Darren Kusar received his PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago in 2024. In his dissertation, “Text, Voice, Image: Staging the Diabolical in Early Modern Italian Musical Theater,” Darren investigated how belief embeds itself in physical experience and penetrates the rational mind, thereby distorting senses of reality. His analysis focused on the interplay between spectacle, particularly within the sonic domain, and the demonic during the Italian Counter-Reformation. He examined the intricate interplay among textual, sonic, and visual representations of the diabolical by scrutinizing depictions of sound-based spectacle through the prism of Renaissance demonological understandings of perception and audition. Darren’s research interests include early modern poetry, opera, voice studies, Renaissance demonology, phenomenology, and wonder tales. Darren is also a classically trained tenor who frequently performs solo and in ensembles in the Chicago area.
Selected Publications
Peer reviewed
- “Tasso Diabolical Amphitheater: Demonic Voice and Psychological Subversion in the Forest of Saron” (under review)
- Operatic Reimaging: Spiritual Conflict and Introspection in Giulio Rospigliosi’s and Stefano Landi’s Il Sant’Alessio (1634) (under review)
Critical editions
- Ercole Tasso, La Virginia and Ercole and Torquato Tasso, Dell’ammogliarsi; Piacevoli contesa fra i due moderno Tassi, Hercole cioè & Torquato, gentilhuomini bergamaschi (1593), eds. Armando Maggi, Enrico Carnevali, Darren Kusar, Fara Taddei (Ravenna: Longo, 2021)
- Cesare Trevisani, La impresa (1569) and selections from L’impresa (1567) and Rime, eds. Armando Maggi, Bibbiana Tangheri, Darren Kusar, Eufemia Baldassarre, Fara Taddei, Miriam Muccioni (Ravenna: Longo, 2020)
Translations
- “Pietro Cudini, Prefazione, in Tiziano Rossi, Tutte le poesie (1963-2000)” [co-translated with Sara Dallavalle]. Those Who from Afar Look Like Flies, edited by Luigi Ballerini and Beppe Cavatorta, vol. 2 (forthcoming)
- “Iuri Moscardi, Interview with Milli Graffi” [co-translated with Sara Dallavalle]. Those Who from Afar Look Like Flies, edited by Luigi Ballerini and Beppe Cavatorta, vol. 2 (forthcoming)
- “Iuri Moscardi, Interview with Nanni Cagnone” [co-translated with Sara Dallavalle]. Those Who from Afar Look Like Flies, edited by Luigi Ballerini and Beppe Cavatorta, vol. 2 (forthcoming)
Recent Courses in RLL
- ITAL 10200 Beginning Elementary Italian II (Winter 2025, Winter 2020)
- ITAL 10300 Beginning Elementary Italian III (Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020)
- ITAL 15001/15002 Elementary Italian in Rome (taught in Rome) (Autumn 2021)
- ITAL 22722 Magic, Madness, and Marvels: Renaissance Epic Literature from the Page to the Stage (Winter 2022)
- ITAL 25020 Opera Across Media (Autumn 2019)
- ITAL 26500 Renaissance Demonology (Spring 2021)