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Anastasia Cardone

Profile

Summary: My research interests are broadly in Environmental Humanities, ecocriticism, nature writing, the relation between literature and science, with a particular focus on American literature.

 

Educational Background:

2017-Present: University of Leeds, Leeds, UK — PhD in American Literature and Environmental Humanities (School of English)

2012-2015: Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy — M.A. European and Extra-European Languages and Literature (110/110 with honours)

                    M.A. Thesis: From Aesthetics to Biosemiotics: Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, and Nature as a Wholeness

2009-2011: Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy — B.A. Foreign Languages and Literature (109/110)

                    B.A. Thesis: Henry David Thoreau: From the Pastoral Ideal to the Wilderness    

Research interests

Research Overwiew:

My research project deals with the significance of birds in American literature and culture in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. In Early America, politicians, naturalists, and literary writers described New World birds as representations of US identities. Their writings establish and underline the complex relationship
between the shaping of US political, cultural, and environmental identities and the depiction of American avian species and birdsong. In particular, birds acquired cultural and environmental importance in the imaginative construction, development, and understanding both of a national identity and of individual identities in relation to 'the other', alternatively embodied by the European heritage, Native American and Black identities, bird selves, and the US environment. Birds epitomised projections of subjective feelings, ideals, and hopes about the nation, its distinctive and constitutive sonic environments, its physical body, and its future prospects.

Grounding my research methods on close reading and textual analysis, I explore various literary genres: correspondence, travelogues, ornithological treaties, field guides, and private journals. The protagonists of my enquiry range from politicians, such as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to naturalists, like William Bartram, from the 'fathers of American ornithology' - namely Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon - to the 'father' of American nature writing, Henry David Thoreau.

This interdisciplinary investigation of human-bird engagements raises questions about human connections with other-than-human beings as an antidote for the negative outcomes of the ‘Anthropocene,’ how different literary genres deal with birds in shaping the understanding of the newly-born nation, and if echoes of Native Americans’ ecological knowledge may have influenced US ornithological and literary tradition. The project demonstrates the significance of bird representation first, for the shaping of early American identities, and second, for the representation of American environments. It also addresses cultural and political issues concerning US cultural heritage, the loss of ecological knowledge, and the destabilisation of biodiverse environments.

 

Research Activities:

Papers Presentations:

  • Cardone, Anastasia,'To Live in this World as Humans: Quantum Physics and the Role of the Perceiving Subject in Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', The 2018 UCL English Graduate Conference (In)human(e), University College of London, London, July 5th, 2018
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'Life at the Edge: Thoreau's Wilderness, Muir's God's Temple, and Returning to the Italian Alps', Performing Mountains - stage@leeds, University of Leeds, Leeds, March 23rd, 2018
  • Cardone, Anastasia, '"A Man against a Loon": Analysis of Birds in American Literature to Build an Ecocentric Connection with the Environment', Sustainability Conference 2018: Shaping the Future, University of Leeds, February 8th, 2018
  • Cardone, Anastasia, Canedoli, Claudia, Ficetola, Francesco, Loreto, Paola, Rubolini, Diego, 'Soundscapes in Literature and Science: A Conversation', BookCity 2017, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan (Italy), November 16th, 2017
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'The Bridge of Understanding: Communication with the Environment in Mary Oliver's Ecopoetry', ASLE-UKI & Land2 Conference 2017, University of Sheffield, Sheffield (UK), September 7th, 2017
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'Henry David Thoreau's Echoes in Mary Oliver's Ecopoetry', The Thoreau Society Annual Gathering and Bicentennial Celebration, Concord, Massachusetts (USA), July 13th, 2017
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'The Languages of Ecopoetry: From Aesthetics to Biosemiotics', BookCity 2016, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan (Italy), November 17th, 2016

Poster Presentations:

  • Cardone, Anastasia, '"A Man against a Loon": Analysis of Birds in American Literature to Build an Ecocentric Connection with the Environment', Sustainability Conference 2018: Shaping the Future, University of Leeds, February 8th, 2018
  • Cardone, Anastasia, '"What Word Can Stand in Place of a Bird's Note?" The Wonders of American Ornithology and Transcendentalism', Arts, Humanities & Culture Poster Conference, University of Leeds, November 1st, 2017

Other Activities:

I am a member of the following research groups and associations:

 

Publications:

Essays and Articles:

  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'Where the Twin Oceans of Beauty and Horror Meet: An Aesthetic Analysis of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', Ecozon@ European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, 7 (2016)
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'Earth's Eye into the Woods', in Civic Ecology: Stories about Love of Life, Love of Place, ed. by Marianne E. Krasny and Kimberly Snyder (Ithaca: Cornell University Civic Ecology Lab, 2016) - available at: https://civeco.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/krasny-snyder-mooc-stories-2016.pdf
  • Cardone, Anastasia, 'Andai per Verbania perché volevo vivere deliberatamente', in Ti Racconto La Mia Città (Milano: Eco B&B, 2015) - available at: http://ecobnb.it/blog/ebook-ti-racconto-la-mia-citta/

 

Teaching Commitments:

2018/2019, Semester 1: Seminar tutor - 'Foundations of English Studies

 

Awards and Grants:

  • My research is fully funded by the University of Leeds Scholarship (2018-2021)
  • I was awarded with the 2016 Agostino Lombardo Prize - AISNA (Italian Association of North American Studies) for best 2015 MA dissertation in American Literature and Culture

Qualifications

  • MA European and Extra-European Languages and Literature
  • BA Foreign Languages and Literature