Irene Zanini-Cordi

Irene Zanini-Cordi (Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Moderne, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia; PhD in Italian Studies, UC Berkeley) specializes in Renaissance, 18th- and 19th-century, and contemporary Italian literature with emphasis on critical theory and women’s writing.

Her first book, Donne sciolte. Abbandono ed identità femminile nella letteratura italiana (Longo, 2008) is a transhistorical work that explores the figure of the woman abandoned by her lover, from Greek myths to Elena Ferrante’s early novels. She has authored several articles on Italian women writers. Her current research interests include Social Network Theory, Italian salons and salonnières, and on women’s writing in 18th- and 19th- century Italy. Her recently published Courting Celebrity. The Autobiographies of Angela Veronese and Teresa Bandettini (U Toronto Press, 2023) co-authored with Adrienne Ward (University of Virginia), stems from this research. It focuses on the life writings of two celebrated poet-improvisers and their networking strategies to achieve visibility and economic recognition in a traditionally male environment. Currently, she is completing a monograph on Italian sociability and the writings of women who animated literary salons and salotti di cultura from just before the French Revolution to Italian Unification.

Irene Zanini-Cordi is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship, and a NEH Summer Seminar at the American Academy in Rome (AAR). She has been awarded several FSU grants and fellowships. In addition, she has been Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, and at the American Academy in Rome.

At FSU, Irene Zanini-Cordi has served as Italian Studies Program Coordinator, Graduate and Undergraduate adviser, and on several University committees. She belongs to numerous professional associations and has served on the Executive Committee for the Modern Languages Association (MLA)-17th-, 18th-, and 19th-Century Italian Forum, and as a member of the MLA Delegate Assembly. She is currently the Italian Caucus representative for the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS).

Research Interests

18^th- and 19^th- Century Italian Literature

Narrative and Critical Theory

Social Network Theory

Women’s Writing

Contemporary Italian Literature

Courses Taught

Trecento Writers

Renaissance Literature

The Novella and the Short story

18th- and 19th- Century Italian Literature

Readings in Contemporary Prose

Survey of Italian Literature: From the Origins to the 18th-Century

Modern Italian Culture: From the Unification to the Present

Italian Cinema

Made in Italy

Italian Women Writers

Critical Theory (and its application to non-English Literatures)

Italian Grammar (Intermediate and Advanced)

Italian Conversation (Intermediate and Advanced)

Advanced Style and Composition

Selected Publications

Books:

• Courting Celebrity. The Autobiographies of Angela Veronese ad Teresa Bandettini. (University of Toronto Press, 2023). Co-authored with Adrienne Ward.
• Donne sciolte. Abbandono ed identità femminile nella letteratura italiana. (Ravenna: A. Longo Editore, 2008).

Selected Articles:

• “Angelica Palli and Alessio (1827). Love and Patriotism in the Early Italian Historical Novel.” The Palgrave Handbook of Transnational Women's Writing in the Long Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.
• “Celebrity by Way of Autobiography: The Case of Angela Veronese.” Co-authored with Adrienne Ward. The Palgrave Handbook of Transnational Women's Writing in the Long Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.
• “Two Voices, A Chorus. The Controcanto of Fiction and History in Agus and Castellina's "Guardati dalla mia fame." In Deconstructing the Model: Italian 20th and 21st-century Experimental Writing. Federica Santini & Giuseppe Cavatorta (Eds.), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.
• “Frammenti dell'io. Tradizione ed innovazione nell'autobiografismo di Francesca Turini Bufalini (1553-1641).” Schede Umanistiche, 32, 2018.
• “From Queen's Librarian to Voice of the Neapolitan Republic: Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel.” In Economic Imperatives for Women's Writing. Nina Geerdink & Carme Font Paz (Eds.), Leiden: Brill, 2018.
• “The Florida State University Experience: Design, Development and Implementation of Italian for Spanish Speakers Courses.” In Intercomprehension and Multilingualism: Practice and Theory. New York: Calandra Institute, CUNY, 2015.
• “La scrittura ontologizzante. Bizzarri commerci nelle lettere private di Elisabetta Mosconi Contarini ad Aurelio de' Giorgi Bertola.” In Favellare ai lontani. Tipologie epistolari fra Sette e Ottocento. Firenze, Cesati Editore, 2015.
• “Botteghe da Caffè, Sociability and Gender in Eighteenth- Century Venice.” In NeMLA Italian Studies. Special Issue: New Perspectives on Veneto, XXXV, 2013.
• “Neither Exile nor Migrant: Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso as Nomad.” In Femmes ecrivains/Women Writers at The Crossroads of Languages, 1700-2000. A. Fidecaro, H. Partzsch, S. van Dijk, & v. Cossy (Eds.) MetisPresses, Genève, 2009.