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Dott. Elio Baldi

PhD student

Part-time teaching assistant
Email: E dot A dot Baldi at warwick dot ac dot uk

H4.17
Humanities Building, University Road
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

About

Dott. Elio Baldi studied History and Italian Literature and Culture at the University of Amsterdam, followed by a six month stay in Bologna to study Italian History and Literature. Thereafter, he went on to do a Masters in Literature and Cultural Criticism at the Utrecht University and a Research Masters in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of Italian Studies under the supervision of Dr Jennifer Burns.

Research interests

His current research, under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Burns, focuses on the reception of the works of Italo Calvino in a comparative perspective. By combining insights from paratextual studies, discourse analysis, metacriticism, reception theory, Borudieu's sociology of culture and celebrity studies the research will try to come to terms with the dynamics of modern authorial representation and self-representation, which is especially relevant in the case of Italo Calvino, who besides being a respected and quickly canonized author, is also well-known as critic, editor and journalist. This multiplication of roles has provided him with a quasi-omnipresent voice in Italian literary criticism which is highly significant; investigation thereof sheds light on the way even dead authors (as well as The Dead Author) can shape their authorial image by contributing directly or indirectly to it through different media. Moreover, on a more general level, the research is aimed towards a better understanding of the factual ways in which reception, canonization and institutionalization take place.

Dott. Baldi's broader research interests include:

  • The reception of the works of Italo Calvino
  • The 'Rebirth of the Author' in media and paratext
  • Boredom in literature
  • Astronomy and Literature
  • Authorial personae (escpecially in the works of Fernando Pessoa)
  • Eros in the works of Italo Calvino
  • Metacriticism/ Discourse Analysis applied to Literary Criticism
  • Church bells and Urbanization

Teaching

IT211 Italian Language and Institutions

Publications

  • 'Lettere e carri armati. Quattro scrittori, «Il Contemporaneo», il 1956, by Sandro de Nobile', Modern Italy, Vol. 21:2 (2016), 215-216 (review).
  • 'Italo Calvino and Science Fiction: A Little Explored Reading', in Elizabeth Scheiber (ed.), Calvino's Combinational Creativity (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), pp. 41-61
  • 'Cit(t)a(re) Calvino. Le città invisibili e gli architetti', http://www.doppiozero.com/materiali/calvino-trentanni-dopo/cit-t-re-calvino-le-citta-invisibili-e-gli-architetti, 14/09/2015.
  • 'Italo Calvino, l'occhio che scrive. La dinamica dell'immagine autoriale di Calvino nella critica italiana', in: Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani, Vol. 30:1, 2015, pp. 23-33.
  • 'Riviste e collane del Novecento: tra fantascienza e mainstream', in: Italian Studies Vol. 70:2, 2015, pp. 275-279.
  • 'Science fiction and canon: the case of Italo Calvino', readingitaly.wordpress.com, 03/06/2014.
  • 'La sfida al labirinto sessuale. L'eros nell'opera di Italo Calvino', in: Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani, Vol. 27:2, 2012, pp. 60-68.
  • 'Dirk Herderschee en het zwakzinnigenvraagstuk in het interbellum', in: Skript Vol. 33:3, Herfst 2011, pp. 145-158.

Awards

  • PGA Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (November 2015)
  • HRC Doctoral Fellowship (February 2015) for conference on Short Story cycles (February 2016).
  • Thesis Prize WIS (Dutch and Belgian Society for Italian Studies) for Master Thesis on Calvino, 07-11-2014
  • Nomination for the Horst Frenz Prize at the ACLA conference, March 2014
  • 2 week stay in Rome for research at the Royal Dutch Institute in April 2014; one month in March-April 2015

Qualifications

  • MA in Literary Studies (Amsterdam)
  • MA in Literature and Cultural Criticism (Utrecht)

  • BA in History (Amsterdam)

  • BA in Italian Studies (Amsterdam)

Teaching

Undergraduate modules

IT211 Italian Language and Institutions

Office hours: Monday 3-4 pm; Thursday 2-3 pm.


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