Pierpaolo Antonello

Pierpaolo Antonello is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Researcher in the Department of Italian Studies. He studied at the University of Bologna and Stanford University. He specializes in contemporary Italian literature, cinema, art, and intellectual history. He has also published on French philosophy and epistemology, particularly in relation to the works of René Girard and Michel Serres. His extensive writings cover the relationship between literature and science, as well as ethics and commitment in contemporary Italian culture.

His books include Science and Literature in Italian Culture: From Dante to Calvino (Oxford, 2004), co-edited with Simon Gilson; Il ménage a quattro. Scienza, filosofia e tecnica nella letteratura italiana del Novecento (Florence, 2005); Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy, 1969-2009 (Oxford, 2009), co-edited with Alan O’Leary; Postmodern impegno: Ethics and Commitment in Contemporary Italian Culture (Oxford, 2009), co-edited with Florian Mussgnug; and Dimenticare Pasolini. Intellettuali e impegno nell’Italia contemporanea (Milan, 2012). His book Contro il materialismo. Le “due culture” in Italia: bilancio di un secolo (Turin, 2012) won the AAIS and the Viareggio-Répaci Jury prizes in 2013.

In collaboration with João Cezar de Castro Rocha, he also published Les origines de la culture (Paris, 2004), a comprehensive dialogue with René Girard, which has been translated into nine languages.

He is currently working on a study of the Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari. Before joining Yale, he was a Professor of Modern Italian Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College. He has held visiting positions at Ohio State University, the University of Padua, and the University of Cagliari. Together with Robert Gordon, he co-edits the book series Italian Modernities for Peter Lang, Oxford.