Giacomo Berchi, Ph.D. Student

Giacomo Berchi's picture
Teaching Assistant
Address: 
HQ, 320 York, 5th Floor
Office Hours: 
Thursday, 11:30am-12:30pm

He is a 6th year PhD candidate in Italian Studies and Early Modern Studies.

In 2022/23 he has been a visiting researcher at CHAM – Center for the Humanities of Nova University in Lisbon, Portugal, where he also taught Italian Literature at the Faculty of Letters of the Lisbon University.

His main interest is the relationship between literature and cosmology in the Early Modern period and beyond. His doctoral thesis focuses on the epic scene of the sea tempest as a representation of cosmic chaos in the work of Dante Alighieri, Luiz Vaz de Camões, Torquato Tasso, and John Milton. He is also interested in theories and practices of world literature.

He published articles in Italian, English and Portuguese, on Giorgio Orelli, Dante, Giacomo Leopardi, and Haroldo de Campos. His current article projects focus on Dante, Milton, Leopardi, Camões, and Auerbach’s idea of Philology of World Literature. Since Spring 2022, he collaborates with the Italian cultural journal “Prometeo” (Mondadori), with reviews and articles.

He wrote the introduction to the Paradiso entitled “Dante su Marte” for the Oscar Draghi Mondadori, 2021.

He is part of the Yale Graduate Crew of which he has been a captain in season 2019/20

 
Chair: 
Jane Tylus

Courses

ITAL 151: Advanced Italian Workshop

What does it mean to look up at the night sky in the geocentric cosmos of Aristotle and Ptolemy? What are the effects of the heliocentric model on human imagination? How could we picture the Big Bang? This course focuses on the relationship between Italian literature and cosmology. We will read texts spanning 700 years of Italian language and culture, from epic to journalism, from chivalric romance to popularized science. Our readings will guide us on a long journey through what Italo Calvino called the cosmic vocation of Italian literature, from Dante Alighieri’s journey through the Heavens up to the works of contemporary scientists such as Guido Tonelli and Carlo Rovelli. In the last part of the course, students will actively engage with Calvino’s short stories in a workshop format. For their final project, students will be required to write their own cosmicomica, or short story that creatively reflects on a cosmic theme explored in the course.

Term: Spring 2024
Day/Time: TTh 9:10-10:15a.m.