Professor Dr. Maria Mariani

Biography

Maria Anna Mariani is an Associate Professor in Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. With a PhD from the University of Siena obtained in 2010, she specializes in Modern Italian Literature spanning the 19th to the 21st century. Her academic focus encompasses memory, narrative structure, and the ethics of representation in the context of historical catastrophes and personal trauma. Mariani's notable publications include "Sull’autobiografia contemporanea" (Carocci, 2011), which explores contemporary autobiography through the lens of memory mimetism, and "Italian Literature in the Nuclear Age: Poetics of the Bystander" (Oxford University Press, 2022), which examines the role of bystanders during the Nuclear Age—marking her as a significant voice in Italian literary studies. Her involvement in the field extends beyond academia, as she seeks to engage broader audiences through her writings and cross-genre works. Mariani's upcoming project, "Write Dying: Memoirs of the End," discusses a new literary form that confronts the experience of mortality, providing fresh insights into how modern medicine and media transform narrative approaches to death. She teaches various courses related to Italian literature and the complexities of narrative forms.

Research Interests

Courses