Fabien Vitali

Fabien Vitali, born 1978 in Switzerland, is Associated Professor at the Department of Romance Studies of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University LMU of Munich (Germany). He studied at the Universities of Basel, Geneva and Pisa. After completing his PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa with a work on unreleased material of the Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (»“Un altro più lucido e luminoso mondo”. La letteratura secondo Tomasi di Lampedusa«), he became postdoctoral fellow and taught at the Universities of Munich, Hamburg and Kiel.

His research interests lie in the history of the paradox as a rhetorical phenomenon, mainly focusing on italian and french literature of the Renaissance (from Ortensio Lando to Montaigne). Currently he is also involved in a project aiming to translate the poetical compositions of Dante Alighieri (»Rime«) in german language (»Dante Alighieri – 1 Sonett, 30 Übersetzungen«, Wien/ Berlin, Turia&Kant, 2021). Furthermore, he has published several works on Italian Literature of the 20th century, in particular on Pier Paolo Pasolini and his literary based cultural criticism (i. a. »Vom Verschwinden der Glühwürmchen«, Hamburg, Laika, 2015). He recently translated and edited the partly unreleased audio-conversations between the german-jewish journalist Gideon Bachmann and Pier Paolo Pasolini (»Bachmann-Gespräche« [two volumes], Hamburg, Galerie der abseitigen Künste, 2022). In addition to his academic writings, he co-wrote a scenic reflexion on Pasolinis last film »Salò«, »Allegorien der Macht«, which will be published in 2022 (Hamburg, Galerie der abseitigen Künste).
Since 2014 he is editor and co-publisher of the online journal for Italian studies, »lettere aperte«. As part of the association teorema e.v., he also engages in promoting cultural and political dialogue. He currently lives and works in Venice.