Dr. Gandolfo Cascio

Universitair docent
Italiaans
Vroegmoderne literatuur
030 253 8748
g.cascio@uu.nl

Gandolfo Cascio is assistant professor of Italian Literature and Translation Studies.

He read Classics at the University of Palermo, received an MA in Italian Studies with a specialization in Literary Translation (>< Dutch) from the University of Amsterdam, and holds a PhD in Comparative Literature awarded by Utrecht University.

His research focuses on the aesthetics and philology of reception. In this area, he is interested in the relationships between writers, particularly the creative dynamics of stylistic appropriation (displayed or concealed), and the practice of poet-translators. The authors he pays most attention to are Dante and Michelangelo for the early tradition, Sandro Penna and Elsa Morante for the modern one.
Furthermore, he is investigating a number of issues concerning native digital texts: from acquisition and preservation to access.

On these matters, he authored the monographs Michelangelo in Parnaso. La ricezione delle “Rime” tra gli scrittori (Marsilio 2019, English translation: Brill 2022); Dolci detti. Dante, la letteratura e i poeti (Marsilio 2021, partial Dutch translation: IIC 2021); and has published articles in top tier journals, such as “Paragone Letteratura”, “Nuovi Argomenti”, “Studi Novecenteschi”, “I Tatti”, “Forum Italicum”, “Rivista di Letteratura Italiana”, “Contemporanea”, “Testo a Fronte”, “Letteratura & Arte”, “Mythos”.

Dr. Cascio’s teaching and academic work find a synthesis in the Observatory on Dante Studies, which he founded in 2016 and that realises his strong belief in cooperation between international institutions and individuals of diverse backgrounds. Indeed, it involves graduate and PhD students that carry out analysis from an interdisciplinary and transmedia perspective which offers an up-to-date, plural and transnational view of Dantean reception and readership. In addition to his role as leader, he is engaged in the project with an annotated version into Italian of the essays on the Divine Comedy that Giuseppe Antonio Borgese wrote during his American years. This study enables him to combine his expertise as a reception historian, Dante scholar and translator.

As part of his university role, he also serves as editor-in-chief of the series Literary Reception & Art Receptioni quaderni di poesia, the poetry translation section of “Letteratura e Pensiero”; and has been appointed curator of Silvana Grasso’s archive. On this he gave an overview with Vetrine di cristallo (Marsilio 2018), set up the first edition of Me pudet. Poesie 1994-2017 (Edizioni ETS 2019), re-edited for the Feltrinelli paperbacks La pupa di zucchero (2019) and La ddraunàra. I racconti (2020), has supervised external traineeships (University of Turin, 2022); and is now co-editing the unreleased writings in the series Archivio Silvana Grasso.

Alongside his professional duties, it is very important for him to feel part of a wider and open community, and he is committed to sharing knowledge. For this reason, he regularly participates in the current cultural debate with columns and talks, collective books, public lectures and advisory activities. His aim with this is to broaden audiences and topics, to challenge normative modes of thinking and to strengthen shared critical thinking.