John Picchione
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
Professor Emeritus
Email: johnp@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
John Picchione teaches Italian literature and culture. He has published extensively on modern and contemporary Italian poetry and narrative, avant-garde movements, literary and cultural theory. Both his research and teaching are centered on an interdisciplinary orientation that pays close attention to the dialogue between literature, the arts, and other fields of knowledge. The objective of his courses and publications is to investigate the role of literature and other cultural expressions in creating worldviews, ideologies, aesthetic models, belief-systems, personal and collective identities.
His research interests include modern and contemporary Italian poetry and narrative, avant-garde movements, literary and cultural theory, modern/post-modern aesthetics. He has published books, entries in encyclopedias and articles in journals, among which Novecento, Encyclopaedia of World Literature, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Il Verri, Strumenti critici, The Review of National Literatures, Parol: quaderni d'arte e di epistemologia, Studi novecenteschi, Otto/Novecento, Letteratura italiana contempranea, Italica. He has devoted particular attention to the authors of the Italian new avant-garde (Porta, Sanguineti, Giuliani, Balestrini, Pagliarani) and to poets and novelists, such as Ungaretti, Palazzeschi, Volponi, Quasimodo, Zanzotto, Giulia Niccolai, Aldo Nove. He has written on several theoretical topics: structuralism and deconstruction, reader-response criticism, postmodernism, literature and the issue of the subject, literature and new technologies, poetry and cognition, poetic forms and ideology, poetry and the materiality of language. He is the author of The New Avant-Garde in Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices for which he has been awarded the 2005 Book Prize of the American Association for Italian Studies, and of Introduzione a Antonio Porta [Introduction to Antonio Porta]. He is the editor of I discorsi della critica in America [Critical discourses in North America] (essays on Bloom, Frye, Jameson, Fish, Said and others), co-editor of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology and of Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde. He has been on the editorial board of the journal Quaderni d’ italianistica and he is currently the Canadian editor of Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia. He is an evaluator for publishers, including Minnesota University Press, University of Toronto Press, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Peter Lang (UK), and for several journals in Europe and North America. He is the Canadian representative of the Centre for the Studies on Cesare Pavese (Italy). He has given papers, lectures, and conducted seminars at numerous universities, including The City University of New York, Yale University, University of Toronto, University of Bologna, and the universities of Rome La Sapienza, Macerata, Trento, Ankara, and Zagreb. He has served on Ph.D. committees and as external examiner for several theses. He has contributed to the Venice Art Biennale and to Performa (New York Performing Arts Biennial). He is the co-founder of York Summer Studies Program (Florence and Rome).
Degrees
Ph.D., Italian Language and Literature, University of TorontoM.A., Major: Italian Language and Literature; Minor: Spanish, University of Toronto
B.A., Italian and Spanish, University of Western Ontario
Professional Leadership
Member - Editorial Board, Parol: quaderni d'arte e di epistemologia (2002-2020). Member - Editorial Board of the literary series "I sensi del testo" [The Meanings of the Text], for the publisher Mimesis, Milan (2017-2020) Member - Canadian representative for the Centre on Studies of Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy, (2002-10). Member - Advisory Board, Quaderni d'italianistica, (2003-10). Member - Editorial Board (Associate Editor), Quaderni d'italianistica, journal of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, (1989-98).
Community Contributions
He has written for various Italian-Canadian newspapers and magazines (Mosaico, Forze Nuove, Corriere Canadese, Nuovo Mondo, Il Giornale di Toronto, Our Times). He has been interviewed on social, educational, cultural, and political issues related to the Italian-Canadian community and Italian culture: RAI (Italian National Television) for its regional programs in Molise, Radio 24 (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy), Channel 47 for its programs "Incontri," "Agenda," "Noi Oggi," and Radio Uno, 1220 AM. He has read papers on cultural issues, immigration, education, Italian-Canadian youth, at numerous conferences and events sponsored by Italian-Canadian organizations. He has worked with the Italian-Canadian community and the Italian Cultural Institute to organize events and conferences.
Research Interests
- 2000-01 Faculty of Arts Fellowship - 2000-01
- 2005- Book Prize of The American Association of Italian Studies for the volume on the new avant-garde (2004) - 2005
Current Research Projects
La scrittura, il cervello, e l’era digitale [Writing, the Brain, and the Digital Age], Macerata: Edizioni Università di Macerata, 2016.
Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde, ed. with Paolo Chirumbolo, Oxford-London: Legenda-Maney Publishing, 2013.
Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura [From Modernism to Postmodernism: Theoretical Reflections and Literary Practices], Macerata: Edizioni Università di Macerata, 2012.
The New Avant-Garde in Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Introduzione a Porta, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1995.
I discorsi della critica in America (ed.), Rome: Bulzoni, 1993.
Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993 (ed. with Lawrence R. Smith).
Italian Literature in North America: Pedagogical Strategies, Ottawa: Biblioteca di Quaderni d'Italianistica, 1990 (ed. with L. Pietropaolo).
“Aldo Nove e la narrativa dell’eccesso” [Aldo Nove and the Narrative of Excess], in Studies in Honour of Guido Pugliese, ed. by A. Mollica, Welland: Soleil Publications, 2015.
“I viaggi del self e la polifonia della scrittura” [The Voyages of the Self and the Polyphony of Writing], preface to the novel Il giorno del lungo viaggio alla finestra, by Francesca Vivenza, Milan: Il Faggio, Milan, 2015.
“Introduction: Prelude for an Engaging Intellectual”, in Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-garde.
“Foreward”, in La rappresentazione del paesaggio nella letteratura e nel cinema dell’Italia contemporanea / The Representation of Landscape in Contemporary Italian Literature and Cinema, ed. by P. Chirumbolo and L. Pocci, Lewiston: Mellen Press, 2013.
"The Poetry of the New Avant-Garde and the Materiality of Language" in Neoavanguardia: Italian Experimental Literature and the Arts in the 1960s, ed. by P. Chirumbolo, M. Moroni, L. Somigli, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.
“Antonio Porta et les langages de la poésie,” Introduction to Yellow by A. Porta, trans. by Francis Catalano, Montreal, Éditions du Noroît, 2009.
"Pavese in Canada: esperienze didattiche," in Un viaggio mitico - Pavese intertestuale: alla ricerca di se stesso e dell’eticità della storia, ed. by A. Catalfamo, Santo Stefano Belbo: I Quaderni di CE.PA.M, 2006.
"Afterword," in Antonio Porta, Dreams and Other Infidelities, trans. by A. Molino, Riverdale: Xenos Books, 1999.
"Antonio Porta," in Encyclopedia of World Literature, New York: Ungar, 1999.
"The Molisani in Canada," in A Monument for Italian-Canadian Immigrants, ed. by G. Scardellato, M. Scarci, Toronto: Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto/Italian-Canadian Commemorative Association, 1999.
"Avanguardia e postmoderno: interrogativi, contraddizioni teoriche, e qualche proposta," in Avanguardia vs. postmodernità, ed. by F. Bettini, M. Carlino, A. Mastropasqua, F. Muzzioli, G. Patrizi, Rome: Bulzoni, 1998.
"Poetry in Revolt: Italian Avant-Garde Movements in the Sixties," in Experimental Visual Concrete: Avant-Garde Poetry Since the 1960s, ed. by K. D. Jackson, E. Vos, J. Drucker, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.
"Edoardo Sanguineti e la materialità del significante," in Miscellanea d'italianistica in memoria di Mario Santoro, ed. by M. Cataudella, Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1995.
"Antonio Porta: dalla semantica in frantumi al progetto di comunicazione poetica," in Scrittori, tendenze letterarie e conflitto delle poetiche in Italia (1960-1990), ed. by R. Capozzi, M. Ciavolella, Ravenna: Longo, 1993.
"Edoardo Sanguineti,"in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Twentieth Century Italian Poetry, ed. by G. Wedel De Stasio, G. Cambon, A. Illiano, Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1993.
"Alfredo Giuliani," in Dictionary of Literary Biography.
"Antonio Porta," in Dictionary of Literary Biography.
"The Visual Poets," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, ed. by J. Picchione, L. R. Smith, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
"Antonio Porta," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry.
"The Poets of the Recent Generation," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry.
"La poesia di Antonio Porta e i Novissimi," in Il Novecento, vol. XI, Milan: Marzorati, 1989.
"Il primo Palazzeschi e la critica (1968 1983)," in Tra due secoli, ed. by F. Loriggio, Ottawa: The Canadian Society for Italian Studies/Groupe de Recherches International "1900" (Carleton University), 1988.
Edoardo Esposito, Con altra voce. La traduzione letteraria tra le due guerre, Milan: Donzelli Editore, 2018, Italica, 96, 2019.
Roberto Esposito, Terms of the Political: Community, Immunity, Biopolitics, translated by Rhiannon Noel Welch, with an Introduction by Vanessa Lemm, Fordham University Press, New York, 2013; Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
A. Porta, Tutte le poesie 1956-1989, ed. by Niva Lorenzini, Milan: Garzanti, 2009, Italian Culture, 1, 2011.
A, Catalfamo, La dialettica vitale delle contraddizioni, Rome: Aracne Editrice, 2005; Italian Culture, XXVI, 2008.
G. Pugliese, Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Italian Novels, Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1988; Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1991.
A. Luzi, Introduzione a Sereni, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1989; "La poesia di Sereni in una lettura di A. Luzi," Rivista di Studi Italiani, 1-2, 1989.
G. Grana, Le avanguardie letterarie, Vols. I, II, III, Milan: Marzorati, 1986; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1989.
C. M. Conti, L. Pignotti (ed.), Il nuovo in poesia, Udine: Campanotto, 1986; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1988.
R. Barilli, Giovanni Pascoli, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1986; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1987.
S. Ferrari, Psicoanalisi arte e letteratura: bibliografia generale 1900-1983, Parma: Pratiche, 1985; Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1987.
M. Goderecci (ed.), The Empty Set: Five Essays on Twentieth- Century Italian Poetry, Flushing: Queens College Press, 1985; The Canadian Modern Language Review, 1, 1986.
M. Mincu (ed.), La semiotica letteraria italiana, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1982; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1984.
T. De Lauretis, Umberto Eco, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1982; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1984.
A. Fontanella (ed.), Dino Buzzati, Florence: Olschki, 1982; Rivista di studi italiani, 2, 1983.
R. Barilli, Viaggio al termine della parola: la ricerca intraverbale, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1981; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1982.
B. Cattafi, L'allodola ottobrina, Milan: Mondadori, 1979; The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Spring-Summer 1981.
M. Corti, Il viaggio testuale: le ideologie e le strutture semiotiche, Turin: Einaudi, 1978; Gradiva, 2-3, 1980-1981.
A. Arbasino, Fantasmi italiani, Rome: Cooperativa Scrittori, 1977; The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Summer 1979.
V. Accame, Il segno poetico, Samedan: Munt Press, 1977, The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Winter 1978.
“La narrativa di Aldo Nove tra morbo della temporalità e desiderio bulimico” [Aldo Nove’s narrative between diseased temporality and bulimic desire], Italica, 97, 2020.
“Guido Gozzano e i rapporti con l’avanguardia” [Guido Gozzano’s poetry and its relationship with the avant-garde], Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 30-31, 2019.
“Scuola e tecnologie digitali: uno sguardo critico” [Education and digital technologies: a critical perspective”, Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 30-31, 2019.
“Il modernismo e il tempo: rivolgimenti concettuali identitari e formali, ACME, Annali della Facoltà di Studi Umanistici dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, 2, 2015.
"Pokret talijanskog futurizma: estetska i antropološka revolucija” [“The movement of the Italian Futurism: An aesthetic and anthropological revolution”] trans. into Croatian by Emil Heršak, Forum, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Zagreb, 7-9, 2015.
“La neovanguardia cinquant’anni dopo: a colloquio con Renato Brilli”, Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 24, 2013.
Edited a section (special issue on the New Avant-Garde) of the journal Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 24, 2013 [essays by F. Muzzioli, F. Curi, N. Lorenzini, G. M. Annovi, N. Bouchard, J. C. Stout].
Edited a section (special issue on Futurism) of the journal Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 21, 2012 [essays by J. Schnapp, W. Krysinski, R. Haller, B. Elder, G. Lombardo, L. Chessa].
“Performa e le celebrazioni dei manifesti del Futurismo a New York: A colloquio con RoseLee Goldberg” [Interview], Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 21, 2012.
“Poesia comunicazione e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta,” online: www.milanocosa.it 2009.
Short Excerpts [Reprint from my book on Porta] - “Antonio Porta: da Passi passaggi a Invasioni”, in Antonio Porta, Tutte le poesie, ed. by Niva Lorenzini, Milan: Garzanti, 2009
“Gli accampamenti poetici di Antonio Porta,” in L’Ulisse, 12, 2009, Special issue “Antonio Porta e noi,” online: www.lietocolle.com/ulisse.
“L’attività critica di Bruce Elder: cinema, poesia, e avanguardia,” Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 1, 2009.
"Major Trends in Italian Poetry: From The Post-War Years to the Present," The Review of National Literatures, 3, 2001. [Special issue Italy: Fiction, Theater, Poetry, Film Since 1950,ed. by R. Dombroski].
"Avant-garde Poetry and the Ecology of the Word," Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 2000.
"Poetry and the Human Sciences in Italy (the 1970s and 80s)," Forum Italicum, 1, 1999 [Special issue in memory of Gian-Paolo Biasin and Giovanni Cecchetti, ed. by R. Capozzi, L. Somigli].
"Poetry, Science, and the Epistemological Debate," Translators Translations Readings, 1, 1999 [Special issue on Poetry, Cognition, Translation, ed. by A. Brisset].
"La rivolta del lettore: decostruzionismo e reader-response in America," Parol quaderni d'arte, 14, 1998 [online: http://www2.unibo.it/parol/articles/rivolta.htm].
"Avanguardia e postmoderno: contraddizioni teoriche e qualche proposta," Bollettario, 22-23, 1997.
"Soggetto, testo, interpretazione," Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1997.
"Antonio Porta e l'America," Il Verri, 3-4, 1993.
"Indebolimento, decentramento, e disseminazione dell'io: le poetiche post-novissime," Otto/Novecento, 5, 1993.
"Dall'assenza al desiderio: la poesia di Andrea Zanzotto," Letteratura italiana contemporanea, 24, 1988.
"I tragitti del testo: dalla polisemia alla disseminazione," Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1988.
"Il nomadismo poetico di Antonio Porta," Esperienze letterarie, 1, 1987.
"La dialettica negativa del Gruppo 63," Otto/Novecento, 2, 1987.
"A colloquio con Antonio Porta" (Interview), Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1986.
"Il ruolo del lettore di fronte all'aspro stil novo dei Novissimi," Studi novecenteschi, 27, 1984.
"Poesia come provocazione: itinerari espressivi di Antonio Porta," Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1983.
"L'ipersemanticità del semantico: 'Alla mia terra' di S. Quasimodo" (with L. Marchionne Picchione), Esperienze letterarie, 3, 1980.
"Le modalità della disperazione apocalittica (Morselli, Volponi, Porta)" (with L. Marchionne Picchione), Otto Novecento, 3-4, 1980.
"Antonio Porta e le varianti dell'azzeramento," Il Verri, 13-16, 1979.
"Le metamorfosi della poesia: gli esperimenti visivi del Gruppo 70," The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Fall 1979.
"Linguaggio come terapia nell'ultimo Porta," Strumenti critici, 39-40, 1979.
"Lo stregone della parola: la presenza del magico nella poesia di Giuseppe Ungaretti," Esperienze letterarie, 2, 1979.
“Il cinema nell’era digitale: interrogativi e dilemmi”, read at the international conference, Cinema del limite: simposio internazionale, Sassari, May 2017.
“Marshall McLuhan and the Digital Brain”, read at the international conference “The Toronto School: Then Now Next”, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, October 2016.
“From Postmodernism to New/Speculative Realism: Philosophical and Literary Shifts” for the Round Table “Shifting Visions: A Conversation on New Trends in Italian Literature and Culture”, Italian Cultural Institute, March 2014.
“Andrea Zanzotto’s Poetry: An Overview” [book launch Zanzotto: Haiku for a Season], Italian Cultural Institute, Toronto, April 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo” [book launch and debate with Antonio Bisaccia and Murizio Coccia], Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, May 2013
“Scrittura, cervello ed era digitale”, Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, May 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo”[book launch and debate with Filippo Mignini, Carla Carotentuto and Alfredo Luzi], Eum/Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università di Macerata, Macerata, June 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo”[book launch and debate with Renato Barilli], Libreria Feltrinelli, Bologna, June 2013.
“The New Avant-Garde and its Precursors”, read at the conference Electric Visions: How Dada and Surrealism Anticipated the Later Avant-Garde, Ryerson University, September 2013.
“Giulio Einaudi e l’immaginazione culturale”, talk given at the “Settimana Italiana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo”, Italian Cultural Institute, Toronto, October 2012.
La letteratura, il cervello, e l’era digitale: riflessioni didattiche, University of Bologna, May 2011.
La poesia del modernism e la questione del soggetto: alcuni testi-campione, University of Macerata, May 2011.
Lavoratori italiani in Canada: tra passato e presente, Società operaia, Porto San Giorgio, May 2011.
The movement of the Italian Futurism: An aesthetic and anthropological revolution, University of Zagreb, May 2011.
Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: la questione del soggetto nel contesto poetico e narrativo, keynote address at the graduate seminar Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Literature, Language and Culture, University of Toronto, January 2010.
Edoardo Sanguineti’s Laborintus and the Functions of Plurilinguism, read at the conference Plurilinguismo Letterario, University of Toronto, March 2009.
Futurist Film and Aesthetics, read at Performa 09, Anthology Film Archives, New York, November 2009.
Poesia comunicazione e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta, filmed video, shown at the conference Il giardiniere contro il becchino: memoria e (ri)scoperta di Antonio Porta, Milanocosa/Biblioteca Comunale, Milan, December 2009.
Technomorphism and the Aesthetics of Futurism, read at the conference The New Paragone: The Cinema and the Vanguard Art Movements, School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, March 2009.
The Universe Will Be Our Vocabulary: Futurist Film, Music, and Literature, read at Performa 09, New Cooper Union, New York, November 2009.
Letteratura ai margini? Considerazioni teoriche e didattiche, read at the conference What’s Next, University of Toronto, October 2008.
Baroque Poetry in Italy: Deception, Illusion, and Epistemological Shifts, read at the conference Image and Imagery: Disguise, Deception, Trompe l’Oeil - Exploring Intersections of Visual, Textual, and Oral Modes of Artistic Expression, Brock University, October 2006.
Moderno, postmoderno, avanguardia: orientamenti teorici europei e americani; Le avanguardie storiche: mitologie, ideologie, e pratiche poetiche; Trasgressione, normalizzazione e postmoderno: neoavanguardia e esperienze poetiche degli ultimi decenni, lectures given at the University of Macerata, Italy, May 2006.
Palazzeschi: soggetto in fumo? read at the conference L’arte del saltimbanco: Aldo Palazzeschi tra due avanguardie, University of Toronto, September, 2006.
Scrittura visuale in varie culture: dall’antichità all’Ottocento; Scrittura visuale e le avanguardie storiche; Scrittura visuale: concretismo, poesia visiva e ultime esperienze in varie culture, lectures given at Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, Italy, May 2006.
The New Avant-Garde In Italy: An Overview, read at the lecture series "Humanities at Noon" of the Department of French, German, and Italian, University of Toronto at Mississauga, January 2005.
Poetry and the Abject: The Case of the Italian New Avant-Garde, read at the international conference "Image and Imagery III: Beauty and the Abject," Brock University, October 2004.
Aesthetic Forms and Social Commitment: The Debate of the Italian New Avant-Garde, read at the international conference "Art and Social Engagement," Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey), May, 2002.
Il Novecento e i passaggi del linguaggio poetico, read at University of Ankara (Turkey), May, 2002.
Poetry and Visual Practices in Italy: Aesthetic and Ideological Subversions, read at the international conference "Image and Imagery II: Frames, Borders, Limits," Brock University, October 2002.
Poetry, Science and Possible Worlds, read at the international conference "Sanart/Art and Science," Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey), June, 2000.
Avant-garde Poetry and the Ecology of the Word, read at "The Graduate Colloquium in Comparative Literature," The City University of New York, February 1999.
Contemporary Italian Avant-garde Poetry, read at the lecture series ofthe Dept. of European Languages and Literatures, Queens College, The City University of New York, February, 1999.
Poetry and the Italian New Avant-garde, read at conference "Image Flesh and Thought," Ryerson Polytechnic University, February, 1999.
Avant-garde Literature and the Ecology of the Word, read at the Conference "The Power of Words: Literature, Society and the University," held at York University, October 1998.
Experimental and Avant-garde Poetry: Language and Possible Worlds, read at the international conference "Possible Worlds and Virtual Worlds: Crossing the Boundaries in Twentieth Century Italian Literature and Film," University of Toronto, November, 1998.
Poetry, Science, and the Epistemological Debate, read at the international symposium "Poésie, Cognition, Traduction," University of Ottawa, May 1998.
The Molisani in Canada, read at the conference "A Commemoration of Italian Immigrants," St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, November 1998.
Avanguardia e postmoderno: interrogativi contraddizioni teoriche e qualche proposta, read at the international conference "Avanguardia vs postmodernità," University of Rome ("La Sapienza"), April 1997.
Dall'intolleranza all'inclusività: scuola, cultura, e giovani italo-canadesi, Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, Porto San Giorgio (Italy), April 1997.
Il dibattito della critica in America: gli ultimi vent'anni, read at the University of Macerata, April 1997.
Il ruolo del lettore nell'interpretazione: le prospettive di Harold Bloom e Stanley Fish, read at the University of Bologna (DAMS), April 1997.
La rivolta del lettore: decostruzionismo e reader-response in America, read at the University of Salerno, April 1997.
Poetry in Revolt: Italian Avant-Garde Movements in the 1960s, read at the international symposium "The End of Language: Experimental, Visual, Concrete Poetry Since 1960," Yale University, April 1995.
L'emigrazione italo-canadese: aspetti sociali e culturali, read at the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, Porto San Giorgio (Italy), May 1992.
Modern and Contemporary Poetry in North America: A Pedagogical Challenge, read at the conference "Italian Studies in North America," University of Toronto, March 1992.
Antonio Porta: dalla semantica in frantumi al progetto di comunicazione poetica, read at the international conference "Gli scrittori, le tendenze letterarie e il conflitto delle poetiche in Italia 1960-1990," University of Toronto, April 1991.
Indebolimento, decentramento, e disseminazione dell'io: le poetiche post-novissime, read at the international conference "Refractions: Literary Criticism, Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Contemporary Italy," Carleton University, September 1990.
I tragitti del testo: dalla polisemia alla disseminazione, read at the April 1988 meeting of the American Association for Italian Studies, held at Brigham Young University.
La semiotica e la crisi del decostruzionismo, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, October 1988.
Dall'assenza al desiderio: la poesia di Andrea Zanzotto, read at the April 1987 meeting of the North-East Modern Language Association, held in Boston.
Poesia al femminile (?): rabbia, gioco e terapia, read at the international symposium "Women in Italian Studies," York University, March 1987.
Andrea Zanzotto e i significanti dell'oblio, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, December 1986.
La dialettica negativa del Gruppo 63, read at the April 1986 meeting of the American Association for Italian Studies, held at the University of Toronto.
Il ruolo del lettore nella poesia della neo avanguardia, read at the April 1983 meeting of the North East Modern Language Association, held in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Rinnovamento e contestazione della poesia italiana contemporanea, read at the University of Western Ontario, October 1983.
Intellettuali e società: Elio Vittorini, read at Circolo Culturale Carlo Levi, Toronto, May 1982.
La poesia italiana degli ultimi venti anni, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, February 1982.
Il magico nella poesia di Giuseppe Ungaretti, read at the May 1979 meeting of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, held at the University of Saskatoon.
Poesia come provocazione: gli itinerari espressivi della neoavanguardia esemplificati attraverso l'opera di Antonio Porta, read at the May 1976 meeting of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, held at Laval University.
“Poesia, comunicazione, e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta”, in Il giardiniere contro il becchino: memoria e (ri)scoperta di Antonio Porta, ed. by Adam Vaccaro, Milan: Associazione Culturale Milanocosa, 2012.
“Technomorphism and the aesthetics of Futurism,” 2010, online: http//imagearts.ryerson.ca/newparagone/symposium.html
“Letteratura ai margini? Considerazioni teoriche e didattiche,” in What’s Next, ed. by Francesco Guardiani, Ottawa: Legas, 2009.
“Baroque Poetry in Italy: Deception, Illusion, and Epistemological Shifts,” Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Disguise, Deception, Trompe l’Oeil – Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
"Palazzeschi: soggetto in fumo?," in L’arte del saltimbanco: Aldo Palazzeschi tra due avanguardie, ed. by L. Somigli, G. Tellini, Florence: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2008.
"Aesthetic Forms and Social Commitment: The Debate of the Italian New Avant-Garde," tr. in Turkish "Estetik Biçimler ve Toplumsal Adanm?lik: ?talyan Neo-Avangart’? Tart??mas?", in Sanat ve Bilim – Sanat ve Sosyal Adanm??lik [Proceedings of the international conference Art and Social Engagement], ed. by Jale N.Erzen and Pelin Yoncaci, Ankara: Yalç?n Matbaac?l?k, 2007.
[on line: www.sanart.org.tr/artengaged/papers.html].
"Poetry and the Abject: The Case of the Italian New Avant-Garde," Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Beauty and the Abject - Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
"Poetry and Visual Practices in Italy: Aesthetic and Ideological Subversions," Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Frames, Borders, Limits - Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2005.
"Soggetto, testo, interpretazione," Proceedings of the XVI international conference of AISLLI (Associazione Internazionale per gli Studi della Lingua e della Letteratura Italiana) Prometeo: metamorfosi del testo e testualità della critica, ed. by L. Ballerini, G. Bardin, M. Ciavollella, Fiesole-Florence: Cadmo, 2000.
"Modern and Contemporary Italian Poetry in North America: A Pedagogical Challenge," in Italian Studies in North America, ed. by M. Ciavolella, A. Iannucci, Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1994.
"Poesia al femminile (?): rabbia, gioco e terapia," in Donna: Women in Italian Studies, ed. by A. Testaferri, Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1989.
"Poetry, Science, and Possible Worlds,"Proceedings of the international conference Sanart /Art and Science, ed.by J. Erzen, Ankara (to appear).
“Marshall McLuhan and the Digital Brain”, read at the international conference “The Toronto School: Then Now Next”, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, October 2016.
G. M. Annovi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in L’anello che non tiene –Journal of Modern Italian Literature, 1-2, 2012.
C. Federici, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo,in Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
R. Barilli, “John Picchione: tra moderno e postmoderno” [Dal modernismo al postmodernismo], in L’immaginazione, July -August, 2013.
C. Stifani, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, June, 2014.
published reviews of my work
F. Focosi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in I castelli di Yale - Quaderni di filosofia, I, 2014.
B. Cavatorta, Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Annali d’Italianistica, 32, 2014.
F. Mussgnug, Edoardo Sanguineti:Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Modern Language Review, 3, January, 2016.
M. Migliozzi, Edoardo Sanguineti:Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Forum Italicum,49, May, 2015.
F. Focosi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in I castelli di Yale - Quaderni di filosofia, I, 2014.
M. Masterson, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in Italian Culture, 2, 2014.
C. Stifani, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, June, 2014.
R. Barilli, “John Picchione: tra moderno e postmoderno” [Dal modernismo al postmodernismo], in L’immaginazione, July -August, 2013.
C. Federici, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo,in Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
G. M. Annovi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in L’anello che non tiene –Journal of Modern Italian Literature, 1-2, 2012.
F. Mussgnug, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Studies, 2, 2008.
S. Giannini, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Culture, XXIV-XXV, 2006-2007.
R. Capozzi, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in The University of Toronto Quarterly, 76, 2007.
B. Cavatorta, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italica, 84, 2007.
V. Berberi, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Culture, XXIII, 2005.
R. Barilli, “La cultura italiana a Toronto” [The New Avant-Garde in Italy], in L’Immaginazione, September, 2005.
N. Bouchard, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Annali d’italianistica, 23, 2005.
P. Chirumbolo, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 1, 2005.
P. Chirumbolo, “Sulla poesia degli anni sessanta e settanta”, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, 1, 2003 [pub. 2005].
C. Federici, The New Avant-Garde In Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices, in Quaderni d’Italianistica, 1, 2005.
V. Tinacci, “Poetry and the Human Sciences in Italy”, in Moderna, 2, 2001.
E. Nerenberg, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1996.
A. Cappello, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Oggi e domani, December, 1996.
P. Carroli, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, in Journal of the Australasian Universities Languages and Literature Association, 85, 1996.
B. Carle, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, in Italica, 3, 1995;
C. Federici, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Rivista di studi italiani, 2, 1995.
M. Vena, I discorsi della critica in America, in Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1995;
T. Carlevaro, Italian Literature in North America, in Language Problems and Language Planning, 2, 1995.
G. Pugliese, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, in Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1995;
F. Loriggio, Italian Literature In North America, in Quaderni d'italianist
John Picchione teaches Italian literature and culture. He has published extensively on modern and contemporary Italian poetry and narrative, avant-garde movements, literary and cultural theory. Both his research and teaching are centered on an interdisciplinary orientation that pays close attention to the dialogue between literature, the arts, and other fields of knowledge. The objective of his courses and publications is to investigate the role of literature and other cultural expressions in creating worldviews, ideologies, aesthetic models, belief-systems, personal and collective identities.
His research interests include modern and contemporary Italian poetry and narrative, avant-garde movements, literary and cultural theory, modern/post-modern aesthetics. He has published books, entries in encyclopedias and articles in journals, among which Novecento, Encyclopaedia of World Literature, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Il Verri, Strumenti critici, The Review of National Literatures, Parol: quaderni d'arte e di epistemologia, Studi novecenteschi, Otto/Novecento, Letteratura italiana contempranea, Italica. He has devoted particular attention to the authors of the Italian new avant-garde (Porta, Sanguineti, Giuliani, Balestrini, Pagliarani) and to poets and novelists, such as Ungaretti, Palazzeschi, Volponi, Quasimodo, Zanzotto, Giulia Niccolai, Aldo Nove. He has written on several theoretical topics: structuralism and deconstruction, reader-response criticism, postmodernism, literature and the issue of the subject, literature and new technologies, poetry and cognition, poetic forms and ideology, poetry and the materiality of language. He is the author of The New Avant-Garde in Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices for which he has been awarded the 2005 Book Prize of the American Association for Italian Studies, and of Introduzione a Antonio Porta [Introduction to Antonio Porta]. He is the editor of I discorsi della critica in America [Critical discourses in North America] (essays on Bloom, Frye, Jameson, Fish, Said and others), co-editor of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology and of Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde. He has been on the editorial board of the journal Quaderni d’ italianistica and he is currently the Canadian editor of Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia. He is an evaluator for publishers, including Minnesota University Press, University of Toronto Press, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Peter Lang (UK), and for several journals in Europe and North America. He is the Canadian representative of the Centre for the Studies on Cesare Pavese (Italy). He has given papers, lectures, and conducted seminars at numerous universities, including The City University of New York, Yale University, University of Toronto, University of Bologna, and the universities of Rome La Sapienza, Macerata, Trento, Ankara, and Zagreb. He has served on Ph.D. committees and as external examiner for several theses. He has contributed to the Venice Art Biennale and to Performa (New York Performing Arts Biennial). He is the co-founder of York Summer Studies Program (Florence and Rome).
Degrees
Ph.D., Italian Language and Literature, University of TorontoM.A., Major: Italian Language and Literature; Minor: Spanish, University of Toronto
B.A., Italian and Spanish, University of Western Ontario
Professional Leadership
Member - Editorial Board, Parol: quaderni d'arte e di epistemologia (2002-2020). Member - Editorial Board of the literary series "I sensi del testo" [The Meanings of the Text], for the publisher Mimesis, Milan (2017-2020) Member - Canadian representative for the Centre on Studies of Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy, (2002-10). Member - Advisory Board, Quaderni d'italianistica, (2003-10). Member - Editorial Board (Associate Editor), Quaderni d'italianistica, journal of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, (1989-98).
Community Contributions
He has written for various Italian-Canadian newspapers and magazines (Mosaico, Forze Nuove, Corriere Canadese, Nuovo Mondo, Il Giornale di Toronto, Our Times). He has been interviewed on social, educational, cultural, and political issues related to the Italian-Canadian community and Italian culture: RAI (Italian National Television) for its regional programs in Molise, Radio 24 (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy), Channel 47 for its programs "Incontri," "Agenda," "Noi Oggi," and Radio Uno, 1220 AM. He has read papers on cultural issues, immigration, education, Italian-Canadian youth, at numerous conferences and events sponsored by Italian-Canadian organizations. He has worked with the Italian-Canadian community and the Italian Cultural Institute to organize events and conferences.
Research Interests
Awards
- 2000-01 Faculty of Arts Fellowship - 2000-01
- 2005- Book Prize of The American Association of Italian Studies for the volume on the new avant-garde (2004) - 2005
Current Research Projects
All Publications
“Aldo Nove e la narrativa dell’eccesso” [Aldo Nove and the Narrative of Excess], in Studies in Honour of Guido Pugliese, ed. by A. Mollica, Welland: Soleil Publications, 2015.
“I viaggi del self e la polifonia della scrittura” [The Voyages of the Self and the Polyphony of Writing], preface to the novel Il giorno del lungo viaggio alla finestra, by Francesca Vivenza, Milan: Il Faggio, Milan, 2015.
“Introduction: Prelude for an Engaging Intellectual”, in Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-garde.
“Foreward”, in La rappresentazione del paesaggio nella letteratura e nel cinema dell’Italia contemporanea / The Representation of Landscape in Contemporary Italian Literature and Cinema, ed. by P. Chirumbolo and L. Pocci, Lewiston: Mellen Press, 2013.
"The Poetry of the New Avant-Garde and the Materiality of Language" in Neoavanguardia: Italian Experimental Literature and the Arts in the 1960s, ed. by P. Chirumbolo, M. Moroni, L. Somigli, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.
“Antonio Porta et les langages de la poésie,” Introduction to Yellow by A. Porta, trans. by Francis Catalano, Montreal, Éditions du Noroît, 2009.
"Pavese in Canada: esperienze didattiche," in Un viaggio mitico - Pavese intertestuale: alla ricerca di se stesso e dell’eticità della storia, ed. by A. Catalfamo, Santo Stefano Belbo: I Quaderni di CE.PA.M, 2006.
"Afterword," in Antonio Porta, Dreams and Other Infidelities, trans. by A. Molino, Riverdale: Xenos Books, 1999.
"Antonio Porta," in Encyclopedia of World Literature, New York: Ungar, 1999.
"The Molisani in Canada," in A Monument for Italian-Canadian Immigrants, ed. by G. Scardellato, M. Scarci, Toronto: Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto/Italian-Canadian Commemorative Association, 1999.
"Avanguardia e postmoderno: interrogativi, contraddizioni teoriche, e qualche proposta," in Avanguardia vs. postmodernità, ed. by F. Bettini, M. Carlino, A. Mastropasqua, F. Muzzioli, G. Patrizi, Rome: Bulzoni, 1998.
"Poetry in Revolt: Italian Avant-Garde Movements in the Sixties," in Experimental Visual Concrete: Avant-Garde Poetry Since the 1960s, ed. by K. D. Jackson, E. Vos, J. Drucker, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.
"Edoardo Sanguineti e la materialità del significante," in Miscellanea d'italianistica in memoria di Mario Santoro, ed. by M. Cataudella, Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1995.
"Antonio Porta: dalla semantica in frantumi al progetto di comunicazione poetica," in Scrittori, tendenze letterarie e conflitto delle poetiche in Italia (1960-1990), ed. by R. Capozzi, M. Ciavolella, Ravenna: Longo, 1993.
"Edoardo Sanguineti,"in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Twentieth Century Italian Poetry, ed. by G. Wedel De Stasio, G. Cambon, A. Illiano, Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1993.
"Alfredo Giuliani," in Dictionary of Literary Biography.
"Antonio Porta," in Dictionary of Literary Biography.
"The Visual Poets," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, ed. by J. Picchione, L. R. Smith, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
"Antonio Porta," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry.
"The Poets of the Recent Generation," in Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry.
"La poesia di Antonio Porta e i Novissimi," in Il Novecento, vol. XI, Milan: Marzorati, 1989.
"Il primo Palazzeschi e la critica (1968 1983)," in Tra due secoli, ed. by F. Loriggio, Ottawa: The Canadian Society for Italian Studies/Groupe de Recherches International "1900" (Carleton University), 1988.
Edoardo Esposito, Con altra voce. La traduzione letteraria tra le due guerre, Milan: Donzelli Editore, 2018, Italica, 96, 2019.
Roberto Esposito, Terms of the Political: Community, Immunity, Biopolitics, translated by Rhiannon Noel Welch, with an Introduction by Vanessa Lemm, Fordham University Press, New York, 2013; Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
A. Porta, Tutte le poesie 1956-1989, ed. by Niva Lorenzini, Milan: Garzanti, 2009, Italian Culture, 1, 2011.
A, Catalfamo, La dialettica vitale delle contraddizioni, Rome: Aracne Editrice, 2005; Italian Culture, XXVI, 2008.
G. Pugliese, Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Italian Novels, Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1988; Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1991.
A. Luzi, Introduzione a Sereni, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1989; "La poesia di Sereni in una lettura di A. Luzi," Rivista di Studi Italiani, 1-2, 1989.
G. Grana, Le avanguardie letterarie, Vols. I, II, III, Milan: Marzorati, 1986; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1989.
C. M. Conti, L. Pignotti (ed.), Il nuovo in poesia, Udine: Campanotto, 1986; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1988.
R. Barilli, Giovanni Pascoli, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1986; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1987.
S. Ferrari, Psicoanalisi arte e letteratura: bibliografia generale 1900-1983, Parma: Pratiche, 1985; Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1987.
M. Goderecci (ed.), The Empty Set: Five Essays on Twentieth- Century Italian Poetry, Flushing: Queens College Press, 1985; The Canadian Modern Language Review, 1, 1986.
M. Mincu (ed.), La semiotica letteraria italiana, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1982; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1984.
T. De Lauretis, Umberto Eco, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1982; Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1984.
A. Fontanella (ed.), Dino Buzzati, Florence: Olschki, 1982; Rivista di studi italiani, 2, 1983.
R. Barilli, Viaggio al termine della parola: la ricerca intraverbale, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1981; Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1982.
B. Cattafi, L'allodola ottobrina, Milan: Mondadori, 1979; The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Spring-Summer 1981.
M. Corti, Il viaggio testuale: le ideologie e le strutture semiotiche, Turin: Einaudi, 1978; Gradiva, 2-3, 1980-1981.
A. Arbasino, Fantasmi italiani, Rome: Cooperativa Scrittori, 1977; The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Summer 1979.
V. Accame, Il segno poetico, Samedan: Munt Press, 1977, The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Winter 1978.
La scrittura, il cervello, e l’era digitale [Writing, the Brain, and the Digital Age], Macerata: Edizioni Università di Macerata, 2016.
Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde, ed. with Paolo Chirumbolo, Oxford-London: Legenda-Maney Publishing, 2013.
Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura [From Modernism to Postmodernism: Theoretical Reflections and Literary Practices], Macerata: Edizioni Università di Macerata, 2012.
The New Avant-Garde in Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Introduzione a Porta, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1995.
I discorsi della critica in America (ed.), Rome: Bulzoni, 1993.
Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993 (ed. with Lawrence R. Smith).
Italian Literature in North America: Pedagogical Strategies, Ottawa: Biblioteca di Quaderni d'Italianistica, 1990 (ed. with L. Pietropaolo).
“La narrativa di Aldo Nove tra morbo della temporalità e desiderio bulimico” [Aldo Nove’s narrative between diseased temporality and bulimic desire], Italica, 97, 2020.
“Guido Gozzano e i rapporti con l’avanguardia” [Guido Gozzano’s poetry and its relationship with the avant-garde], Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 30-31, 2019.
“Scuola e tecnologie digitali: uno sguardo critico” [Education and digital technologies: a critical perspective”, Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 30-31, 2019.
“Il modernismo e il tempo: rivolgimenti concettuali identitari e formali, ACME, Annali della Facoltà di Studi Umanistici dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, 2, 2015.
"Pokret talijanskog futurizma: estetska i antropološka revolucija” [“The movement of the Italian Futurism: An aesthetic and anthropological revolution”] trans. into Croatian by Emil Heršak, Forum, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Zagreb, 7-9, 2015.
“La neovanguardia cinquant’anni dopo: a colloquio con Renato Brilli”, Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 24, 2013.
Edited a section (special issue on the New Avant-Garde) of the journal Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 24, 2013 [essays by F. Muzzioli, F. Curi, N. Lorenzini, G. M. Annovi, N. Bouchard, J. C. Stout].
Edited a section (special issue on Futurism) of the journal Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 21, 2012 [essays by J. Schnapp, W. Krysinski, R. Haller, B. Elder, G. Lombardo, L. Chessa].
“Performa e le celebrazioni dei manifesti del Futurismo a New York: A colloquio con RoseLee Goldberg” [Interview], Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 21, 2012.
“Poesia comunicazione e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta,” online: www.milanocosa.it 2009.
Short Excerpts [Reprint from my book on Porta] - “Antonio Porta: da Passi passaggi a Invasioni”, in Antonio Porta, Tutte le poesie, ed. by Niva Lorenzini, Milan: Garzanti, 2009
“Gli accampamenti poetici di Antonio Porta,” in L’Ulisse, 12, 2009, Special issue “Antonio Porta e noi,” online: www.lietocolle.com/ulisse.
“L’attività critica di Bruce Elder: cinema, poesia, e avanguardia,” Parol: quaderni d’arte e di epistemologia, 1, 2009.
"Major Trends in Italian Poetry: From The Post-War Years to the Present," The Review of National Literatures, 3, 2001. [Special issue Italy: Fiction, Theater, Poetry, Film Since 1950,ed. by R. Dombroski].
"Avant-garde Poetry and the Ecology of the Word," Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 2000.
"Poetry and the Human Sciences in Italy (the 1970s and 80s)," Forum Italicum, 1, 1999 [Special issue in memory of Gian-Paolo Biasin and Giovanni Cecchetti, ed. by R. Capozzi, L. Somigli].
"Poetry, Science, and the Epistemological Debate," Translators Translations Readings, 1, 1999 [Special issue on Poetry, Cognition, Translation, ed. by A. Brisset].
"La rivolta del lettore: decostruzionismo e reader-response in America," Parol quaderni d'arte, 14, 1998 [online: http://www2.unibo.it/parol/articles/rivolta.htm].
"Avanguardia e postmoderno: contraddizioni teoriche e qualche proposta," Bollettario, 22-23, 1997.
"Soggetto, testo, interpretazione," Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1997.
"Antonio Porta e l'America," Il Verri, 3-4, 1993.
"Indebolimento, decentramento, e disseminazione dell'io: le poetiche post-novissime," Otto/Novecento, 5, 1993.
"Dall'assenza al desiderio: la poesia di Andrea Zanzotto," Letteratura italiana contemporanea, 24, 1988.
"I tragitti del testo: dalla polisemia alla disseminazione," Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1988.
"Il nomadismo poetico di Antonio Porta," Esperienze letterarie, 1, 1987.
"La dialettica negativa del Gruppo 63," Otto/Novecento, 2, 1987.
"A colloquio con Antonio Porta" (Interview), Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1986.
"Il ruolo del lettore di fronte all'aspro stil novo dei Novissimi," Studi novecenteschi, 27, 1984.
"Poesia come provocazione: itinerari espressivi di Antonio Porta," Quaderni d'italianistica, 2, 1983.
"L'ipersemanticità del semantico: 'Alla mia terra' di S. Quasimodo" (with L. Marchionne Picchione), Esperienze letterarie, 3, 1980.
"Le modalità della disperazione apocalittica (Morselli, Volponi, Porta)" (with L. Marchionne Picchione), Otto Novecento, 3-4, 1980.
"Antonio Porta e le varianti dell'azzeramento," Il Verri, 13-16, 1979.
"Le metamorfosi della poesia: gli esperimenti visivi del Gruppo 70," The Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Fall 1979.
"Linguaggio come terapia nell'ultimo Porta," Strumenti critici, 39-40, 1979.
"Lo stregone della parola: la presenza del magico nella poesia di Giuseppe Ungaretti," Esperienze letterarie, 2, 1979.
“Il cinema nell’era digitale: interrogativi e dilemmi”, read at the international conference, Cinema del limite: simposio internazionale, Sassari, May 2017.
“Marshall McLuhan and the Digital Brain”, read at the international conference “The Toronto School: Then Now Next”, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, October 2016.
“From Postmodernism to New/Speculative Realism: Philosophical and Literary Shifts” for the Round Table “Shifting Visions: A Conversation on New Trends in Italian Literature and Culture”, Italian Cultural Institute, March 2014.
“Andrea Zanzotto’s Poetry: An Overview” [book launch Zanzotto: Haiku for a Season], Italian Cultural Institute, Toronto, April 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo” [book launch and debate with Antonio Bisaccia and Murizio Coccia], Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, May 2013
“Scrittura, cervello ed era digitale”, Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, May 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo”[book launch and debate with Filippo Mignini, Carla Carotentuto and Alfredo Luzi], Eum/Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università di Macerata, Macerata, June 2013.
“Dal modernismo al postmodernismo”[book launch and debate with Renato Barilli], Libreria Feltrinelli, Bologna, June 2013.
“The New Avant-Garde and its Precursors”, read at the conference Electric Visions: How Dada and Surrealism Anticipated the Later Avant-Garde, Ryerson University, September 2013.
“Giulio Einaudi e l’immaginazione culturale”, talk given at the “Settimana Italiana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo”, Italian Cultural Institute, Toronto, October 2012.
La letteratura, il cervello, e l’era digitale: riflessioni didattiche, University of Bologna, May 2011.
La poesia del modernism e la questione del soggetto: alcuni testi-campione, University of Macerata, May 2011.
Lavoratori italiani in Canada: tra passato e presente, Società operaia, Porto San Giorgio, May 2011.
The movement of the Italian Futurism: An aesthetic and anthropological revolution, University of Zagreb, May 2011.
Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: la questione del soggetto nel contesto poetico e narrativo, keynote address at the graduate seminar Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Literature, Language and Culture, University of Toronto, January 2010.
Edoardo Sanguineti’s Laborintus and the Functions of Plurilinguism, read at the conference Plurilinguismo Letterario, University of Toronto, March 2009.
Futurist Film and Aesthetics, read at Performa 09, Anthology Film Archives, New York, November 2009.
Poesia comunicazione e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta, filmed video, shown at the conference Il giardiniere contro il becchino: memoria e (ri)scoperta di Antonio Porta, Milanocosa/Biblioteca Comunale, Milan, December 2009.
Technomorphism and the Aesthetics of Futurism, read at the conference The New Paragone: The Cinema and the Vanguard Art Movements, School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, March 2009.
The Universe Will Be Our Vocabulary: Futurist Film, Music, and Literature, read at Performa 09, New Cooper Union, New York, November 2009.
Letteratura ai margini? Considerazioni teoriche e didattiche, read at the conference What’s Next, University of Toronto, October 2008.
Baroque Poetry in Italy: Deception, Illusion, and Epistemological Shifts, read at the conference Image and Imagery: Disguise, Deception, Trompe l’Oeil - Exploring Intersections of Visual, Textual, and Oral Modes of Artistic Expression, Brock University, October 2006.
Moderno, postmoderno, avanguardia: orientamenti teorici europei e americani; Le avanguardie storiche: mitologie, ideologie, e pratiche poetiche; Trasgressione, normalizzazione e postmoderno: neoavanguardia e esperienze poetiche degli ultimi decenni, lectures given at the University of Macerata, Italy, May 2006.
Palazzeschi: soggetto in fumo? read at the conference L’arte del saltimbanco: Aldo Palazzeschi tra due avanguardie, University of Toronto, September, 2006.
Scrittura visuale in varie culture: dall’antichità all’Ottocento; Scrittura visuale e le avanguardie storiche; Scrittura visuale: concretismo, poesia visiva e ultime esperienze in varie culture, lectures given at Accademia di Belle Arti, Sassari, Italy, May 2006.
The New Avant-Garde In Italy: An Overview, read at the lecture series "Humanities at Noon" of the Department of French, German, and Italian, University of Toronto at Mississauga, January 2005.
Poetry and the Abject: The Case of the Italian New Avant-Garde, read at the international conference "Image and Imagery III: Beauty and the Abject," Brock University, October 2004.
Aesthetic Forms and Social Commitment: The Debate of the Italian New Avant-Garde, read at the international conference "Art and Social Engagement," Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey), May, 2002.
Il Novecento e i passaggi del linguaggio poetico, read at University of Ankara (Turkey), May, 2002.
Poetry and Visual Practices in Italy: Aesthetic and Ideological Subversions, read at the international conference "Image and Imagery II: Frames, Borders, Limits," Brock University, October 2002.
Poetry, Science and Possible Worlds, read at the international conference "Sanart/Art and Science," Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey), June, 2000.
Avant-garde Poetry and the Ecology of the Word, read at "The Graduate Colloquium in Comparative Literature," The City University of New York, February 1999.
Contemporary Italian Avant-garde Poetry, read at the lecture series ofthe Dept. of European Languages and Literatures, Queens College, The City University of New York, February, 1999.
Poetry and the Italian New Avant-garde, read at conference "Image Flesh and Thought," Ryerson Polytechnic University, February, 1999.
Avant-garde Literature and the Ecology of the Word, read at the Conference "The Power of Words: Literature, Society and the University," held at York University, October 1998.
Experimental and Avant-garde Poetry: Language and Possible Worlds, read at the international conference "Possible Worlds and Virtual Worlds: Crossing the Boundaries in Twentieth Century Italian Literature and Film," University of Toronto, November, 1998.
Poetry, Science, and the Epistemological Debate, read at the international symposium "Poésie, Cognition, Traduction," University of Ottawa, May 1998.
The Molisani in Canada, read at the conference "A Commemoration of Italian Immigrants," St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, November 1998.
Avanguardia e postmoderno: interrogativi contraddizioni teoriche e qualche proposta, read at the international conference "Avanguardia vs postmodernità," University of Rome ("La Sapienza"), April 1997.
Dall'intolleranza all'inclusività: scuola, cultura, e giovani italo-canadesi, Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, Porto San Giorgio (Italy), April 1997.
Il dibattito della critica in America: gli ultimi vent'anni, read at the University of Macerata, April 1997.
Il ruolo del lettore nell'interpretazione: le prospettive di Harold Bloom e Stanley Fish, read at the University of Bologna (DAMS), April 1997.
La rivolta del lettore: decostruzionismo e reader-response in America, read at the University of Salerno, April 1997.
Poetry in Revolt: Italian Avant-Garde Movements in the 1960s, read at the international symposium "The End of Language: Experimental, Visual, Concrete Poetry Since 1960," Yale University, April 1995.
L'emigrazione italo-canadese: aspetti sociali e culturali, read at the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, Porto San Giorgio (Italy), May 1992.
Modern and Contemporary Poetry in North America: A Pedagogical Challenge, read at the conference "Italian Studies in North America," University of Toronto, March 1992.
Antonio Porta: dalla semantica in frantumi al progetto di comunicazione poetica, read at the international conference "Gli scrittori, le tendenze letterarie e il conflitto delle poetiche in Italia 1960-1990," University of Toronto, April 1991.
Indebolimento, decentramento, e disseminazione dell'io: le poetiche post-novissime, read at the international conference "Refractions: Literary Criticism, Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Contemporary Italy," Carleton University, September 1990.
I tragitti del testo: dalla polisemia alla disseminazione, read at the April 1988 meeting of the American Association for Italian Studies, held at Brigham Young University.
La semiotica e la crisi del decostruzionismo, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, October 1988.
Dall'assenza al desiderio: la poesia di Andrea Zanzotto, read at the April 1987 meeting of the North-East Modern Language Association, held in Boston.
Poesia al femminile (?): rabbia, gioco e terapia, read at the international symposium "Women in Italian Studies," York University, March 1987.
Andrea Zanzotto e i significanti dell'oblio, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, December 1986.
La dialettica negativa del Gruppo 63, read at the April 1986 meeting of the American Association for Italian Studies, held at the University of Toronto.
Il ruolo del lettore nella poesia della neo avanguardia, read at the April 1983 meeting of the North East Modern Language Association, held in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Rinnovamento e contestazione della poesia italiana contemporanea, read at the University of Western Ontario, October 1983.
Intellettuali e società: Elio Vittorini, read at Circolo Culturale Carlo Levi, Toronto, May 1982.
La poesia italiana degli ultimi venti anni, read at the Dante Alighieri Society, Toronto, February 1982.
Il magico nella poesia di Giuseppe Ungaretti, read at the May 1979 meeting of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, held at the University of Saskatoon.
Poesia come provocazione: gli itinerari espressivi della neoavanguardia esemplificati attraverso l'opera di Antonio Porta, read at the May 1976 meeting of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, held at Laval University.
“Poesia, comunicazione, e progetto utopico nell’ultimo Porta”, in Il giardiniere contro il becchino: memoria e (ri)scoperta di Antonio Porta, ed. by Adam Vaccaro, Milan: Associazione Culturale Milanocosa, 2012.
“Technomorphism and the aesthetics of Futurism,” 2010, online: http//imagearts.ryerson.ca/newparagone/symposium.html
“Letteratura ai margini? Considerazioni teoriche e didattiche,” in What’s Next, ed. by Francesco Guardiani, Ottawa: Legas, 2009.
“Baroque Poetry in Italy: Deception, Illusion, and Epistemological Shifts,” Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Disguise, Deception, Trompe l’Oeil – Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
"Palazzeschi: soggetto in fumo?," in L’arte del saltimbanco: Aldo Palazzeschi tra due avanguardie, ed. by L. Somigli, G. Tellini, Florence: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2008.
"Aesthetic Forms and Social Commitment: The Debate of the Italian New Avant-Garde," tr. in Turkish "Estetik Biçimler ve Toplumsal Adanm?lik: ?talyan Neo-Avangart’? Tart??mas?", in Sanat ve Bilim – Sanat ve Sosyal Adanm??lik [Proceedings of the international conference Art and Social Engagement], ed. by Jale N.Erzen and Pelin Yoncaci, Ankara: Yalç?n Matbaac?l?k, 2007.
[on line: www.sanart.org.tr/artengaged/papers.html].
"Poetry and the Abject: The Case of the Italian New Avant-Garde," Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Beauty and the Abject - Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
"Poetry and Visual Practices in Italy: Aesthetic and Ideological Subversions," Proceedings of the international conference Image and Imagery: Frames, Borders, Limits - Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by L. Boldt-Irons, C. Federici, E. Virgulti, New York: Peter Lang, 2005.
"Soggetto, testo, interpretazione," Proceedings of the XVI international conference of AISLLI (Associazione Internazionale per gli Studi della Lingua e della Letteratura Italiana) Prometeo: metamorfosi del testo e testualità della critica, ed. by L. Ballerini, G. Bardin, M. Ciavollella, Fiesole-Florence: Cadmo, 2000.
"Modern and Contemporary Italian Poetry in North America: A Pedagogical Challenge," in Italian Studies in North America, ed. by M. Ciavolella, A. Iannucci, Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1994.
"Poesia al femminile (?): rabbia, gioco e terapia," in Donna: Women in Italian Studies, ed. by A. Testaferri, Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1989.
"Poetry, Science, and Possible Worlds,"Proceedings of the international conference Sanart /Art and Science, ed.by J. Erzen, Ankara (to appear).
“Marshall McLuhan and the Digital Brain”, read at the international conference “The Toronto School: Then Now Next”, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, October 2016.
G. M. Annovi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in L’anello che non tiene –Journal of Modern Italian Literature, 1-2, 2012.
C. Federici, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo,in Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
R. Barilli, “John Picchione: tra moderno e postmoderno” [Dal modernismo al postmodernismo], in L’immaginazione, July -August, 2013.
C. Stifani, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, June, 2014.
published reviews of my work
F. Focosi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in I castelli di Yale - Quaderni di filosofia, I, 2014.
B. Cavatorta, Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Annali d’Italianistica, 32, 2014.
F. Mussgnug, Edoardo Sanguineti:Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Modern Language Review, 3, January, 2016.
M. Migliozzi, Edoardo Sanguineti:Literature Ideology and the Avant-garde, Forum Italicum,49, May, 2015.
F. Focosi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in I castelli di Yale - Quaderni di filosofia, I, 2014.
M. Masterson, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo: riflessioni teoriche e pratiche della scrittura, in Italian Culture, 2, 2014.
C. Stifani, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, June, 2014.
R. Barilli, “John Picchione: tra moderno e postmoderno” [Dal modernismo al postmodernismo], in L’immaginazione, July -August, 2013.
C. Federici, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo,in Quaderni d’italianistica, 2, 2013.
G. M. Annovi, Dal modernismo al postmodernismo, in L’anello che non tiene –Journal of Modern Italian Literature, 1-2, 2012.
F. Mussgnug, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Studies, 2, 2008.
S. Giannini, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Culture, XXIV-XXV, 2006-2007.
R. Capozzi, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in The University of Toronto Quarterly, 76, 2007.
B. Cavatorta, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italica, 84, 2007.
V. Berberi, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Italian Culture, XXIII, 2005.
R. Barilli, “La cultura italiana a Toronto” [The New Avant-Garde in Italy], in L’Immaginazione, September, 2005.
N. Bouchard, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Annali d’italianistica, 23, 2005.
P. Chirumbolo, The New Avant-Garde in Italy, in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 1, 2005.
P. Chirumbolo, “Sulla poesia degli anni sessanta e settanta”, in Rivista di Studi Italiani, 1, 2003 [pub. 2005].
C. Federici, The New Avant-Garde In Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices, in Quaderni d’Italianistica, 1, 2005.
V. Tinacci, “Poetry and the Human Sciences in Italy”, in Moderna, 2, 2001.
E. Nerenberg, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Quaderni d'italianistica, 1, 1996.
A. Cappello, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Oggi e domani, December, 1996.
P. Carroli, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, in Journal of the Australasian Universities Languages and Literature Association, 85, 1996.
B. Carle, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology, in Italica, 3, 1995;
C. Federici, Introduzione a Antonio Porta, in Rivista di studi italiani, 2, 1995.
M. Vena, I discorsi della critica in America, in Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1995;
T. Carlevaro, Italian Literature in North America, in Language Problems and Language Planning, 2, 1995.
G. Pugliese, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, in Rivista di studi italiani, 1, 1995;
F. Loriggio, Italian Literature In North America, in Quaderni d'italianist
