Dr. Karen McCarthy

Overview

Karen is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg. Her undergraduate teaching blends literary study and academic literacy. She teaches an honours module that covers scholarship on early literacy in the South African context, as well as trends pertaining to representation in children’s literature. She oversees the MPhil in Children’s Literature offered by the department. Her research interests are narratology and ethics in narrative fiction, particularly with regard to representations of women and children. Accredited publications McCarthy, K. A. 2025. “Overlooked and better for it: Looking twice at a woman in John Banville’s Ancient Light ”. Journal of Literary Studies , 41(1). Koekemoer, C., Carolin, A., McCarthy, K. & van der Merwe, D. 2025. “Using WhatsApp to teach close reading at a South African university: The case of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief ”. Changing English , 32(1): 1-14. McCarthy, K. A. 2022. “‘The Incest Plot’ in John Banville’s Ancient Light ”. ABEI Journal – The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies , 24(2): 71-83. Fhulani, N., Hendricks, M. & McCarthy, K. 2019. “Making Poetry Accessible and Enjoyable: Towards Excellent Teaching”. In: Harrison, G and Hendricks, M (eds), Lessons from the Kalahari: Tracking Teachers’ Professional Development. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. McCarthy, K. A. 2020. “The split consciousness required to teach poetry to student teachers in a South African metropolitan university”. In V. Nomlomo, Z. Desai, M. Mbelani, N. Dlamini, & J. September (eds), Masixhase abantwana bakwazi ukufunda nokubhala: Let us enable our children to read and write . Cape Town: University of the Western Cape. Academic links ORCID Google Scholar ResearchGate Academia.edu