Francesca Del Zoppo

Profile

I started my PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Leeds in October 2018, after studying at the University of Siena in Italy. I hold a first class BA Honours degree (110/110 cum laude) in Humanities (2015) and I received a distinction (110/100 cum laude) for my MA in Modern Literature (2018). My undergraduate dissertation focused on Vittorio Sereni’s work as a poetry editor and my MA dissertation explored Mondadori publishing house’s editorial strategy related to contemporary foreign poetry books published in the «Lo specchio» series. I published articles and reviews in some Italian academic journals, including «Contemporanea», «Per Leggere» and «Semierchio», as well as online («Le parole e le cose», «Formavera»).

Current Research

My doctoral research aims to examine the editorial strategies of the largest Italian publishing house, Mondadori, from the late 1956 to 1989. I am concentrating my research on ‘Lo specchio’ – an established poetry series with a small readership –, ‘Oscar Mondadori’, the most popular Italian paperback series, and 'I Meridiani', a prestigious series created on the model of Gallimard's 'Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'. By acknowledging Bourdieu (principally 1996 and 2008), Blakesley (2018), Moretti (2005), Sapiro (mainly 2008 and 2015) and Scarpa's (2012) works as methodological and theoretical models, my research addresses the history of publishing with a sociological perspective, and builds on hitherto untapped archival materials held at the Mondadori Foundation in Milan.

My PhD is supervised by Dr Alessio Baldini and Dr Jacob Blakesley. It is fully funded by a LCS Studentship Award for Excellence.

Work Experience

During my MA studies, I co-organized and obtained funding for a series of conferences dealing with contemporary poetry at the University of Siena in November 2017. In 2016 and 2017, I worked in the organization of the performing arts festival, ‘Orizzonti Verticali’, which takes place every summer in San Gimignano (Siena). In 2016, I carried out an internship at Mandragora, an arts publishing house based in Florence, and I taught Italian to migrants and refugees as a volunteer at the Penny Wirton School (Poggibonsi, SI).

Publications, A-rated Journals

(i) F. Del Zoppo, ‘I giudizi editoriali di Vittorio Sereni sulla poesia contemporanea’, Contemporanea, 14 (2016).

This 14.000 word article, based on my BA thesis, examines Sereni’s editorial evaluation of contemporary Italian poetry. After a brief introduction, in which I contextualized Sereni’s role and editorial policy during his work at the large-scale publishing house Mondadori, I transcribed my selection of the archival documents stored at the Mondadori Foundation. I published this material in full or in relevant excerpts, in order to make singular editorial cases emerge. This article has also been published online by «Le parole e le cose» (http://www.leparoleelecose.it/?p=33837).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.19272/201602301006

(ii) M. Villa (edited by) et al., ‘Appunti per un commento a Quare Tristis di Giovanni Raboni’, Per Leggere, XVI, 31 (2016), 65-106.

In 2016, I contributed to the research seminar about Giovanni Raboni’s Quare tristis, supervised by Prof Natascia Tonelli, at the University of Siena. My stylistic and thematic commentary on the sonnet ‘Poi lo vorrò per me quello che voglio’ was selected for a collective publication.

Publications, Other Journals

(i) F. Del Zoppo, ‘Altri versi / 3. Un dialogo con Elisa Biagini’, Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, (forthcoming).

I edited with my colleagues the conference proceedings of Altri versi. Incontri di poesia contemporanea, the series of poetry conferences we organized. I edited the interview to the poet Elisa Biagini, which I have conducted at the University of Siena, on 29 November 2017. This article has already been published online by «Formavera» (https://formavera.com/2018/03/29/altri-versi-incontri-di-poesia-contemporanea-elisa-biagini/).

Book Reviews

Alberto Comparini, ‘Geocritica e poesia dell’esistenza’, Semicerchio, 58-59 (2018).

Research interests

• History of Publishing

• Sociology of Literature

• Contemporary Italian Literature (XX Century)

• World Literature

• Sociology of Translation

Qualifications

• MA in Modern Literature (Università di Siena)
• BA in Humanities (Università di Siena)

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Translation Studies