Dr Elisa Segnini
- Senior Lecturer (Italian)
telephone:
01413305338
email:
Elisa.Segnini@glasgow.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2048-3623Research interests
- Modern and contemporary Italian Literature as World Literature
- Literary multilingualism
- Translation
- Fin-de-siècle literature and thought
- Decadence as a global, transnational movement
- European modernism, in particular the relationship between literature, theatre and visual arts
My research engages with current debate in Comparative Literature, with a dual focus on fin-de-siècle culture and contemporary fiction. My first monograph, Fragments, Genius and Madness: Masks and Mask-Making in the Modernist Imagination (Legenda 2021) explores tales that revolve around masks and mask-making in relation to nineteenth-century thought, offering innovative readings of fictional and dramatic works by Max Beerbohm, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Jean Lorrain, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Andrey Bely, next to artifacts such as the plaster cast of the Inconnue de la Seine, the waxes of criminals held in Cesare Lombroso’s museum, Rodin’s ‘horror masks’ modelled after a Japanese dancer. By uncovering the role of masks as key tropes in fin-de-siècle culture, it also demonstrates to what extent the medical, anthropological and aesthetic spheres overlapped, offering insights that contribute to debates about gender and ethnicity in decadence and modernist studies. http://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/sicl-56
Together with Michael Subialka (UC Davis), I am in the process of editing a book titled D’Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception (Edinburgh University Press). A leading poet, novelist, playwright, translator, journalist, Gabriele D’Annunzio was a pivotal figure in late nineteenth-century culture and enjoyed large crowds of followers. Larger than life, he can be considered the equivalent of a contemporary influencer. This book brings together renowned scholars from different continents to explore on the one hand D’Annunzio’s engagement with foreign literature and his experiments with self-translation and translingual writing, and on the other the dialogues with his translators and the global reception of his work, from Europe to Argentina to Egypt to Japan. https://www.hastac.org/groups/dannunzio-world-literature
In the past few years, I’ve also published a series of articles on translation and multilingualism on 20th century and contemporary fiction. Research undertaken for these articles forms the core of my next monograph, titled Local Flavour, Global Audiences: Worlding Multilingual Fiction. Building on Rebecca Walkowitz’s paradigm of the ‘born translated novel’ and on studies of literary multilingualism, this book is the first to examine Italian multilingual fiction in terms of consumption and reception. The book is divided into six chapters developed around case studies that examine the relationship between the functions of multilingualism in original texts, the extent, if any, of the authors’ ambitions to speak to wider audiences, and the portability of these novels across time and history. Authors considered include Gabriele D’Annunzio, Alba De Céspedes, Luigi Meneghello, Laura Pariani, Elena Ferrante.
I am one of the editors of the general editors of Comparative Critical Studies, a journal dedicated to the theory and practice of the study of comparative literature: https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/ccs
Publications
2023
Blakesley, J., Mangalagiri, A., Mucignat, R. and Segnini, E. (2023) How we compare: introduction. Comparative Critical Studies, 20(2-3), pp. 129-147. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2023.0477)
Segnini, E. (2023) Comparability and translatability in the making of historical narratives: Alba de Céspedes’ comparative method. Comparative Critical Studies, 20(2-3), pp. 319-345. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2023.0485)
Segnini, E. (2023) Ethnicity, gender, and the making of a transnational decadent canon: Georges Hérelle’s translations of Matilde Serao and Grazia Deledda. Modern Philology, 121(1), pp. 32-56. (doi: 10.1086/725401)
Segnini, E. (2023) Il Piacere as a multilingual text and its afterlife in translation. In: Segnini, Elisa and Subialka, Michael (eds.) Gabriele D’Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 67-84. ISBN 9781399506854 (doi: 10.3366/jj.5864758.8)
Segnini, E. and Subialka, M. (Eds.) (2023) Gabriele D’Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781399506854
2021
Segnini, E. (2021) Fragments, Genius and Madness: Masks and Mask-Making in the fin-de-siècle Imagination. Series: Studies in Comparative Literature (56). Legenda. ISBN 9781781888544
Segnini, E. (2021) Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano and Elena Ferrante’s L’amica geniale: the afterlife of two ‘glocal’ series. Translator, 27(3), pp. 254-270. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2018.1502607)
Segnini, E. (2021) Elisa Segnini speaks to Frederika Randall: tilting at the leaning tower, or translating irony in two writers from Northeast Italy. Translator, 27(3), pp. 302-312. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2018.1500132)
Segnini, E. and Sulis, G. (2021) Local, regional, and transnational identities in translation: the Italian case. Translator, 27(3), pp. 247-253. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2021.2015909)
Segnini, E. (2021) From Scampia to Rione Luzzatti: marginality and its language in the age of convergence. Comparative Critical Studies, 18(1), pp. 27-51. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2021.0385)
2017
Segnini, E. (2017) Global masterpieces and Italian dialects: Eduardo de Filippo and Luigi Meneghello's rewritings of Shakespeare. Journal of World Literature, 2(2), pp. 236-254. (doi: 10.1163/24056480-00202007)
Segnini, E. (2017) Local flavour vs global audiences: Elena Ferrante and translatability. Italianist, 37(1), pp. 100-118. (doi: 10.1080/02614340.2016.1273649)
2016
Segnini, E. (2016) Special issue on Orientalism within Europe: Differences, Minorities, Divisions [Guest Editor]. Journal of European Studies, 46(3-4),
Segnini, E. (2016) Translating Sicily for the German and French stage: Modern Europe, its periphery and the archaic in the first versions of Pirandello's "Questa sera si recita a soggetto". Forum Italicum, 50(1), pp. 5-37. (doi: 10.1177/0014585816636341)
Segnini, E. (2016) A Case of Study on Translations and Reception of Pirandello’s Theatrical Works. [Website]
Segnini, E. (2016) Encounters and blind spots: Pirandello, Evreinov and Brecht. PSA: Journal of the Pirandello Society of America, 28, pp. 11-36. (doi: 10.14288/1.0306857)
Segnini, E. (2016) Sicilian honour and theatricality in Agrigento: a workshop on Questa sera si recita a soggetto. Pirandello Studies, 36, pp. 163-166.
2015
Segnini, E. (2015) L'aldilà, il fantastico e l'allegoria nelle opere narrative e pittoriche di Dino Buzzati. In: Bancheri, S. and Guardiani, F. (eds.) Letteratura Italiana e Religione: Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Toronto, 11-13 Ottobre 2012). Cesati, pp. 293-308. ISBN 9788876675515
Segnini, E. (2015) Review of Meneghello: Fiction, Scholarship, Passione Civile, By Daniela La Penna. Annali d’Italianistica, 33, pp. 512-513. [Book Review]
2014
Segnini, E. (2014) "Continental Air": performing identity in "Leonora, Addio", "L' Aria del Continente" and "Questa Sera si Recita a Soggetto". PSA: Journal of the Pirandello Society of America, 27, pp. 13-43. (doi: 10.14288/1.0306439)
Segnini, E. and Frigerio, V. (2014) Fantastic Narratives and the Natural World [Guest Editors]. Belphégor, 12(1),
Segnini, E. and Jones, E. (2014) "I was back in a dark wood": Don Paterson's "The Forest of the Suicides". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, 24(1), pp. 143-168.
2013
Segnini, E. (2013) Catherine Brown, The Art of Comparison: How Novels and Critics Compare (Oxford: Legenda, 2011 – Legenda Series Studies in Comparative Literature, 23). 210 pp., ISBN 9781906540814, £45. Comparative Critical Studies, 10(3), pp. 403-406. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2013.0103)[Book Review]
Segnini, E. (2013) Reading Hoffmann: mythmaking and tropes of uncanniness in Jean Lorrain's Monsieur de Phocas. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 24(1), pp. 61-82.
Segnini, E. (2013) A silent language: reflections on "pure" and "uncorrupted" pantomime. In: Boldt, Leslie, Federici, Corrado and Virgulti, Ernesto (eds.) Silence and the Silenced: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Series: Studies on themes and motifs in literature (119). Peter Lang: New York, pp. 185-199. ISBN 9781433123436
2012
Segnini, E. (2012) Between life and death: on the art of mask-making. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, 39(1), pp. 64-79.
2009
Segnini, E. (2009) Between ritual and theatre in Švankmajer’s Faust. In: Ambros, Veronika, Le Huenen, Roland, D'Souza, Adil and Pérez-Simón, Andrés (eds.) Structuralism(s) Today: Paris, Prague, Tartu. Series: Literary criticism series (16). Legas: Ottawa, pp. 153-164. ISBN 9781897493069
Articles
Blakesley, J., Mangalagiri, A., Mucignat, R. and Segnini, E. (2023) How we compare: introduction. Comparative Critical Studies, 20(2-3), pp. 129-147. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2023.0477)
Segnini, E. (2023) Comparability and translatability in the making of historical narratives: Alba de Céspedes’ comparative method. Comparative Critical Studies, 20(2-3), pp. 319-345. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2023.0485)
Segnini, E. (2023) Ethnicity, gender, and the making of a transnational decadent canon: Georges Hérelle’s translations of Matilde Serao and Grazia Deledda. Modern Philology, 121(1), pp. 32-56. (doi: 10.1086/725401)
Segnini, E. (2021) Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano and Elena Ferrante’s L’amica geniale: the afterlife of two ‘glocal’ series. Translator, 27(3), pp. 254-270. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2018.1502607)
Segnini, E. (2021) Elisa Segnini speaks to Frederika Randall: tilting at the leaning tower, or translating irony in two writers from Northeast Italy. Translator, 27(3), pp. 302-312. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2018.1500132)
Segnini, E. and Sulis, G. (2021) Local, regional, and transnational identities in translation: the Italian case. Translator, 27(3), pp. 247-253. (doi: 10.1080/13556509.2021.2015909)
Segnini, E. (2021) From Scampia to Rione Luzzatti: marginality and its language in the age of convergence. Comparative Critical Studies, 18(1), pp. 27-51. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2021.0385)
Segnini, E. (2017) Global masterpieces and Italian dialects: Eduardo de Filippo and Luigi Meneghello's rewritings of Shakespeare. Journal of World Literature, 2(2), pp. 236-254. (doi: 10.1163/24056480-00202007)
Segnini, E. (2017) Local flavour vs global audiences: Elena Ferrante and translatability. Italianist, 37(1), pp. 100-118. (doi: 10.1080/02614340.2016.1273649)
Segnini, E. (2016) Special issue on Orientalism within Europe: Differences, Minorities, Divisions [Guest Editor]. Journal of European Studies, 46(3-4),
Segnini, E. (2016) Translating Sicily for the German and French stage: Modern Europe, its periphery and the archaic in the first versions of Pirandello's "Questa sera si recita a soggetto". Forum Italicum, 50(1), pp. 5-37. (doi: 10.1177/0014585816636341)
Segnini, E. (2016) Encounters and blind spots: Pirandello, Evreinov and Brecht. PSA: Journal of the Pirandello Society of America, 28, pp. 11-36. (doi: 10.14288/1.0306857)
Segnini, E. (2016) Sicilian honour and theatricality in Agrigento: a workshop on Questa sera si recita a soggetto. Pirandello Studies, 36, pp. 163-166.
Segnini, E. (2014) "Continental Air": performing identity in "Leonora, Addio", "L' Aria del Continente" and "Questa Sera si Recita a Soggetto". PSA: Journal of the Pirandello Society of America, 27, pp. 13-43. (doi: 10.14288/1.0306439)
Segnini, E. and Frigerio, V. (2014) Fantastic Narratives and the Natural World [Guest Editors]. Belphégor, 12(1),
Segnini, E. and Jones, E. (2014) "I was back in a dark wood": Don Paterson's "The Forest of the Suicides". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, 24(1), pp. 143-168.
Segnini, E. (2013) Reading Hoffmann: mythmaking and tropes of uncanniness in Jean Lorrain's Monsieur de Phocas. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 24(1), pp. 61-82.
Segnini, E. (2012) Between life and death: on the art of mask-making. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, 39(1), pp. 64-79.
Books
Segnini, E. (2021) Fragments, Genius and Madness: Masks and Mask-Making in the fin-de-siècle Imagination. Series: Studies in Comparative Literature (56). Legenda. ISBN 9781781888544
Book Sections
Segnini, E. (2023) Il Piacere as a multilingual text and its afterlife in translation. In: Segnini, Elisa and Subialka, Michael (eds.) Gabriele D’Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 67-84. ISBN 9781399506854 (doi: 10.3366/jj.5864758.8)
Segnini, E. (2015) L'aldilà, il fantastico e l'allegoria nelle opere narrative e pittoriche di Dino Buzzati. In: Bancheri, S. and Guardiani, F. (eds.) Letteratura Italiana e Religione: Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Toronto, 11-13 Ottobre 2012). Cesati, pp. 293-308. ISBN 9788876675515
Segnini, E. (2013) A silent language: reflections on "pure" and "uncorrupted" pantomime. In: Boldt, Leslie, Federici, Corrado and Virgulti, Ernesto (eds.) Silence and the Silenced: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Series: Studies on themes and motifs in literature (119). Peter Lang: New York, pp. 185-199. ISBN 9781433123436
Segnini, E. (2009) Between ritual and theatre in Švankmajer’s Faust. In: Ambros, Veronika, Le Huenen, Roland, D'Souza, Adil and Pérez-Simón, Andrés (eds.) Structuralism(s) Today: Paris, Prague, Tartu. Series: Literary criticism series (16). Legas: Ottawa, pp. 153-164. ISBN 9781897493069
Book Reviews
Segnini, E. (2015) Review of Meneghello: Fiction, Scholarship, Passione Civile, By Daniela La Penna. Annali d’Italianistica, 33, pp. 512-513. [Book Review]
Segnini, E. (2013) Catherine Brown, The Art of Comparison: How Novels and Critics Compare (Oxford: Legenda, 2011 – Legenda Series Studies in Comparative Literature, 23). 210 pp., ISBN 9781906540814, £45. Comparative Critical Studies, 10(3), pp. 403-406. (doi: 10.3366/ccs.2013.0103)[Book Review]
Edited Books
Segnini, E. and Subialka, M. (Eds.) (2023) Gabriele D’Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781399506854
Website
Segnini, E. (2016) A Case of Study on Translations and Reception of Pirandello’s Theatrical Works. [Website]
Grants
2016 Connection Grant, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
2014 Insight Development Grant, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
2012 Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
2009 George C. Metcalf Research Grant, Victoria College, University of Toronto
Teaching
- Italian literature (19th to 21st century)
- Italian cinema and theatre
- Comparative literature
