Contact details
- Name:
- Dr Serena Todesco
- Qualifications:
- MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Limerick (2008); PhD in Italian Literature from University College Cork (2013)
- Position/Fellowship type:
- Associate Members - Independent Scholar
- Institute:
- Institute of Languages Cultures and Societies
- Home institution:
- Independent Scholar
- Email address:
- Serena.Todesco@sas.ac.uk
- Website:
- https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/people/dr-serena-todesco
Research Summary and Profile
- Research interests:
- Language and Literature (Italian)
- Summary of research interests and expertise:
-
Profile
Serena Todesco holds an MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Limerick (2008) and a PhD in Italian Literature from University College Cork (2013). She is a literary translator and an independent scholar of Italian literature and gender studies. Her research interests include female identity and (self) subjectification in relation to gendered and/or cultural otherness in the South and the relationships between philosophies of sexual difference, motherhood, and women’s literature in contemporary Italy. She regularly participates in international conferences and has held seminars on Italian Southern women writers at several universities. She is the author of Tracce a margine. Scritture a firma femminile nella narrazione storica siciliana contemporanea (Pungitopo, 2017) on the memory of women in literature in the work of Sicilian women writers of the 1990s and the 2000s and of Campo a due. Dialogo con Maria Rosa Cutrufelli (Giulio Perrone Editore, 2021), a conversation with feminist activist and author Maria Rosa Cutrufelli on women’s writing, feminism, and gender culture in Italy. She has co-edited two online volumes: (with Daniela Bombara and Milagro Martín-Clavijo) La Sicilia a firma femminile: uno sguardo diacronico e sincronico dal XV al XXI secolo (Rivista di Studi Italiani, 1, 2020) and (with Daniela Bombara) Fantastika! Terrore, soprannaturale, fantascienza, utopia e distopia a firma femminile (ISSA, University of South Africa,1, 2021). She has published several articles and book chapters on gendered thematisations of the South and motherhood and daughterhood in Elena Ferrante, Michela Murgia, Anna Maria Ortese, Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, Nadia Terranova, Maria Attanasio, Giuliana Saladino, Maria Occhipinti, Viola Di Grado, and Slavenka Drakulic.