I received my PhD from the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard last November. In my research, I focus on the contemporary global novel from a sociological perspective, and I am currently revising my dissertation, Counter-Republics of Letters: Politics, Publishing, and the Global Novel, into a book. I live in Italy, where I teach English literature and writing online.
The global novel is one of the central stakes in the US-centered international literary field, a ... more The global novel is one of the central stakes in the US-centered international literary field, a field that openly celebrates marginality, authenticity, and ethical bearing while still rewarding works targeted to an Anglophone, educated audience with an omnivorous aesthetic disposition. This essay reconstructs the genesis and the history of the contemporary literary field, tracing the geopolitical, social, and institutional changes that resulted in the current system of beliefs. The second part focuses on two celebrated global novelists, Elena Ferrante and Roberto Bolaño, studying the affinities in their work that reflect their similar position vis-à-vis the United States: they both disallow the centrality of the US and the legitimacy of academic institutions, make use of genre fiction, and craft their narratives around the figure of an authentic, marginal friend. These strategies prove to be particularly effective in responding to the contradictory constraints of the literary field.
Taking Pierre Bourdieu's interpretation of Flaubert's Sentimental Education as a model, this arti... more Taking Pierre Bourdieu's interpretation of Flaubert's Sentimental Education as a model, this article reads Portrait of a Lady as a representation of the international literary field in which Henry James sought to achieve a position in the 1870s and 1880s. James's prise de position is enacted in the marriage plot, and is centered around his rejection of the highly autonomous but immoral French novel of Flaubert and his school. The subject matter of Portrait is then James's quest for the literary autonomy of the English novel, which Isabel Archer ideally embodies.
Short piece on Ferrante's identity for Literary Hub. "That Starnone, either alone or in partnersh... more Short piece on Ferrante's identity for Literary Hub. "That Starnone, either alone or in partnership with his wife, sat down and typed the novels that were published under the name of Elena Ferrante seems to be almost beyond doubt." https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/
L’interpretazione del Giuoco dell’Oca, secondo romanzo di Edoardo Sanguineti, è importante per du... more L’interpretazione del Giuoco dell’Oca, secondo romanzo di Edoardo Sanguineti, è importante per due ragioni: in prospettiva sincronica, getta luce su una tappa fondamentale del percorso artistico dell’autore, vale a dire la formulazione del programma di «letteratura della crudeltà» risalente allo stesso anno, il 1967; in diacronia, dato che il testo era stato pensato come secondo tempo di un’ideale trilogia, essa serve a congiungere le altre due prove romanzesche di Sanguineti – Capriccio italiano (1963) e L’orologio astronomico (2002) –, che si possono così comprendere nella loro sotterranea coerenza. L’analisi qui proposta muove quindi dal riconoscimento dei referenti visivi dell’ecfrasi sanguinetiana, per mostrare che il processo di straniamento a cui sono sottoposti è funzionale al racconto della progressiva liberazione dell’io dalla sua falsa unicità; la dimostrazione dell’insustanzialità del soggetto, già parzialmente intrapresa in Capriccio italiano, è così portata a termine. Lo straniamento – il cui impulso iniziale è sempre un principio di anarchia – è poi ulteriormente esteso nell’ultimo romanzo, dove non più l’io ma il mondo è guardato con occhi alieni.
Colloque international “Écrivains polémistes et essais polémiques dans la littérature mondiale”, 2021
In the early 1990s, J.M. Coetzee seems to have reached an impasse. Throughout his career, he had ... more In the early 1990s, J.M. Coetzee seems to have reached an impasse. Throughout his career, he had tenaciously withdrawn from any explicit political engagement, refusing to agree on the terms of the contemporary debate. But in order to oppose politics in the name of literature, he recognizes in conversation with David Atwell, one needs to hold a deep humanistic faith, which he lacks. He regrets the few times in which he "slipped… into the role of commentator on South African affairs," yet laments in his Jerusalem Prize address that a writer's art is "too slow, too old-fashioned, too indirect" to have an effect "on the life of the community or the course of history." Coetzee's dilemma is then how to act as a polemicist without being one: how to have an effect "on the life of the community" while speaking exclusively as a writer of fiction, which is the only authoritative position that he can occupy. This talk will analyze Coetzee’s solution to this problem over the last few decades. In the 1990s, he starts using fiction in lieu of the polemical essay (e.g. in his Tanner Lectures and Nobel Prize address). Moreover, taking Jesus as a model of how to live outside politics, he creates fiction that demands readers search for moral lessons, as demonstrated in the secular Gospel of Elizabeth Costello. He uses his position within the international literary field to make a polemical point. Pitting “the North” against “the South,” he decides to become first and foremost a writer of the South, a writer for people who read fiction to understand how to live their lives. His decision to publish his new books with the Argentinian publishing house El Hilo De Ariadna, which specializes in religion and sophia perennis, exhibits his intention to write for receptive disciples rather than for the northern Pharisees. To the well-educated audiences of Europe and North America he directs his non-argumentative, non-rational polemical message: “Woe unto you.”
Talk presented in the panel "Ferrante Unframed" at the 2019 conference of the Canadian Associatio... more Talk presented in the panel "Ferrante Unframed" at the 2019 conference of the Canadian Association for Italian Studies, in Orvieto
The global novel is one of the central stakes in the US-centered international literary field, a ... more The global novel is one of the central stakes in the US-centered international literary field, a field that openly celebrates marginality, authenticity, and ethical bearing while still rewarding works targeted to an Anglophone, educated audience with an omnivorous aesthetic disposition. This essay reconstructs the genesis and the history of the contemporary literary field, tracing the geopolitical, social, and institutional changes that resulted in the current system of beliefs. The second part focuses on two celebrated global novelists, Elena Ferrante and Roberto Bolaño, studying the affinities in their work that reflect their similar position vis-à-vis the United States: they both disallow the centrality of the US and the legitimacy of academic institutions, make use of genre fiction, and craft their narratives around the figure of an authentic, marginal friend. These strategies prove to be particularly effective in responding to the contradictory constraints of the literary field.
Taking Pierre Bourdieu's interpretation of Flaubert's Sentimental Education as a model, this arti... more Taking Pierre Bourdieu's interpretation of Flaubert's Sentimental Education as a model, this article reads Portrait of a Lady as a representation of the international literary field in which Henry James sought to achieve a position in the 1870s and 1880s. James's prise de position is enacted in the marriage plot, and is centered around his rejection of the highly autonomous but immoral French novel of Flaubert and his school. The subject matter of Portrait is then James's quest for the literary autonomy of the English novel, which Isabel Archer ideally embodies.
Short piece on Ferrante's identity for Literary Hub. "That Starnone, either alone or in partnersh... more Short piece on Ferrante's identity for Literary Hub. "That Starnone, either alone or in partnership with his wife, sat down and typed the novels that were published under the name of Elena Ferrante seems to be almost beyond doubt." https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/
L’interpretazione del Giuoco dell’Oca, secondo romanzo di Edoardo Sanguineti, è importante per du... more L’interpretazione del Giuoco dell’Oca, secondo romanzo di Edoardo Sanguineti, è importante per due ragioni: in prospettiva sincronica, getta luce su una tappa fondamentale del percorso artistico dell’autore, vale a dire la formulazione del programma di «letteratura della crudeltà» risalente allo stesso anno, il 1967; in diacronia, dato che il testo era stato pensato come secondo tempo di un’ideale trilogia, essa serve a congiungere le altre due prove romanzesche di Sanguineti – Capriccio italiano (1963) e L’orologio astronomico (2002) –, che si possono così comprendere nella loro sotterranea coerenza. L’analisi qui proposta muove quindi dal riconoscimento dei referenti visivi dell’ecfrasi sanguinetiana, per mostrare che il processo di straniamento a cui sono sottoposti è funzionale al racconto della progressiva liberazione dell’io dalla sua falsa unicità; la dimostrazione dell’insustanzialità del soggetto, già parzialmente intrapresa in Capriccio italiano, è così portata a termine. Lo straniamento – il cui impulso iniziale è sempre un principio di anarchia – è poi ulteriormente esteso nell’ultimo romanzo, dove non più l’io ma il mondo è guardato con occhi alieni.
Colloque international “Écrivains polémistes et essais polémiques dans la littérature mondiale”, 2021
In the early 1990s, J.M. Coetzee seems to have reached an impasse. Throughout his career, he had ... more In the early 1990s, J.M. Coetzee seems to have reached an impasse. Throughout his career, he had tenaciously withdrawn from any explicit political engagement, refusing to agree on the terms of the contemporary debate. But in order to oppose politics in the name of literature, he recognizes in conversation with David Atwell, one needs to hold a deep humanistic faith, which he lacks. He regrets the few times in which he "slipped… into the role of commentator on South African affairs," yet laments in his Jerusalem Prize address that a writer's art is "too slow, too old-fashioned, too indirect" to have an effect "on the life of the community or the course of history." Coetzee's dilemma is then how to act as a polemicist without being one: how to have an effect "on the life of the community" while speaking exclusively as a writer of fiction, which is the only authoritative position that he can occupy. This talk will analyze Coetzee’s solution to this problem over the last few decades. In the 1990s, he starts using fiction in lieu of the polemical essay (e.g. in his Tanner Lectures and Nobel Prize address). Moreover, taking Jesus as a model of how to live outside politics, he creates fiction that demands readers search for moral lessons, as demonstrated in the secular Gospel of Elizabeth Costello. He uses his position within the international literary field to make a polemical point. Pitting “the North” against “the South,” he decides to become first and foremost a writer of the South, a writer for people who read fiction to understand how to live their lives. His decision to publish his new books with the Argentinian publishing house El Hilo De Ariadna, which specializes in religion and sophia perennis, exhibits his intention to write for receptive disciples rather than for the northern Pharisees. To the well-educated audiences of Europe and North America he directs his non-argumentative, non-rational polemical message: “Woe unto you.”
Talk presented in the panel "Ferrante Unframed" at the 2019 conference of the Canadian Associatio... more Talk presented in the panel "Ferrante Unframed" at the 2019 conference of the Canadian Association for Italian Studies, in Orvieto
Uploads
Papers by Elisa Sotgiu
https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/
esteso nell’ultimo romanzo, dove non più l’io ma il mondo è guardato con occhi alieni.
Talks by Elisa Sotgiu
This talk will analyze Coetzee’s solution to this problem over the last few decades. In the 1990s, he starts using fiction in lieu of the polemical essay (e.g. in his Tanner Lectures and Nobel Prize address). Moreover, taking Jesus as a model of how to live outside politics, he creates fiction that demands readers search for moral lessons, as demonstrated in the secular Gospel of Elizabeth Costello. He uses his position within the international literary field to make a polemical point. Pitting “the North” against “the South,” he decides to become first and foremost a writer of the South, a writer for people who read fiction to understand how to live their lives. His decision to publish his new books with the Argentinian publishing house El Hilo De Ariadna, which specializes in religion and sophia perennis, exhibits his intention to write for receptive disciples rather than for the northern Pharisees. To the well-educated audiences of Europe and North America he directs his non-argumentative, non-rational polemical message: “Woe unto you.”
https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/
esteso nell’ultimo romanzo, dove non più l’io ma il mondo è guardato con occhi alieni.
This talk will analyze Coetzee’s solution to this problem over the last few decades. In the 1990s, he starts using fiction in lieu of the polemical essay (e.g. in his Tanner Lectures and Nobel Prize address). Moreover, taking Jesus as a model of how to live outside politics, he creates fiction that demands readers search for moral lessons, as demonstrated in the secular Gospel of Elizabeth Costello. He uses his position within the international literary field to make a polemical point. Pitting “the North” against “the South,” he decides to become first and foremost a writer of the South, a writer for people who read fiction to understand how to live their lives. His decision to publish his new books with the Argentinian publishing house El Hilo De Ariadna, which specializes in religion and sophia perennis, exhibits his intention to write for receptive disciples rather than for the northern Pharisees. To the well-educated audiences of Europe and North America he directs his non-argumentative, non-rational polemical message: “Woe unto you.”