Dr. Manuela Marchesini

Biography

Manuela Marchesini is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences. Her current research focuses on method, interpretation, and aesthetic value in modern and contemporary Italian literature and culture. She examines the intersections of broader historical and theoretical traditions, arguing that hatred in literature has pervaded the Western tradition from Plato’s exile of poets to present-day critiques in the social sciences and contemporary literature. Marchesini's work posits that art, particularly through storytelling and narrative, can reclaim historical presence, offering truths that substantiate human action. Her notable publications include "Scrittori funzione d’altro" which analyzes literary style as a 'mode of knowledge' through the works of influential 20th-century Italian figures such as Gianfranco Contini, Roberto Longhi, and Carlo Emilio Gadda, and "La galleria interiore dell’Ingegnere," which reassesses Gadda’s intriguing yet ambiguous novel, Quer Pasticciaccio, in light of the figurative arts found in Dante’s Comedy. Currently, she is completing "Merchants Enchantment: Existence in Italy," a monograph examining modern and contemporary Italian works engaged in myth-making and myth-smashing. Her areas of interest extend to modernity, postmodernity, genre studies, queer studies, posthumanism, film theory, and cultural studies.

Research Interests