Deanna Shemek - shemek@ucsc.edu
Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature
University of California Santa Cruz
Deanna Shemek is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-provost of Cowell College. Among other projects, she is currently working on a selection of epistolary material left by Isabelle d'Este for the University of Chicago Press translation series The Other Voice of Early Modern Europe.
Professor Shemek is interested in the development of narrative forms, from the epic and the early tale or novella through the romance tradition and into contemporary fiction. She also studies certain popular literary forms such as the letter, the pamphlet, and the ballad in Italian. Writings of Italy's sixteenth century are a particular interest, including all narrative and dramatic forms, the dialogue, and the theoretical tract. Literature written by women and other marginal figures to Renaissance high culture is a frequent focus of Professor Shemek's research. Though her orientation is strongly literary, Professor Shemek's research and teaching lies at a crossroads between literary, historical, art historical, and political materials. Theoretical interests include ancient and modern theories of literary and visual representation; psychoanalytical, historicist, and historical materialist methodologies; theories of sexuality and desire; and feminism.
Lectures
Thursday, June 19: Italian Women Writers of the Renaissance
Dr. Shemek reported that her interest in Jewish women was sparked from learning of laws in which they were equated with prostitutes.
Summary |
Audio
Thursday, June 19: Sara Copio Sullam and Italian Women Writers
Sarah Copio Sullam is of interest to her as a figure involving the relations of Christians and Jews, of men and women. Sullam was a poet, an intellectual, and a possessor of an inquisitive mind. She was resented for both her Jewishness and her intelligence.
Audio
Go to Schedule | Go to Directory Listing