Maddalena Graziano (Italien, 1986), hat das Bachelor- und Masterstudium an der Universität Siena absolviert. 2013-2019 war sie Doktorandin an der FSGS und im SS 2015 war sie visiting student an der University of Chicago (Department of Germanic Studies). Ihre Masterarbeit zum Essayismus bei Musil und Svevo wurde mit dem Ursula Bavaj-Preis der Universität Viterbo, des Istituto italiano di Studi Germanici, der Associazione Italiana di Germanistica und des Goethe Hauses ausgezeichnet (2013). Sie ist Autorin der Monographie Oltre il romanzo. Racconto e pensiero in Musil e Svevo (Carocci, Rom: 2013). Sie hat zu Svevo, Musil, Pirandello und Literatur der klassichen Moderne geschrieben sowie Rezensionen zu Gegenwartsliteratur und -film für die Zeitschrift "allegoria" verfasst. 2009-2013 arbeitete sie als Redaktionssekretärin für die Zeitschrift «Moderna», 2012 war sie Praktikantin im Italienischen Kulturinstitut Hamburg. Ihre Forschungsinteressen umfassen u.a.: Italienische und deutschsprachige Literatur, Europäische Klassische Moderne (Modernism Studies), Romantheorie, Essaytheorie, Wechselverhältnis Literatur-Philosophie.

Maddalena Graziano, born in Italy, graduated with honours from the University of Siena. She has been a doctoral student at the FSGS from 2013 to 2019 and was a visiting student at the University of Chicago (Department of Germanic Studies, Spring 2015). Her Master's thesis on Musil and Svevo was awarded the Ursula Bavaj-Prize of the University of Viterbo, Istituto italiano di Studi Germanici, Associazione Italiana di Germanistica and Goethe Haus (2013). She is the author of the book Oltre il romanzo. Racconto e pensiero in Musil e Svevo (Carocci, 2013) and wrote on Svevo, Pirandello, Musil, Italian and German/Austrian modernist literature, and on contemporary literature and film (reviews for the journal Allegoria). She worked as editorial assistant for the peer-reviewed journal Moderna (2009-2013, editor in chief R. Luperini) and completed an internship at the Italian Cultural Institute of Hamburg (2012). Her research interests include Italian and German literature, European Modernism, novel theory, essay theory, literature and philosophy.

SS 2016 Leitung von 2 Übungen (zu J. Ortega Y Gasset, „Ideas sobre la novela“, und zu V. Woolf, „Modern Fiction“ im Rahmen der Vorlesung zur Geschichte und Theorie des Romans, Prof. Dr. B. Ventarola), Peter Szondi-Institut, FU Berlin

WS 2016/17 Proseminar „Why The Novel Matters. Einführung in die Romantheorie“, Peter Szondi-Institut, FU Berlin (mit C. Fenwick)

Juli 2018, Blockseminar "Italo Svevo and Modernist Italian Narrative", International Summer School on Italian Culture, Universität Trento, Italien, 8.07-21.07.2018

I work on the modernist novel and in particular on the sub-genre of the so-called novel-essay (essayistischer Roman), a modernist incarnation of the form of the ‘philosophical novel’. I investigate some of its formal features, as well as the theoretical anxieties it expresses, by focusing primarily on Italian and Austrian writers (Robert Musil, Italo Svevo, Luigi Pirandello).

Modernist writers are perplexed inspectors of any sort of fixed borders between styles, literary genres, and even disciplines. In my doctoral project, I focus on one of these: the ancient line that separates the world of narrative adventures, experienced by singular fictional beings, and the abstract world of thought, that seeks to tackle questions relevant to all of us. Proust, Musil, Broch, Mann are major examples of this modernist inclination to interweave narration and philosophical speculation. Philosophical issues do not just flow into their plots as topics discussed by the characters, but also fuel the very act of storytelling. The question raised by their works is thus a theoretical one: how can we articulate the relationship between literature and philosophical thought? Why do we turn to literature and especially to novels, along with abstract thought, when we need help to clarify aspects of our experience that appear to us as enigmatic and obscure?

In its own idiosyncratic way, Italian modernism participates in and adds to this interrogation too, as my thesis aims to show, examining the deep interplay between literary and philosophical dimensions in Pirandello’ and Svevo’s novels and their reflections on this topic in their theoretical notes. My purpose is to read the two Italian writers within the broader context of the typically high-modernist problem of art’s ‘becoming philosophical’ (R. Pippin), when novels start telling thrilling adventures of knowledge and theories are not simply argued but lived by fictional beings, depicting the exuberance and puzzlements of thought, its impulses as well as its spasms and aporias.

Monographie:

Oltre il romanzo. Racconto e pensiero in Musil e Svevo, Carocci, Rom: 2013

(Rezension: N. Di Nunzio, in „Oblio‟, IV, 14-15, http://www.progettoblio.com/scheda.asp?id=1098)

Aufsätze:

M. Graziano, „Italo Svevo‟, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Letteratura, hrsg. v. G. Ferroni, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, Rom: 2018, S. 588-596

M. Graziano, "Adventures of Thought. Fiction and Reflection in Modernist Italian Narrative", in Borders of Modernism, hrsg. v. M. Tortora und A. Volpone, Morlacchi (CEMS Series), Perugia: 2018 (im Druck)

M. Graziano, "I temi", in Il modernismo, hrsg. v. M. Tortora, Carocci, Rom: 2018, S. 113-131

Rezensionen zu

A. Goeschl, Die Logik des essayistischen Gedanken. Zur Analyse der italienischen Essayistik zwischen Fin de Siècle und Zweitem Weltkrieg vor dem Hintergrund der Gattungsgeschichte (2016), in Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, 67.4, 2017, S. 481-484

Winter Sleep (Türkei, 2014) von N.B. Ceylan, in „Allegoria‟, XXVI, 69-70, 2014, S. 422

Ogni promessa von A. Bajani, in „Allegoria‟, XXIII, 63, 2011, S. 212

L’ubicazione del bene von G. Falco, in „Allegoria‟, XXII, 62, 2010, S. 164

Indignazione von Ph. Roth, in „Allegoria‟, XXII, 61, 2010, S. 203

Vorträge:

"Narrare o riflettere? L'esitazione del pensiero in Musil e Svevo, Jahrestagung der italienischen Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, "Poteri della retorica", Parma, Dez. 2013

"Adventures of Thought. Fiction and Reflection in Modernist Italian Narrative", Internationale Tagung des Centre for European Modernism Studies, "Borders of Modernism", Perugia, Dez. 2016

Veranstaltungsorganisation

"Allegorie Zeit Montage. Benjamins Baudelairebuch", Lecture cum Seminar mit Prof. Dr. C. Haerle (Siena), 19.05.2016 (mit G. Cigna)

"The Novel, Human Sciences, and Democracy", Gastvortrag mit Prof. G. Mazzoni (Siena), 18.1.2017 (im Rahmen des Proseminars "Einführung in die Romantheorie", WS 2016/17)