Pre-2009 Dissertations

• Academics, Research Centers, & Initiatives
• Doctoral Programs
• Comparative Literature
• Dissertations
• Pre-2009 Dissertations

Since 1971 our program has awarded 156 Ph.D. degrees and 40 M.A. degrees. Our students have produced dissertations on a great range of topics: comparative literary studies, literary theory and criticism, translation projects, women's studies, medieval and Renaissance studies, and literature and history, psychology, and the arts. The following list of doctoral dissertations during the past 17 years indicates the range of interests of the students in our Ph.D. program.

2012

Cantelli, Veruska

The Ethical Pact: Storytelling in Contemporary Autobiography

Dir. Ammiel Alcalay

Colleran, Daniel

Dead Man’s Space and the Language of Democracy on the American Frontier

Dir. John Brenkman

Giorgi, Marisa

Re-Forming Italians: Children’s Literature in Italy, 1929-1939

Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Kudish, Adele

As Well Known as Disguised: Analytical Fiction in France and England

Dir. Andre Aciman

Rizzo, Flavio

Time of Death Space of Action: Francis Ford Coppola in Tulsa

Dir. Ammiel Alcalay

Varade, Kristina

Reexamining the Dancer and the Dance: Postmodern Considerations in Contemporary Irish and Italian Literature

Dir. Giancarlo Lombardi

2011

Andrianova, Anastassiya

A Spirit of the Earth: Vitalism in 19^th Century Literature

Dir. Felicia Bonaparte

Dicuonzo, Angelo

L’ossessione della frode, La menzogna nel romanzo modern

Dir. Hermann W. Haller

Feigin, Lev

The Eye, the Street, and the Modern Painter: the City from Poe to Joyce

Dir. Andre Aciman

Galbussera, Giorgio

The Male Body as Spectacle in European Cinema

Dir. Mary Ann Caws

Keane, Tim

Varieties of Ecstatic Autobiography: James Joyce to Jean Genet

Dir. Andre Aciman

McNair, Lucy

An Algerian Primer: Mouloud Feraoun’s Le Fils du pauvre, Translation and Commentary

Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Moudrov, Alexander

The Rise of the American Culture of Sensationalism: 1620-1860

Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Musat, Raluca

Blood: A Victorian Idea in the Flesh

Dir. Felicia Bonaparte

Reilly, Patrick

The Aesthetics of Destiny in Plague Literature

Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

2010

Albanese, Pamela

A Critical and Cultural Poetics of the End: Self, Space, and Volatility in Los Angeles

Dir. Ammiel Alcalay

Amatulli, Rosa

The Politics of Laughter in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Cervantes’ Don Quixote

Dir. Clare Carroll

Anderst, Leah

Double Consciousness and Dual Voice: Ambivalence and Free Indirect Style in Novels and Films

Dir. Andre Aciman

Goldwyn, Adam

A Literary History of the Trojan War from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Dir. William Coleman

Hudson, Heather

Maternal Instincts of the 20^th Century – An Operation in Progress

Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Kassel, Deborah

To Have and Have Not: A Poetics of Ambivalence in the Cine-ecriture of Marguerite Duras, Assis Djebar, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Dir. Andre Aciman

Leydon, Christopher

The Insular Iscariot: Judah in Medieval British and Irish Literary Traditions

Dir. William Coleman

Moore, Cyrus

Renaissance and Reformation: From Private Morals to Public Policy in Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana and Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene

Dir. Clare Carroll

Nikopoulos, James

The Stability of Laughter, On the Comic Aesthetic in Modernist Literature

Dir. John Brenkman

Po, Giulia

Scrivere La Diversita: Autobiografia e Politica in Clare Sereni

Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Scheindlin, Noam

The Bungled One: Failure and the Fictional Impetus

Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

2009

Demson, Michael

On Historical Thought in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dir. Joshua Wilner

Gennuso, Mary

Truth, Lies, and Issues of Authenticity: A Study of Rousseau, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus

Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Hanna, Monica

Resistance Histories: Contemporary Literary Reconstructions of the Nation

Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Modesto, Fina

Dante’s Transmutation of Classical Friendship

Dir. Paul Oppenheimer

Muratova, Olga

Religiously Based Morality in the Theatre of Alexander Ostrovsky

Dir. Daniel Gerould

Scala, Carmela

Fairy Tales: A World Between the Imaginary and Metaphors at Play in Lo cunto de li Cunti by Gianbattista Basile

Dir. Giuseppe DiScipio

Shringarpure, Bhakti

Warscapes:  Perspectives on a Literature of Postcolonial Violence

Dir. Ammiel Alcalay

Trogan, Christopher

Freedom Turned Against Itself: Studies in the Literature of Suicide

Buonanno, Elda
La Frantumaglia: Elena Ferrante's Fragmented Self
Dir. Giancarlo Lombardi

Clementi-Kaufman, Federica
Recentering the Mother: Shoah Autobiography in Ruth Kluger, Edith Bruck, Sarah Kofman
Dir. Giancarlo Lombardi, Nancy Miller

Horan, Jennifer
On the Founding of Poetry in Shelley and Holderlin: A Study of the Poem Play
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano


O'Brien, Steve
God and the Devil Are Fighting: The Scandal of Evil In Dostoyevsky and Camus
Dir. Elizabeth Beaujour

2007

Arnaud, Sabine
Narrative and POlitics of a Diagnosis: The Construction and Circulation of Hysteria as a MedicalCategory, 1730-1820
Dir. Vencent Crapanzano

Gaio, Tecla
Confronting Politics: Theories and Paths of Modernity from Baudeelaire to D'Annunzio
Dir. Peter Carraveta

Smith-Bernstein, Deborah
Finding Faith: An Edition of the Vie de Sainte Fey, Virgine et Martire and a Study of the Cult of St. Faith in Post-Conquest East Anglia
Dir. William Coleman

2006

Auriti, Sandy
The Nomad Subject: an Introduction to the Poetry and Letters of Amalia Guglielminetti
Dir. Peter Carravetta

Cowan, Robert
The Indo-Germans: An "Aryan" Romance
Dir. Paul Oppenheimer

Ducknowski
The Bordering World of Marcel Duchamp, Robert Desnos and Mina Loy
Dir. Mary Ann Caws

Greenlee, Annetta
Dying to Belong: Women in Search of Perfect Love in the Works of Zinaida Gippius, Kate Chopin, Galina Shcherbakov, and Lya Luft
Dir. Elizabeth Beaujour

Parkin, Joan
The Art and Politics and the Politics of Tragedy
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

2004

Aitel, Fazia
Barbarology or a New Theory of Exile and Identity: A Study of Exile, Writing and Resistance in Two Algerian Novels: "Vaste est la prison" by Assia Djebar and "Un passager de l'occident" by Nabile Fares

Augspach, Elizabeth
Hortus Inversus: Domeneering Ladies and Their Medieval Gardens
Dir. William Coleman

Henninger, Max
Humble Killers: Literary and Cinematic Representations of the German and Italian Militant Left, 1970-1999

Minott-Ahl, Nicola
The Construction of a cCause: Gothic Architecture and Nineteenth Century Historical Fiction
Dir. Felicia Bonaparte

Obey, Erica
The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest
Dir Joshua Wilne

2003

Downward, Lisa
Female Developments in the Modern Novel: Neera, George Eliot, Susanna Tamaro, Sibilla Aleramo, Doris Lessing, and Gertrude Stein
Dir. Burton Pike

Gulli, Bruno
An Art Hidden in the Forest of the Earth: Labor Between Economy And Culture
Dir. Stanley Aronowitz

Jones, Charlotte
L'Esprit Romanesque: Fiction, Epistemology, and Gender in France and England, 1641-1688
Dir. Clare Carroll

Minott-Ahl, Nicola
The Construction of a Cause: Gothic Architecture and the Nineteenth Century Historical Novel
Dir. Felicia Bonaparte

Moore, Cyrus
Renaissance and Reformation: From Private Morals to Public Policy in Alonso De Ercilla's "La Araucana" and Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene"
Dir. Clare Carroll

Obey, Erica
The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest
Dir. Joshua Wilner

Pascale, Vincenzo
Memoria E Violenza in "Il Sorriso Dell' Ignoto Marinaio" Di Vincenzo Consolo
Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Spaldo, Ellen
The Picaresque Woman: Gender-Bending, Genre-Bending, and The Episodic Self in "MollFlanders," "The Runagate Courage," "Mother Courage and Her Children," and "Fear of Flying"
Dir. Nancy Miller

Teikmanis, Nora
Virtue and the Renunciation of Violence in the Fiction of Dostoevsky and His European Contemporaries
Dir. David Kleinbard

2002

Cadel, Francesca
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) ed Ezra Pound (1885-1972): Paesaggi Culturali a Confronto Tra 1968 e 1975
Dir. Hermann W. Haller

DeLuca, Giovanna
Lo sguardo infantile nel cinema italiano e francese
Dir. Eugenia Paulicelli

Pallitto, Elizabeth
Laura's Laurels: Re-Visioning Platonism and Petrarchism in the Philosophy and Poetry of Tullia D'Aragona
Dir. Clare Carroll

Pietrantonio, Vanessa
Debenedetti e la cultura europea
Dir. Robert S. Dombroski

Vigo, Julian
Performative Bodies, Hybrid Tongues: Race, Gender, Sex and Modernity in Latin America and the Maghreb
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Weiss, Tara
Love's Descent into Melancholy
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

2001

Calabritto, Monica
The Subject of Madness: An Analysis of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Garzoni's L'Hospedale De'Pazzi Incurabili
Dir. Clare Carroll

Dal Ben, Paolo
Lo Sguardo Di Perseo: Calvino e Conrad - Dal Testo All' Ipertesto
Dir. Robert S. Dombroski

Fox, Soledad
Cervantes, Flaubert, and the Quixotic Counter-Genre
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Henao, Eda
Nation, Culture, and Identities: The Colonial Subject's Search for Identity in the Works of Julia Alvarez, Rosario Ferre, and Analydia Vega
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Jones, Valentina
La Belle Helene de Constantinople: The Text of the Female Body in a 14th Century Chanson de Geste
Dir. Scott Westrem

Luisetti, Federico
Plus Ultra: Enciclopedismo Barocco e Modernita
Dir. Robert S. Dombroski

Nematollahy, Ali
Anarchism and Literature in France, 1870-1900
Dir. Julia Przybos

Sukhanova, Ekaterina
An Anxiety for Influence: Shakespearean Themes and Images Through the Prism of Russian Modernism
Dir. Daniel Gerould

2000

Grothe, Anja Medusa
Cassandra, Medea: Re-Inscribing Myth in Contemporary German and Russian Women's Writing
Dir. Amy Mandelker

Long, Andrew
Conspiracy and the Modern Novel: A Study of Zola, Conrad and Kafka
Dir. Stanley Aronowitz

Treanor, Sister
Lucia Wings: A Comparative Study of Franciscan Characteristics in Boccaccio's Decameron, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Marguerite De Navarre's Heptameron
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Weiss, Lou
Rhetoric of Metamorphosis
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

1999

Bertoletti, Isabella
The Transgression of Boundaries in the Poetry of Francesco Petrarca and Gaspara Stampa
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Del Re, Gabriele
La Poetica Del "Banale"; Uno Studio Della "Perdita Di Elevazione" Nelle Myricae Di Giovanni Pascoli
Dir. Robert S. Dombroski

Goldfarb, David
The Discourse or the Primitive in Western European and Polish Modernism
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Mayer, Margarita
Re-Creating Life: The Autobiographical Writings of Elias Canetti and Pablo Neruda
Dir. Burton Pike

Robinson, John
Motion and the Body in Marcel Proust and Gertrude Stein
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Roussetzki, Remy
A Theater of Anxiety: The Irrepresentable in Shelley's The Cenci and in Musset's Lorenzaccio
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Rupprecht, Caroline
Subject to Delusions: Narcissism in Sigmund Freud, Henriette Hardenberg, Djuna Barnes and Unica Zurn
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

1998

Fisch-Freedman, Gina
Isabelle De Charriere (1740-1805): A Philosophical 'Impromptu' in the Age of Reason
Dir. Nancy Miller

Zaccardo, Patricia
Calibrating Difficulty in Modernist Literature: The Space for Reading in Djuna Barnes and Franz Kafka
Dir. David Kleinbard

1997

Sealy, Joseph
Landscapes and Consciousness
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Tagopoulos, Constance
Myth, Memory and Love in Plato, Seferis and Joyce: The Quest for Balance and Language
Dir. Burton Pike

Vicentini, Ana
The Names of the Name: The Paternal Metaphor in Psychoanalysis and Literature
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

1996

Hamel, Eric
Plotinian Presence and the Work of W.B. Yeats and Yves Bonnefoy
Dir. Burton Pike

Makowiecka, Maria
Women's Departures -- Rewriting/Rethinking Female Travel Recits
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Rothberg, Michael
Documenting Barbarism: Memory, Culture and Modernity after the "Final Solution"
Dir. Nancy Miller

Simmons, Ann
Fictions of Feminity: Fin de Siecle Representatives of Hysteria
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Tawil, Judy
Kabbalah in Poetry and Criticism
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

1994

DeVito, Lori
Caterina Percoto's Italian and Friulan Stories
Dir. Hermann W. Haller

Taaffe, Tom
Shaping of the Eternal in the Poetry of Achterberg and Yeats
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Waters, Aluson
The Language(s) of Exile: Conrad, Nabokov, Beckett
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

1993

Auerbach, David
Diamonds and Flint by Jose Maria Arguedas: A Critical Translation
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Brockman, Susan
The Romance of Narrative: Design and Desire in the Odyssey, The Aithiopika, and Don Quixote
Dir. Robert A. Day

DeLange, Margreet
The Muzzled Muse: Literature and Censorship in South Africa 1963-1985
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Kupersmidt, Jane
Figuring Reticence
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Leupold, Dagmar
The Oxymoron as Generative Model in Petrarch, Hofmannswaldau, and Musil
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Pies, Stacy
The Poet or the Journalist: Stephane Mallarme, John Ashbery and the Poeme Critique
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Pouchard, Line
Tragic Silences in Hamlet and Antonin Artaud
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

1992

Daniele, Daniele
Deciphering the City: Urban Displacement and Failed Encounters in Surrealist and Postmodern Writing
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Finkelman, Louis
The Romantic Rehabilitation of Cain
Dir. Lillian Feder

Schneider, Ursula
Ars amandi: A Thematic Inquiry of Sexual and Erotic Exceptions in the Early Tales of Thomas Mann and in the Works of Marguerite Duras
Dir. E. Allen McCormick

1991

Bourdeau, Martine
From Mysticism to Postmodernism: From Prison to Prison
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

D'Orazio, Marino
Antonfrancesco Grazzini (Il Lasca): Two Plays Il Frate (The Friar), La Pinzochera (The Bawd)
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Goldfarb, Lisa
Fixing a Fleeting World: A Study of the Auditory Imagination in Valery and Stevens
Dir. Mary Ann Caws

Hamaoui, Lea
Words and Witness: Narrative and Aesthetic Strategies in the Representation of the Holocaust
Dir. Rosette Lamont

Lintz, Rita
The Body as Text
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Miskowiec, Jay
Through a Tropics of Light: Magic Realism and Literature of the World
Dir. Gregory RabassaO'Driscoll, Sally
Rethinking Realism: Early Women Novelists in England and France
Dir. Robert A. Day, Nancy Miller

1990

Attie, Alice
De-Constructing Textual Desire: Longing, Loss, and Recuperation in Contemporary American Poetry
Dir. Mary Ann Caws

Badendyck, Cynthia
The Lovers of Verona in Lope de Vega and Shakespeare: Problems in Comparison
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Kraus, Joanne
The Comedy of Paradox: Mythic and Medieval Tricksters
Dir. Frederick Goldin

Pinkus, Karen
The Symbolice Quaestiones of Achille Bocchi: Humanist Emblems and Counter Reformation Communication
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Tobias, Lillian
The Melancholy Imagination and the Romantic Poets: A Comparative Study of the Changing Odes and Themes of Melancholy in the Poetry of the English, French, and German Romantics.
Dir. E. Allen McCormick

1989

Alcalay, Ammiel
Re: Orienting/Writing the Mediterrean
Dir. Allen Mandelbaum

Celestin, Roger
From Cannibals to Radicals: Towards a Theory of Exoticism
Dir. Vincent Crapanzano

Friedman, Rodger
So Much Nonsense: Poetic Copia in Rennaissance Texts
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Renzullo, Achille
Marxist Dialectics in Its Application to Literary Theory and Criticism
Dir. Frank Rosengarten

Van Slyck, Phyllis
The Drama in the Picture: Literary Portraiture in James and Proust
Dir. Burton Pike

1988

Carugati, Giuliana
Dalla Menzogna Al Silenzio.Il Viaggio "Mistico" Dela Scrittura Dantesca Nella "Divinia Commedia."
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Georgulis, Christine
This is a True Story: Fiction Disguised as Fact in the Prefaces of Late 17th and Early 18th Century French and English Prose Works.
Dir. Robert Day

1987

Batorsky, Barry
Gestus in the Theatres of Brecht and Beckett:
Dir. E. Allen McCormick

Meister, Barbara
The Poems of Paul Verlaine As Set To Music by Claude Debussy and the Song Cycle "Songs and Proverbs of William Blake" by Benjamin Britte
Dir. Hanna Charney

Passaro, Maria
A Translation with Introduction of Torquato Tasso's Il Re Torrismondo (Torrismondo the King).
Dir. Fred J. Nichols

Prins, Johanna
The Coin of Redemptio
Dir. Frederick Goldin

Sinnreich, Deborah
Eustache Deschamps' L'Art de Dictier.
Dir. Frederick Goldin

Strefezza, Rose
Music and the Literary Arts as Seen Through Proust
Dir. Mary Ann Caws

Zucker, Charlotte
The Emergence of the Modern Woman in Yiddish and Western Literature.
Dir. Irving Howe