Faculty
Dennis Looney
Chair, Department of French and Italian
Associate Professor of Italian, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Classics
Education
PhD, Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina (1987)
MA, Sacred Poetics, Boston University (1980)
BA, Classical Greek, Boston University (1978)
Office
1328
Cathedral of Learning
412-624-6264
looney@pitt.edu
Research Interests & Fields of study
Renaissance Studies; reception of the classical tradition in European literature and culture; vernacular classicism; Dante; Ariosto
Selected Teaching
- Italian Cultural Heritage I (PDF): Middle Ages to Renaissance, ITAL 0080
- Italian Cultural Heritage II: From Early Modern to Contemporary Italy, ITAL 0081
- Italian Renaissance Literature, ITAL 1082
- Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, ITAL 1085
- The Poetics of Dante's Commedia, ITAL 2200
- From Hell to Harlem: African American Responses to Dante from 1850 to Today, ITAL 2210
- Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Vernacular Classicism (PDF), ITAL 2320
- Introduction to the Study of Literature (PDF), ITAL 2710/ FR 2710/ GER 2110
- The Discourse of Science in Italian Literature, ITAL 2750
- History of the Language, ITAL 2801
Selected Publications
Books
Compromising the Classics: Romance Epic Narrative in the Italian Renaissance. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1996.
Phaethon's Children: The Este Court and Its Culture in Early Modern Ferrara. Co-edited
with Deanna Shemek. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Tempe: Arizona State UP, 2005.
Zatti, Sergio. The Quest for Epic: From Ariosto to Tasso. Ed. Dennis Looney. Trans. Sally
Hill and Dennis Looney. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2006.
Ariosto's Minor Works. Ed. and trans. with intro. and comm. Dennis Looney. (Scheduled for publication with U Toronto P for Lorenzo da Ponte Italian Library Series, 2008)
Freedom Readers: The African American Reception of Dante Alighieri and the Divine Commedy. (Manuscript under revision)
Articles
"The Beginnings of Humanistic Oratory: Petrarch's Coronation Oration." The Panoptical Petrarch. Eds. Victoria Kirkham and Armando Maggi. University of Chicago Press. (Forthcoming)
"Il mito di Fetonte ed altri miti luttuosi nel rinascimento ferrarese." In Lucrezia Borgia. Storia e mito. Eds. Michele Bordin and Paolo Trovato. Firenze: Olschki, 2006. 151-61.
"Collodi and Ariosto: Episodic Misadventures in Pinocchio." In Approaches
to Teaching Collodi's Pinocchio and Its Adaptations. Ed. Michael Sherberg. NY: MLA, 2006. 34-40.
"Leopardi's Il Copernico and Paradigm Shifts in Art." Annali d'italianistica 23 (2005): 133-46.
"Fragil arte: tradurre e governare nei volgarizzamenti boiardeschi ad Ercole I d'Este." Il Principe e la storia. Eds. S. Matarrese and C. Montagnini. Novara: Interlinea Edizioni, 2005. 117-30.
"Spencer Williams: An African American Filmmaker at the Gates of Hell." In Dante and Cinema. Ed. Amilcare Iannucci. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. 129-44
"Ariosto and the Classics." In Ariosto Today. Eds. D. Beecher, M. Ciavolella, and R. Fedi. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. 18-31.
Awards and Honors
CWES/EUC Grant, 2005
Central Research Development Fund, U Pittsburgh, 1991, 1994, 2000
FAS Research Grant, U Pittsburgh, 1987, 1988, 2003–04
Research Abroad Program Grant, U Pittsburgh, Summer 2002
Compromising the Classics, Honorable Mention, Marraro-Scaglione Prize in Italian, 1996-97
President's Distinguished Teaching Award, U Pittsburgh, 1992
NEH Summer Institutes, 1988, 1989, 1990
Professional Service
MLA, Division of Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature, Executive Committee, 2006-10
Assistant Dean, Humanities, 2004-06
ADFL, Executive Committee, 2002–04; President, 2004
Profession, Editorial Advisory Committee, 2002–03
Chair, Department of French and Italian, 1996-2003; 2006-07