Conversations on Dante 9: Federica Coluzzi on Dante in Victorian Literary Culture

Leeds Dante Podcast

Conversations on Dante is a new set of podcast episodes from the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies at the University of Leeds. In each episode, we sit down with researchers from a range of disciplines to discuss some of the work which is helping to shape our understanding of Dante, his context and works, and his place in the cultures of the world.

In this episode, Dr Federica Coluzzi discusses her forthcoming book on the reception of Dante in Victorian culture. We discuss why the Victorian period saw such a significant change in how Dante was understood in Britain, and the ways in which Federica's approach to reception - which pays close attention to book history, material culture, and the social conditions in which reading took place - enables fresh insights into the Victorian encounter with Dante. We also discuss Federica's new research project, on women readers of Dante in the long nineteenth century.

Federica's book, entitled Beyond Influence: Rethinking Dante Reception in Victorian Literary Culture, will be published in Spring 2021 by Manchester University Press, and was developed during her time as an Irish Research Council post-doctoral fellow at University College Cork. She is now a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Warwick University.

The conversation is hosted by Matthew Treherne.