A Dante Of Our Time (American University Studies Series II, Romance Languages and Literature) [Hardcover]

Risa Sodi (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 122 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing (May 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820412198
• ISBN-13: 978-0820412191
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,213,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Risa Sodi teaches language, literature and film in the Italian Department at Yale University. While living in Florence, Italy, in the '70s-'80s, she developed an interest in Italian Holocaust survivor and author, Primo Levi, which led to an interview with him in Turin (1986) and her first book, "A Dante of Our Time: Primo Levi and Auschwitz" (1990). The first English-language monograph on Levi, it is an analysis of how and why Levi turned to Dante to tell his tale of survival. Sodi's interview with Levi has been published in the U.S., Italy and Israel.
Her work on Jewish Italy and the Holocaust in Italy led her to the topic of her second book, "Narrative and Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing, 1943-1993 (2007), an analysis of the writings other Italian Holocaust writers in addition to Levi (survivor/authors and novelists like Liana Millu, Giuliana Tedeschi, Bruno Piazza, Giorgio Bassani, Elsa Morante, Paolo Maurensig and others).
Forthcoming in early summer 2011 is "New Reflections on Primo Levi: Before and After Auschwitz" (an essay collection co-edited with Millicent Marcus.
A foreword by Sodi introduces Eric Lamet's "A Gift from the Enemy: Childhood Memories of Wartime Italy" (2007), while her afterword is featured in Sam Magavern's "Primo Levi's Universe: A Writer's Journey" (2009).
After an M.A. in French and Italian (UMass/Amherst, 1988) and a Ph.D. in Italian (Yale, 1995), Sodi in 1996 joined the Italian Language and Literature Department at Yale University as Senior Lector and Language Program Director.
Sodi continues to write and lecture on Jewish Italy and Italian Holocaust literature (as well as on language pedagogy).
When not working, she can be found playing tennis for the Elm City Aces, a New Haven-based USTA team.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grateful Praise, January 4, 2000

By 

Alessandra Leri (Williamsburg, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Dante Of Our Time (American University Studies Series II, Romance Languages and Literature) (Hardcover)

Risa Sodi is to be complimented on the eloquence and perspicacity of her work. The comparison between Levi and Dante is brilliantly conceived and amply supported by the thoroughness of the author's readings and research.