Gandolfo Cascio 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, where he is assistant professor of Italian Literature and Translation Studies.
His research focuses on the aesthetics and philology of reception. In this area, he is interested in the relationships, or “conversations”, between writers: particularly the creative dynamics of stylistic appropriation (displayed or concealed), and the practice of poet-translators. Furthermore, he is committed to advancing the knowledge of digital literary archives.
On these matters, Cascio 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); edited Rivolti al monte. Studi sul “Purgatorio” dantesco (Marsilio 2023); and published articles in leading journals (Paragone Letteratura, Nuovi Argomenti, Studi Novecenteschi, I Tatti. Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Forum Italicum, Annali d’Italianistica, Rivista di Letteratura Italiana, Allegoria, Testo a Fronte, Letteratura & Arte, Studi Italiani, Mythos. Rivista di Storia delle Religione, Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, Critica Letteraria, Contemporanea, Semicerchio. Rivista di Poesia Comparata).
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 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 Reception, i quaderni di poesia, the poetry translation section of “Letteratura e Pensiero”, and has been appointed curator of Silvana Grasso’s œuvre. 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 an Erasmus+ traineeship (University of Turin, 2022), and now is co-editing her unreleased writings in the series Archivio Silvana Grasso.
Alongside this, it is very important to him to feel part of the larger community and take part in the current cultural debate. He does this with reviews and columns that regularly appear in daily newspapers, magazines, collective books, as well as during public talks and with advisory activities that wish to expand the range of audience and issues, to challenge normative modes of evaluating, and to strengthen shared critical thinking.