Expertise

Expertise Italian, Literature, Italian literature, Italian history, Food, National identity, Business, Fairy tales, Immigration, Writing, Composition, Language skills, Gender, Women, Feminism, Elementary Italian, Intermediate Italian

Biography

Cristina Gragnani (Associate Professor of Italian) graduated summa cum laude in Italian literature from the University of Florence, Italy. She holds a Master and a PhD in Italian from Harvard University. Her scholarly work focuses on turn-of-the-twentieth century Italian literature and culture. Within this timeframe her research interests lie in three different fields: Italian women writers, late nineteenth century literary periodicals, and Luigi Pirandello. She published articles on Willy Dias (Fortuna Morpurgo), Elda Gianelli, Anna Franchi, female readership in post-unification Italy, Luigi Pirandello, the literary periodical Flirt, and Vincenzo Cerami. With Ombretta Frau she is the author of the 2011 book Sottoboschi letterari (Literary Underworld, Firenze University Press). In 2002, she published the critical edition of Pirandello’s Taccuino di Harvard (The Harvard Notebook, Mondadori, 2002), also with Ombretta Frau. She is currently at work on a book on Italian women writers and World War I. Between 2009 and 2016, she contributed the “Italian Literature” entry of the Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year. She served as Secretary (2009-2011) and then President (2011-2013) of the American Association for Italian Studies Women’s Studies Caucus. Cristina is the Italian program advisor, and coordinates Italian upper-level courses. In addition, she collaborates with the Italian program at the Temple University Rome campus. Cristina teaches all levels of Italian language and culture instruction. Some of her topics courses include Italian national identity, Italian women writers, Immigrants’ literature, and Italian fairy tales.

Selected Publications

Books

• Sottoboschi letterari: Sei case studies tra Otto e Novecento (Mara Antelling, Emma Boghen Conigliani, Evelyn, Anna Franchi, Jolanda, Flavia Steno). (With Ombretta Frau of Mount Holyoke College). Firenze University Press, 2011.
• Luigi Pirandello, Taccuino di Harvard, introduced and annotated by Ombretta Frau and Cristina Gragnani, with a foreword by Dante Della Terza, Milan: Mondadori, 2002.

Articles and Book Chapters

• Rinascita in rosa? Educazione sentimentale e interventismo nella Duplice fiamma di Willy Dias (1935).” Nascere, rinascere, ricominciare, ed. Laura Benedetti and Gianluigi Simonetti (L'Aquila, L'Aquila University Press, 2018):169-188.
• “La ‘Piccola Posta’: Twitter for the Nineteenth Century Woman.” Readers and Spectators in Italy: Towards the Formation of a National Audience (1750-1890), ed. Jennifer Burns and Gabriella Romani (Forthcoming with Farleigh Dickinson Press 2017 – co-authored with O. Frau): 239-256.
• “L’altra sponda del conflitto: le scrittrici e la prima guerra mondiale.” Allegoria. Rivista semestrale per uno studio materialistico della letteratura, 74 (2016): 41-62.
• “War Rape and Hybrid Birth.” Annie Chartres Vivanti: Writing Among Political Engagement, Gender Identity, and Cosmopolitism, ed. Erica Moretti and Sharon Wood, Farleigh Dickinson Press 2106: 49-61.
• “From Quill to Mouse. Digitizing the ‘Woman of Letters’ (1861-1922),” 2015 (Humanist Studies & the Digital Age 4,1, 2015: 98-107– co-authored with Ombretta Frau.
• “Lacerba e Il figlio alla Guerra: ai due estremi dell’interventismo intellettuale?” 2015 (Annali d’Italianistica, 33, 2015)
• “Late Nineteenth Century Italian Women Writers between Marginalization and (Aspirations of) Inclusion: A Puzzling Balance,” Italian Women Writers, 1800-2000: Boundaries, Borders, and Transgression, ed. Patrizia Sambuco, Farleigh Dickinson University Press 2014: 31-44 – co-authored with O. Frau.
• “Intervista a Emma Boghen Conigliani”, Interviste impossibili, Ed. Hervé Antonio Cavallera and Walter Scancarello. Pontedera, Bibliografia e Informazione Editore, 2013.
• “Il lettore in copertina. Flirt rivista di splendore e declino,” The Printed Media in fin-de-siècle Italy: Publishers, Writers and Readers, Eds. Ann H. Caesar, Gabriella Romani, and Jennifer Burns, London: Legenda – Maney Publishing, 2011: 133-150.
• “Pirandello tra Carducci e Séailles: ‘Elegia rurale,’ poesia umoristica,” Pirandello Studies, vol. 30, 2010: 25-41.

Courses Taught

• Italian National Identity
• Food and Cuisine in Italian Film and Literature
• Fairy Tales
• Immigrants’ Literature
• Italian women writers
• Advanced Writing Skills
• Readings in Italian
• Intermediate Italian
• Honors Elementary Italian I
• Honors Elementary Italian II
• Italian for Business
• Survey of Italian Literature