Federico Bertoni is professor of Theory of Literature at the University of Bologna. His research encompasses theory of literature, comparative
literatures, aesthetics, history of criticism and theory of
literary genres. His work mainly focuses on European fiction of
19th and 20th century. Among more specific areas of his research
are theory and history of the novel, theory of ficion, aesthetics
of reception, theory of narration, relationship between literature
and history, and the question of realism, with a particular
interest in the relationship between literature and other forms of
artistic representation. He studied, among others, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Italo Svevo, Federigo Tozzi, Robert Musil, Virginia Woolf, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, Don DeLillo. He is the President of the Association of Theory and Comparative History of Literature (www.compalit.it).
He graduated in Modern Arts in July
1994 at the University of Bologna, with a final dissertation in
Theory of Literature on Victor Hugo's novels. In February 1999 he
got his PhD in Textual Theory and Analysis from the University of
Bergamo, with a dissertation on Carlo Emilio Gadda. During his PhD,
he obtained in October 1997 a "Diplôme d'Études Supérieures –
Littérature et ésthétique" at the Faculty of Arts in Genève,
working with Patrizia Lombardo and Laurent Jenny.
In November 2000 he started working as Associate Professor of
Theory of Literature at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and
Literatures in Bologna, and in January 2005 he became Full
Professor in the same faculty, where he is currently teaching
Theory of Literature and History of Literary Criticism. He is a member of the PhD "Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures" at the University of Bologna.
2006-2010: he has been the coordinator of the PhD in
Comparative Literatures.
2006-12: he has been the
director of the M.A. in Modern, Comparative and Postcolonial Literatures at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
He is a member of the Board of the following reviews: “The Edimburgh Journal of Gadda Studies” (http://www.gadda.ed.ac.uk); "TransPostCross: Letterature e culture” (www.transpostcross.it); “Ticontre. Teoria Testo Traduzione” (www.ticontre.org); “Rilune. Revue des littératures européennes” (www.rilune.org); “Symbolon. Rivista semestrale di letteratura italiana”.
Since 2016 he is co-director (with Giulio Iacoli) of the collection “Sagittario. Discorsi di teoria e geografia letteraria”, Franco Cesati Editore. Since 2018 he is a member of the Board of the collection “Forme e ideologia”, directed by Ugo Maria Olivieri, Mimesis.
1998-2002: He takes part, as a member of the research unit at the University of Bologna, in the national research project about "Dreams told and retold in literature", directed by prof. Remo Ceserani.
2006-07: He takes part, as a member of the research unit at the University of Bologna, in the national research project about "Literature and Visual Culture", directed by Prof. Michele Cometa (University of Palermo).
Since 2015: He is a member of the international research project “Landscapes of Realism, Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking Literary Realism(s) in Global Comparative Perspective”, directed by Prof. Dirk Göttsche (University of Nottingham), in a network of European Universities (University of Aarhus, University of Durham, Université de Genève, King’s College London, Queen Mary University London, SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies University of London).
