Mariachiara Leteo

Thesis Title: Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi

Supervisors: Professors Matthew Reynolds and Giuseppe Stellardi

Doctoral research: My thesis explores the meanings of poetry beyond verse and the ways they influenced the creation of poetic effects in the prose of Virginia Woolf and the Italian creative essayist Emilio Cecchi. By analysing the question of poetry in prose from the perspectives of these two writers, I approach the notion(s) of poetic quality as a timebound and culturally specific idea that goes beyond language and affects prose style in multiple and unexpected ways.

Research interests: comparative literature, English and Italian 20th century literature, modernism, theories of style and genre, literary essay tradition, drama and fiction, literature and the visual arts.