Rebecca West
William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Italian Literature, and the Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Office: Wieboldt 224
r-west@uchicago.edu
Professor West's scholarly work concentrates on the areas of modern and contemporary Italian literature and culture, especially lyric poetry and narrative; on Italian and Italian American cinema; and on gender studies, with a particular interest in feminist theory and practice, and constructions of masculinity. She earned her PhD from Yale University in 1974, and has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago since 1973. Her books are entitled Eugenio Montale: Poet on the Edge (Harvard UP, 1981), winner of the MLA's Marraro Prize, and Gianni Celati: The Craft of Everyday Storytelling (U of Toronto Press, 2000), winner of the MLA's Scaglione Publication Prize. She has edited or co-edited several volumes including The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture; Italian Feminist Theory and Practice: Equality and Sexual Difference; and Pagina, pratica, pellicola: Studi sul cinema italiano. Professor West has published widely on her areas of interest in American and Italian journals, and serves on several editorial boards for book series and journals.
Education
- PhD in Italian, Yale University, 1974
- MPh in Italian, Yale University, 1971
- BA in French and Italian, University of Pittsburgh, 1968
Awards, Honors, and Professional Experience
- Residential Fellow at Centro Studi Ligure, Bogliasco, Italy, and The Rockefeller Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, 2002
- Scaglione Publication Prize for best forthcoming book on an Italian topic, awarded by the MLA, 1999
- Guggenheim Fellow, 1985
- Howard Marraro Prize for best book on an Italian topic, awarded by the MLA, 1981
- Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, 1978-1979
- Burlington Northern Graduate Teaching Prize, University of Chicago
- Professor West has taught as a visiting professor at Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and Yale University
Selected Courses Taught
- Women and "Woman" in Contemporary Italy Literature and Culture
- Comparative Screen Masculinities
- Montale's Cities: Poetry and Place
- Creative Couples in Contemporary Italian Literature
- La prosa del tardo Ottocento e del primo Novecento
- La poesia moderna italiana
- Dante's Divine Comedy