Gothic Italy
Tuesday 7 October, Goldsmiths, University of London
18:00-20:00 (hybrid: in person and online)
Chaired by Elena Borelli (KCL) in person with Stefano Serafini (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University and the University of Padua), Fabio Camilletti (Warwick), and Monica Germanà (Westminster)
Roundtable to discuss Stefano Serafini’s Gothic Italy Crime, Science, and Literature after Unification, 1861–1914
Gothic Italy: Crime, Science, and Literature after Unification, 1861-1914, by Stefano Serafini, explores how the Gothic permeated and shaped the project of nation-building in the aftermath of Italy’s unification. Bringing together literary, socio-cultural, and scientific perspectives, the book examines how fears around contagion, race, class fluidity, sexuality, and gender transgression intersected with debates about crime and deviance in a new and unstable body politic. In tracing these exchanges, Serafini reveals how the Gothic cast a shadow on the project of building a modern Italy.
At the event, Stefano Serafini will discuss his book in conversation with Elena Borelli (King's College London), Fabio Camilletti (Warwick), and Monica Germana (Westminster). The evening will conclude with a reception to celebrate the publication of Gothic Italy.
Elena Borelli joined King’s College London Language Centre in 2017 where she is Lecturer in Italian and Intercultural Studies. She completed her Ph.D. in Italian and French Literature at Rutgers University (2012). From 2012 to 2016, she was Assistant Professor of Italian at the City University of New York. Dr Elena Borelli is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research focuses on the history and practice of translation, as well as on nineteenth-century Italian literature, with a focus on the notions of desire, Darwinism, and ecocriticism in fin-de-siècle Italy.
Fabio Camilletti (Warwick) in 2010. He studied in Pisa (University of Pisa, BA, MA in Modern Literary Studies, 1998-2002; Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, diploma in Philology and Modern Literary Studies, 1998-2003), Oxford (St John's College, visiting student, 2001-2002), and Paris (Paris Sorbonne, DEA in French and Comparative Literature; École Normale Supérieure, visiting student 2002-2003). He holds a PhD in Philology and Modern Literary Studies from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the university of Paris Sorbonne (2003-2006) and a second PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Birmingham (2007-2011). In 2008-2010 he was Postdoctoral Fellow in Literature, Art History and Psychoanalysis at the Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. He held visiting positions at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (visiting scholar, Fall term 2012-13), IULM Milan (Visiting Professor, first semester 2021-22), the Università del Piemonte Orientale in Vercelli (Visiting Professor, second semester 2021-22), and the Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London (Visiting Research Fellow, 2024-25).
Monica Germana is a Reader in Gothic and Contemporary Studies at the University of Westminster. She is the co-president of the International Gothic Association, and her primary expertise is on Scottish Female Gothic, a field she pioneered with her first monograph, Scottish Women’s Gothic and Fantastic Writing (2010), where she explored the intersections of gender politics and national identity in contemporary women’s writing from and about Scotland. Her subsequent key publications in the field include Scottish Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (2018), co-edited with Carol Davison and short-listed for the Allan Lloyd Prize and two special issues of Gothic Studies on Contemporary Scottish Gothic (November 2013) and Haunted ‘Scotlands’ (March 2022). Her interest in dangerous women and subversive femininity derived from her exploration of Gothic and gender has also led her to develop another research expertise in James Bond Studies. Her monograph Bond Girls: Body, Fashion, Gender (Bloomsbury, 2019), which was runner-up for the Emily Toth Award, offers a fresh way of thinking about Bond’s masculinity and the female characters who have challenged it from the start. She is often a guest speaker on the radio and podcasts on both Gothic women and Bond Girls, and she is currently working on a new project exploring Scottish/Arctic sea monsters.
Stefano Serafini is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University and the University of Padua. He received a PhD in comparative literature and cultures from Royal Holloway, University of London, was postdoctoral fellow in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, MHRA postdoctoral fellow in European Languages at the University of Warwick, and assistant professor of comparative literature at the University of Padua. He is the author of Gothic Italy. Crime, Science, and Literature after Unification, 1861–1914 (University of Toronto Press, 2024) and Italian Crime Fiction Revisited. Authority, Detection, and the Supernatural, 1861–1941 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).
Location
Please click for a map: Location RHB 137.
RHB 137 is on the ground floor of the Richard Hoggart Building (the main building at the front of the campus), on the east side at the back
Goldsmiths is located in New Cross, South East London. It is a short walk from both New Cross Gate and New Cross stations (Zone 2) on the main rail network and London overground; about a 7 minute journey from London Bridge and 30 minutes from London Victoria. It is on bus routes 21, 36, 53, 136, 171, 172, 177, 225, 321, 343, 436, 453.
For exact directions to Goldsmiths please see the How to Find Us page on the Goldsmiths website.
For more information about these events, please email drc@gold.ac.uk.