Carolyn Springer

Carolyn Springer

Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature
Professor and Director of the Department of French and Italian
Chair of Graduate Studies, Italian

Focal Groups: Renaissances

Contact:

135 Pigott Hall
650 723 1531
springer@stanford.edu

Office Hours:

Thursday 1:00-3:00

OVERVIEW:

Professor Carolyn Springer came to Stanford in 1985 after receiving a Ph.D. in Italian language and literature from Yale University. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities / American Academy in Rome, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies / Villa I Tatti, the Ford Foundation, and the Fulbright Foundation. Her research has focused primarily on Renaissance and nineteenth-century literature and cultural history. She has published articles and reviews in Annali d’italianistica, Boundary 2: A Journal of Postmodern Literature, Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Forum Italicum, GRADIVA: International Journal of Literature, The International Journal of the Humanities, Italian Quarterly, The Italianist, Italica (Journal of the American Association of Italian Studies), Modern Language Studies, NEMLA Italian Studies, Quaderni d’italianistica, Renaissance Quarterly, Sixteenth Century Journal, Stanford Italian Review, Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici, Woman’s Art Journal, The Wordsworth Circle, and Yale Italian Studies.  Professor Springer’s books include The Marble Wilderness: Ruins and Representation in Italian Romanticism, 1775-1850 (Cambridge University Press, 1987; reprinted in paperback, 2010); Immagini del Novecento italiano (Macmillan, coeditors Pietro Frassica and Giovanni Pacchiano); and History and Memory in European Romanticism (special issue of Stanford Literature Review).  Her latest book, Armour and Masculinity in the Italian Renaissance, appeared in 2010 with University of Toronto Press..

EDUCATION:

Ph.D., Italian Language and Literature, with Distinction

Yale University

M.A., Italian Language and Literature

Yale University

B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
College of Letters,
Wesleyan University

News & Events

Feb 15, 2012
http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/Entitled Opinions, Robert Harrison’s radio show...
Aug 30, 2011
We are pleased to announce the publication of the latest issue of Republics of Letters, which...

Courses

  • DLCL
    223
    2011-12

    The Renaissances Group brings together faculty members and students from over a dozen departments at Stanford to consider the present and future of early modern studies (provisionally framed as a period spanning the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries) within the humanities. Taking seriously the plural form of the group's name, we seek to explore the early modern period from the widest range of disciplinary, cultural, linguistic, and geographical perspectives possible.

  • ITALGEN
    259
    Spr
    2011-12

    An in-depth reading of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberate in the cultural and political context of the Counter-Reformation. Conducted in English; requires advanced reading knowledge of Italian.

  • ITALLIT
    127
    Aut
    2011-12

    The origins of Italian literature. Poetry such as 13th-century love lyrics, Dante's Vita Nuova and Petrarca's Canzoniere; prose such as stories from Boccaccio's Decameron. Prerequisite: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent.

  • ITALLIT
    128
    Win
    2011-12

    The literature, art, and history of the Renaissance and beyond. Readings from the 15th through 18th centuries include Moderata Fonte, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso, Galileo, and Goldoni. Prerequisite: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent.

  • ITALGEN
    281
    Win
    2010-11

    20th-century Italian novels and their film adaptations. Texts include The Leopard (Tomasi di Lampedusa/De Sica) The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Bassani De Sica) The Conformist (Moravia/Bertolucci) Christ Stopped at Eboli (Levi/Rosi) Padre/Padrone (Ledda/Taviani).

  • ITALLIT
    127
    Aut
    2010-11

    The origins of Italian literature. Poetry such as 13th-century love lyrics Dante’s Vita Nuova and Petrarca’s Canzoniere; prose such as stories from Boccaccio’s Decameron. Prerequisite: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent. GER:DB-Hum WIM

  • ITALLIT
    128
    Win
    2010-11

    The literature art and history of the Renaissance and beyond. Readings from the 15th through 18th centuries include Moderata Fonte Machiavelli Ariosto Tasso Galileo and Goldoni. Prerequisite: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent. GER:DB-Hum WIM

  • ITALGEN
    230
    Spr
    2010-11

    For graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso in the context of the social and political world of Renaissance Italy. Topics include: its relationship to precursor texts and traditions (classical Arthurian Carolingian); Ferrarese court culture and the politics of dynastic epic; its relationship to early modern ideologies of gender. Taught in English but requires advanced reading knowledge of Italian.

Publications