Alessandro Vettori

Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature

Ph.D. Yale, 1995
Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures, Università di Firenze, 1986
Joined Rutgers in 1999
Address: AB 5109 - 15 Seminary Place
Phone: 848-932-5446
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Dante, Franciscanism, Rewriting of biblical texts, the Devil in European Culture, Autobiography, the Medici of Florence, the Novella.

 

COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT

Undergraduate Courses

  • Dante and Medieval Culture (cross-listed with Comparative Literature)
  • Love and Sex Italian Style
  • The Three Crowns of Florence
  • Italian Theater
  • Autobiography (Comparative Literature)
  • The Devil in European Culture (Comparative Literature)

 

Graduate Courses

  • Dante
  • Thirteenth-Century Poetry
  • The Novella

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books

 

  • Giuseppe Berto. La passione della scrittura. Venezia, Italy: Marsilio Editore, 2013. 208
  • La città nel Decameron di Giovanni Boccaccio. Atti della giornata di studi (16 ottobre 2009). Ed. Alessandro Vettori. Paris: Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Quaderni dell’Hôtel de Galliffet, 2010
  • Berto: Thirty Years Later. Atti del Convegno internazionale. Fordham University at Lincoln Center. New York City, 1 novembre 2008. Eds. Luigi Fontanella and Alessandro Vettori. Padova: Marsilio Editore, 2009
  • Poets of Divine Love. The Rhetoric of Franciscan Spiritual Poetry. New York: Fordham University Press, 2004
  • Binding the Lands. Present Day Poets, Present Day Poetry. Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of IPSA, the Italian Poetry Society of America. Eds. Alessandro Carrera and Alessandro Vettori. Fiesole (Firenze), Italy: Edizioni Cadmo, 2004

 

Articles

  • “Prayer in Dante’s Purgatorio. A Bonaventurean Reading of Two Psalms.” Letteratura italiana e religione. Atti del convegno internazionale (Italian Studies – University of Toronto, 11-13 ottobre 2012) a cura di Salvatore Bancheri e Francesco Guardiani. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2015. 35-47.
  • Introduzione a Donatella Righini, ed., Clemente Terni: La memoria musicale di Dante. Firenze: LoGisma Editore, 2015.
  • “The Tale of Zima.” Decameron III.5. Lectura Boccaccii. Eds. Pier Massimo Forni and Francesco Ciabattoni. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 90-107.
  • “Religio amoris. Il sesso come rituale religioso nel Decameron.” Testo & Senso. N. 14 (2013). https://testoesenso.it/index.php/testoesenso/article/view/249
  • “Uomo animale poetico: per Alfredo de Palchi.” Gradiva 41/42 (Spring/Fall 2012) 40-43.
  • “Bonaventura da Bagnoregio e la poetica dell’ascesa in Dante.” Actes du Colloque “Poésie et Philosophie.” Paris, 19-21 novembre 2009. Revue des Etudes Italiennes. Poésie et philosophie dans la littérature italienne, dirigée par François Livi et Claudette Perrus. Nouvelle serie 55 nn. 3-4. Juillet-Décembre 2009. 227-237.
  • “Libertà e predestinazione nell’opera di Berto.” Berto: Thirty Years Later. Atti del Convegno internazionale. Fordham University at Lincoln Center. New York City, 1 novembre 2008. Eds. Luigi Fontanella and Alessandro Vettori. (Padova: Marsilio Editore, 2009). 71-80.
  • “Da Padrone a Fratello: Una rilettura del Cantico di Frate Sole (1225) di Francesco d’Assisi.” Diener – Herr – Herrschaft? Hierarchien in Mittelalter und Renaissance. Herausgegeben von Brigitte Burrichter und Laetitia Rimpau. (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag, 2009). 51-62.
  • “Singing with Angels: Iacopone da Todi’s Prayerful Language.” In Franciscans at Prayer. Ed Timothy J. Johnson (Leiden, Holland: Brill Publications, 2007) 221-248. “Pax et bonum: Dante’s Depiction of Francis of Assisi in Paradiso XI.” In Dante and the Franciscans. Ed. Santa Casciani (Leiden, Holland: Brill Publications, 2007) 289-305.
  • “Matelda, ovvero l’armonia ricreata.” Forthcoming in Medioevo letterario d’Italia. Fall 2007.
  • “Pax et bonum: Dante’s Depiction of Francis of Assisi in Paradiso XI.” In Dante and the Franciscans. Ed. Santa Casciani (Leiden, Holland: Brill Publications, 2007) 289-305.
  • “Veronica: Dante’s Pilgrimage from Image to Vision.” Dante Studies CXXI (2003) 43-65.
  • “Giuda tradito, ovvero l’ermeneutica parodica di Giuseppe Berto.” Modern Language Notes 118.1. January 2003. 168-193.
  • “La predestinazione al male nell’opera di Giuseppe Berto.” Forum Italicum. A Journal of Italian Studies. 36-2 (Fall 2002) 316-338.
  • “Serafino Gubbio’s Candid Camera.” Modern Language Notes 113 (1998) 79-107.
  • “La breccia silenziaria in Purgatorio X.” Lectura Dantis 20-21 (Spring-Fall 1997) 78-100.
  • “L’armonia ricreata: le fonti bibliche del Cantico francescano.” Annali di storia dell’esegesi. XI.1 (1994) 187-204.
  • “La Verità oltre il velario: il Processo a Gesù di Diego Fabbri.” Lingua e stile XXVIII.2 (1993) 301-313.

Creative Writing

  • “Le piaghe di Agata.”  “Agatha’s Sores”.  Short Story.  VIA: Voices in Italian Americana X.1 (1999) 67-80.
  • “Annunziata.”  Short story.   Chelsea (Spring 1996) 140.
  • “La lotta del professore.”  “The Professor’s Fight.”  Short story.  VIA: Voices in Italian Americana  V.2 (1994) 163-195. Winner of the 1995 Aniello Lauro Creative Writing Award.

HONORS AND AWARDS
Awards

  • Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship. Institute for Advanced Studies.
    University of Bristol, United kingdom. January 26-February 6, 2015.
    http://bristol.ac.uk/ias/fellowships/meakers/vettori.html
  • Professeur Invité at Paris VIII. Paris, France. May 2011.
  • Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana. Spring 2004.
  • Ernest E. McMahon - Class of 1930 Award for revamping the Master of Arts in Teaching Program in Italian. 2002.
  • Rutgers University Research Council Grant. 2000-2001
  • University of Virginia Teaching Fellow. Lilly Fellowship. 1997-1998.
  • Aniello Lauro Creative Writing Award. Spring 1995.

Service

  • Chair of the Jury for MLA Marrano Prize 2016
  • Member of the Jury for AAIS Book Award 2016

Invited Lectures given

  • Columbia University in Venice. Venice, Italy. 07/07/16. “Giuseppe Berto’s Anonimo Veneziano.
  • CUNY Graduate Center. New York, NY. 05/12/16. “The Exile of Poets in Dante’s Purgatorio.”
  • NYU and Columbia University. New York, NY. 04/08/16. The Global Dante Project. “Via Nuova, Archeology of a Text. Invited Respondent.
  • Columbia University. New York, NY, 02/09/16. “Giuseppe Berto’s The Sky Is Red.”

Papers presented at professional congresses

  • “The Garden of Eden Revisited. Issues of Ecological Approaches in Giuseppe Berto and Italo Calvino.” AAIS Conference. Baton Rouge, LA. 04/23/2016.
  • “French Culture at the Court of the Tuscan Gran-duke.” Renaissance Society of America. Boston, MA. 04/01/2016.