Sergio Zatti

Sergio Zatti was educated at the Scuola Normale and teaches History of Literary Criticism at the University of Pisa. He has extensive experience of teaching abroad, in particular at American universities (Berkeley, Yale and Harvard, among others). His main field of study is the Italian chivalric epic in the sixteenth century, and he has written many articles on the subject: L’uniforme cristiano e il multiforme pagano. Saggio sulla ‘Gerusalemme Liberata’ (Il Saggiatore 1983); Il ‘Furioso’ fra epos e romanzo (Pacini-Fazzi 1990); L’ombra del Tasso (Bruno Mondadori 1996); Il modo epico (Laterza 2000). A collection of his essays has published in English translation: The Quest for Epic (Toronto University Press 2006). With R.Ceserani he co-edited Utet dell’Orlando Furioso e dei Cinque Canti (1997). Other research subjects include Italian literary authors Boccaccio, Manzoni and Gozzano. He focuses particularly on issues of plot and transformation of genre (the novella) and questions of critical method (thematic criticism). In recent years he has conducted comparative studies, and is working on a book on historical forms and models in autobiographical writing. For some years his interest has been in methodology and comparison, with several published works on literary genre (Il modo epico, Laterza 2000; Epos, Romance e Novel, Bollati-Boringhieri 2003) and thematic criticism (Parola e immagine, Pacini-Fazzi 2000; Prove di critica tematica, Vecchiarelli 2004). He is currently working in the field of modern autobiography.