Just as I teach courses on a wide range of topics, including European Fairy Tales, Italian Travel Literature, and Food Culture, I have research interests that also span a variety of times and subjects. My most recent book just came out with University of Toronto Press and is titled, Golden Fruit: A Cultural History of Oranges in Italy. My past work includes books on hysteria and madness in turn-of-the-century Europe (Saint Hysteria, Cornell UP 1996), pregnancy and childbirth in literature and theory (Maternal Impressions, Cornell UP, 2002), a late nineteenth-century Tuscan saint (The Voices of Gemma Galgani, Chicago UP, 2003, co-authored with Rudolph Bell), women mystics and food (The Women in God's Kitchen, Continuum, 2005), the Roman wolf (She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon, Cambridge UP 2010), as well as an Italian language book (Italian Made Simple, Broadway Books, 2003), an edition of a medieval mystic's autobiography (Angela of Foligno's Memorial, Boydell and Brewer, 1999), and an edited volume on Rome since 1870 (Capital City, Annali d'Italianistica, 2010). I am currently working on a long-term project on European fairy tales.
Wolfgang and Barbara Mieder Green and Gold Professor of Italian
Publications
BOOKS
Italian Fairy Tales from the Turn of the Century (temporary title). Under contract with Princeton University Press.
Golden Fruit: A Cultural History of Oranges in Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
The Women in God’s Kitchen: Cooking, Eating, and Spiritual Writing. New York: Continuum, 2005. (Paperback edition: 2007; Polish translation: 2008; Portuguese translation: 2009.)
Italian Made Simple. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
The Voices of Gemma Galgani: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Saint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Co-authored with Rudolph Bell.
Maternal Impressions: Pregnancy and Childbirth in Literature and Theory. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002.
Angela of Foligno’s Memorial. Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Interpretive Essay. Translated by John Cirignano. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999.
Saint Hysteria: Neurosis, Mysticism, and Gender in European Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
EDITED VOLUME
Capital City: Rome since 1870. Annali d’Italianistica 28 (2010).
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
“A Fairy tale Madonna: Grazia Deledda’s ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel,” in Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 19.1 (2019): 131-145.
“Angela of Foligno, Complete Works. Note sulla traduzione in lingua inglese di Paul Lachance.” Il Libro di Angela da Foligno e le sue traduzioni. Ed. Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli and Massimo Vedova. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 2019. 113-120.
“Repetition in the Teaching of Fairy Tales: Considerations from the Classroom.” Teaching Fairy Tales. Ed. Nancy L. Canepa. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2019. 263-274.
“Craving Fruits and Vegetables: Botanical Images of Pregnancy in Giovan Battista Basile’s The Tale of Tales.” Erfüllte Körper: Inszenierungen von Schwangershaft. Ed. Stephanie Heimgartner and Simone Sauer-Kretschmer. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2017. 15-28.
“Locked up and Locked in: Of Roman Imprisonments and Liberations.” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 17.2 (2017): 246-251.
“Violence in Fairy Tales: Basile’s Lo cunto de li cunti and Garrone’s Il racconto dei racconti.” Annali d’Italianistica 35 (2017): 177-192.
“A Roman Triptych of Holy Women.” Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History 22.1 (2016): 73-88.
How to Candy Oranges and Reprimand the Pope: Catherine of Siena’s Letter 346 to Urban VI.” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 16.1 (2016): 41-57.
“The Fruit of Love in Giambattista Basile’s ‘The Three Citrons.’” Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies 29.2 (2015): 228-244.
“Of Blood Oranges and Golden Fruit: A Sacred Context for the ‘Facts of Rosarno.’” California Italian Studies. California Italian Studies 5.1 (2014). http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7m2552wm.
“How Not to Play with Dolls: Contessa Lara’s ‘Una bambola’ and Luigi Pirandello’s ‘Servitù.’” Forum Italicum 48.1 (2014): 110-125.
“On Women, Holiness, and Middle Age.” Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History 19.2 (2013): 35-40.
“Cristina Campo’s Visions and Revisions: The Essay ‘Una rosa’ between 1962 and 1971.” Quaderni d’Italianistica 33.2 (2012): 151-170.
“Tough Magical Nuts to Crack: Cristina Campo’s Reflections on Fairy Tales.” Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies 26.2 (2012): 240-258.
“Treasure to Trash, Trash to Treasure: On Dolls and Waste in Italian Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 37.3 (2012): 250-265.
“The Beauty of the Beast: Fairy Tales as Mystical Texts in Simone Weil and Cristina Campo.” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 11.2 (2011): 157-75.
“Capital City: Rome 1870-2010.” Annali d’Italianistica 28 (2010): 13-29.
“Angela of Foligno.” Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition. Ed. Alastair Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010. 581-600.
“‘The Loving Re-Education of a Soul’: Learning from Fairy Tales through Grazia Deledda and Cristina Campo.” Quaderni d’Italianistica 29.2 (2008): 93-110.
“Of Golden Feathers and Light Reading: Guido Gozzano’s ‘Piumadoro e Piombofino.’” Quaderni d’Italianistica 29.1 (2008): 105-24.
“The Short-Legged Fairy: Reading and Teaching Pinocchio as a Feminist.” Approaches to Teaching Collodi’s Pinocchio and Its Adaptations. Ed. Michael Sherberg. New York: MLA Publications, 2007. 80-86.
“And My Soul Grew Through Contact with Holy Things: Thérèse of Lisieux in Rome.” Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History 13.2 (2007): 75-93.
“Mystical and Literary Texts: Meeting the Other, and Each Other, at the Border of Language.” Annali d’Italianistica 25 (2007): 105-22.
“Finding Gemma Galgani in Lucca: A Saint in Her Place.” Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History 12.1 (2006): 24-45.
“Cucina, donne e santità: Dalla pratica alla scrittura.” Il cibo e le donne nella cultura e nella storia. Prospettive interdisciplinari. Ed. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli and Lucia Re. Bologna: CLUEB, 2006. 67-81.
“Braiding Bridges with Mysticism, Literature, Theory. The Case of Margaret Mazzantini’s Non ti muovere.” Quaderni d’Italianistica XXIII.2 (2002): 87-99.
“Washing Lettuce with Holy Water: Food and Spirituality in Angela of Foligno’s Memorial.” Rivista di studi italiani XX.1 (2002): 116-28.
“Of Stockfish and Stew: Feasting and Fasting in the Book of Margery Kempe.” Food and Foodways 10.4 (2002): 171-82.
“‘That in Giving Me Life, You Still Remain Alive’: Fetal Beginnings and Maternal Endings at Two Centuries’ Ends.” Annali d’Italianistica 18 (2000): 255-76.
“Pregnant Bodies of Knowledge: Italian Narratives of Fetal Movement (1880’s-1920’s).” Rivista di studi italiani 17.1 (1999): 222-41.
“What Should a Woman Smell Like? Body and Language in Capuana’s Profumo.” American Journal of Italian Studies 21.58 (1998): 112-27.
“‘Di mamma ce n’è una sola’: Fascism, Demography, and the Mother’s Voice in Ada Negri’s ‘Niobe.’” Italian Culture 15 (1997): 115-30.
“Looking Fat: Ironizing Fetishism in Marchesa Colombi’s Un matrimonio in provincia.” Quaderni d’Italianistica XVIII.2 (1997): 273-82.
“Parturition, Parting, and Paradox in Turn-of-the-Century Italian Literature (D’Annunzio, Aleramo, Neera).” Forum Italicum 31.2 (1997): 343-66.
“‘L’abito non fa la monaca’: Clothing and Gender in Giovanni Verga’s Storia di una capinera.” Italian Quarterly 34.133-134 (1997): 33-46.
“Impressive Cravings, Impressionable Bodies: Pregnancy and Desire from Cesare Lombroso to Ada Negri.” Annali d’Italianistica 15 (1997): 137-57.
“Le parole del Verbo: Twentieth-Century Italian Literature and Christianity.” Annali d’Italianistica 15 (1997): 341-48.
“Difference, Repetition, and the Mother-Daughter Bond in Ada Negri.” Rivista di studi italiani 15.1 (1997): 55-74.
“Gazing at the Veil, Unveiling the Fetish: The Case of Camillo Boito’s Short Stories.” Italian Quarterly 33.129-130 (1996): 29-43.
“On the (Un)Representability of Woman’s Pleasure: Angela of Foligno and Jacques Lacan.” In Gender and Text in the Later Middle Ages. Ed. Jane Chance. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. 239-62.
“Rappresentazione della violenza / Violenza della rappresentazione: ‘La Leda senza cigno’ e ‘La Violante dalla bella voce,’ di G. D’Annunzio.” Forum Italicum 29.2 (1995): 266-85.
“Visions of the Mystic / Mystical Visions: Interpretations and Self-Interpretations of Gemma Galgani.” Annali d’Italianistica 13 (1995): 371-86.
“Italian Women Mystics: A Bibliographical Essay.” Annali d’Italianistica 13 (1995): 401-35.
“Is Beauty Only Skin Deep? Constructing the Female Corpse in Scapigliatura.” Italian Culture 12 (1994): 175-87.
“Writing the Rite: Text and Sacrifice in Drieu La Rochelle.” French Forum 18.2 (1993): 213-30.
“(Re)Constructing the Incipit: The Sublimation of Narrative Beginnings in Calvino and Freud.” Comparative Literature Studies 30.1 (1993): 53-68.
“Mysticism, Abjection, Transgression: Angela of Foligno and the Twentieth Century.” Mystics Quarterly 17.2 (1991): 61-70.
SHORT ARTICLES
“Hildegard of Bingen.” Oxford Companion to Cheese. Forthcoming in Fall 2016.
“Angela of Foligno.” “Cristina Campo.” Literary Encyclopedia. January 2015.
“Angela of Foligno.” Radical Grace 25.1 (2012): 16-21.
“Thérèse de Lisieux.” Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Ed. Bonnie G. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 229.
“Religious Aspects of Fasting and Food.” Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Margaret Schaus. New York: Routledge, 2006. 280-81.
“Hysteria.” “Medicine.” “Mysticism.” The Feminist Encyclopedia of Italian Literature. Ed. Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. 157-58; 201-202; 216-18.
BOOK TRANSLATION
Edward Curtis, I grandi guerrieri. Rome: Contrasto, 2004. (Translated from English into Italian.)
Awards and Recognition
2018: AAIS Book Prize for Golden Fruit: A Cultural History of Oranges in Italy (Category: Renaissance, 18th, and 19th centuries)
2012-2013: University Scholar Award for Sustained Excellence in Research & Scholarly Activities (UVM)
2010: Faculty Research Grant, Children’s Literature Association
2008: Publication Subvention for Capital City: Rome since 1870, Humanities Center (UVM)
2004: Dean’s Lecture Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Teaching (UVM)
2003, 2001: Dean’s Fund for Faculty Development (UVM)
2002, 1999: Instructional Incentives Grant (UVM)
2001: Center for Teaching and Learning Grant (UVM)
1999, 1997: Summer Stipend, U.C.R.S. (UVM)
1990-1991: Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (Woodrow Wilson Foundation)
1987-1990: Yale University Fellowship (Yale University)
1986-1988: Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (Woodrow Wilson Foundation)
1985: Burckhardt Prize for Best Undergraduate Essay (UCSD)
1984-1985: John Muir College Caledonian Society (UCSD)
Associations and Affiliations
Modern Language Association
Areas of Expertise and/or Research
European Fairy Tales, Literature and Spirituality, Food Culture
Languages spoken:
Italian: native knowledge
English: near-native knowledge
French: excellent reading knowledge, rusty speaking knowledge
Latin: reading knowledge
Spanish: reading knowledge
Education
- Ph.D. Comparative Literature, Yale University
Contact
Email:
Phone:
- (802) 656-2532
Office Location:
506A Waterman
Website(s):
Courses Taught
- ITAL 001: Elementary I
- ITAL 051: Intermediate I
- ITAL 052: Intermediate II
- ITAL 101: Reading and Writing Workshop
- ITAL 121: Issues in Italian Culture
- ITAL 122: Italian Literature and Film
- ITAL 125: Italian Food Culture
- ITAL 150: Italian Fairy Tales
- ITAL 157: Modern Italian Fictions
- ITAL 170: Cultures of Women in Italy
- ITAL 195: Intermediate Special Topics: Women Writers: Unification to the Present
- ITAL 196: Intermediate Special Topics: Capital City Rome, 1870-2009
- ITAL 196: Intermediate Special Topics: Children's Literature
- ITAL 196: Intermediate Special Topics: Italian Fairy Tales
- ITAL 196: Intermediate Special Topics: Italian Food Culture
- ITAL 295: Advanced Special Topics: Modern Rome
- HCOL 195: Honors College Sophomore Seminar: Gender, Space and the City of Rome
- WLIT 095: Special Topics: Women and Rome Across the Ages
- WLIT 113: Italian Literature in Translation: Women and Rome in Literature and Film