Baudelaire, The Australian Weekend Review (16-17 July 1994).
J.-P. Sartre, Quiet moments in a War: The Letters of J.-P. Sartre to S. de Beauvoir, The Australian Weekend Review (21-22 May 1994).
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilisations, The Australian Weekend Review (7-8 May 1994).
Edmund White, Genet, The Australian Weekend Review (Aug. 28-29 1993).
Donald Thomas, The Marquis de Sade; and Marcel Proust, Selected Letters, (1910-1917), The Australian Weekend Review (18-19 July 1992).
Robert Hughes, Barcelona, The Australian Weekend Review 25-26 Apr. 1992).
Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw: Vol 3 (1918-50): The Lure of Fantasy, The Australian Weekend Review (14-15 Dec. 1991).
Jeffery Meyers, Joseph Conrad: A Biography, The Australian Weekend Review (12-13 Oct. 1991).
Fernand Braudel, The Identity of France, Vol. 2, The Australian Weekend Review (20-21 Apr. 1991).
Pietro Citati, Kafka, The Australian Weekend Review (8-9 Dec. 1990).
Samuel Beckett, As the Story was told, The Age (13 Oct. 1990).
Deidre Bair, Simone de Beauvoir, The Australian Weekend Review (15-16 Sept. 1990).
Michelle Perrot (ed.), A History of Private Life, Vol 4: From the Fires of Revolution to the Great War, The Australian Weekend Review (25-26 Aug. 1990).
John Halperin, Novelists in their Youth, The Australian Weekend Review (23-24 June 1990).
William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, The Australian Weekend Review (15-16 July 1989).
Jean Genet, Prisoner of Love, translated by Barbara Bray, The Australian Weekend Review (13-14 May 1989).
Fernand Braudel, The Identity of France, Vol. 1, The Australian Weekend Review (15-16 April 1989).
“Bon anniversaire, Sam!” (Compte-rendu du colloque Beckett au Centre Pompidou), Théâtre International, 3-4 (1981), pp. 59-62.
S.E. Gontarski, Beckett’s “Happy Days”: a manuscript study, Journal of Beckett Studies (3) (Summer 1978), pp. 101-103.
Ross Chambers, L’Ange et l’Automate: Variations sur le Mythe de l’Actrice de Nerval à Proust; and La Comédie au Château: Contribution à la Poétique du Théâtre, AUMLA (39), (May 1973), pp. 131-133.
F.W.J. Hemmings, Culture and Society in France, 1848-98, Modern Language Review (68, 4) (Sept. 1973), p. 994.
Philip Thody, Jean Genet: a critical appraisal, Modern Languages (Dec. 1968).
Dorothy Knowles, French Drama of the Inter-War Years, Modern Languages (June 1968).
Victor Brombert, The Novels of Flaubert, French Studies (Apr. 1968), pp. 167-168.
“Arrabal’s Labyrinth”, New Society (6 June 1968), p. 824.
Philip Thody, Jean Genet, Modern Languages (1967).
A.W. Raitt, Life and Letters in 19th-century France, French Studies (Oct. 1967), pp. 355-358.
H.W. Wardman, Ernest Renan: A Critical Biography, French Studies (Oct, 1966), pp. 307-310.
L.-F. Céline: Textes réunis par D. de Roux, French Studies (July 1965), pp. 202-203.
G. Guisan, Renan et l’art d’écrire, French Studies (Apr. 1964), pp. 183-185.
J. Cruickshank (ed.), The Novelist as Philosopher, Modern Languages (Apr. 1963).
Victor Brombert, The Intellectual Hero in French Literature, Modern Languages (Jan. 1962).
J.C. Davies, L’Oeuvre d’Albert Thibaudet, French Studies, (Apr. 1957), pp. 183-185.
J.C. Davies, L’Oeuvre d’Albert Thibaudet, Revue des Sciences Humaines, (Oct. 1956), pp. 369-370.