Nicola Gardini, MA, PhD
Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature
Research
The Renaissance; stylistics and poetics; poetry; autobiographical fiction; translation from Latin and Greek, and from English.
Undergraduate Teaching
Renaissance and the classical legacy, XIX- and XX-century poetry; special authors: Petrarch, Leopardi, Zanzotto; poetic translation; history of the sonnet. I am interested in close textual work and in exploring the ways in which tradition is formed and literature interacts with national imagination and shapes up moral beliefs.
Postgraduate Teaching
Tradition, translation, Renaissance, modern poetry, history of criticism.
Selected Publications
Critical Monographs
Io sono salute, Aboca, 2023 [on health and literature]
Consigli a un giovane poeta, Garzanti, 2023 [on verse writing]
Viva il greco, Garzanti, 2021 [on ancient Greek]
Rinascere, Garzanti, 2019 [on 10 protagonists of the Italian Renaissance]
Le dieci parole latine che raccontano il nostro mondo, 2018 [on the etymological and cultural history of 10 Latin words]
Con Ovidio, Garzanti, 2017 [on Ovid's poetic imagination]
Viva il latino, Garzanti, 2016 [a defence of Latin as a crucial subject in contemporary education]
Lacuna, Einaudi, 2014 [monograph on omission; a comparative study of reticence as a narrative strategy - examples range from classical antiquity up to modern fiction]
Per una biblioteca indispensabile, Einaudi, 2011
Rinascimento, Einaudi, 2010
Fiction
Nicolas, Garzanti, 2022 [on the life and death of Nicolas]
Silvia e l'enigma della Sibilla, Salani, 2022 [the story of a girl and a boy who magically end up in ancient Rome; for young adults]
La vita non vissuta, Feltrinelli, 2015 [novel; a gay story, exploring love, language, and disease]
Fauci, Feltrinelli, 2013 [an "opera buffa" inspired by melodrama]
Le parole perdute di Amelia Lynd, Feltrinelli, 2012 [American translation by Michael Moore: Lost Words, New Directions, 2016, the linguistic coming of age of a boy in early Seventies Milan; translated ]
I baroni, Feltrinelli, 2009
Lo sconosciuto, Sironi, 2007
Così ti ricordi di me, Sironi, 2003
Poetry
Istruzioni per dipingere, Garzanti, 2018
Il tempo è mezza mela [for children, with illustrations by Nicola Gardini]
Tradurre è un bacio, Ladolfi, 2015
Stamattina, Ladolfi, 2014
Le parti dell’amore, sedizioni, 2010
Le nuvole, Crocetti, 2007
Sag Harbor, d’if, 2003
Nind, Edizioni Atelier, 2002
Atlas, Crocetti, 1998
La primavera, in Nuovi Poeti Italiani 4, Einaudi, 1995
For a complete list of my writings (both academic and creative) see my personal website http://www.nicolagardini.com
Academic Background
Undergraduate degree: Università Statale di Milano, Laurea in Classics, with a thesis on Ammianus Marcellinus (1988)
PhD in Comparative Literature: New York University, with a thesis on the imitation of classical lyric poetry in Renaissance Italy, France and England (1995).
I was a lecturer at State University of Palermo (1999-2006), visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York (2000 and 2002), at NYU in Florence (2000-2005), at IULM, Feltre (2003 and 2004) and at Università Cattolica, Milan (2005).
I obtained a Research Fellowship at the Italian Academy, Columbia University (Fall 2005)
Other Interests
I write poetry and fiction, and I paint. I published some collections of verse and three novels. My new novel is due to be published some time next year.
I co-edit the monthly magazine "Poesia", based in Milan.