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2006-2007 Fellows

 

Sabrina Ferri

Stanford University
Department of French and Italian

Sabrina Ferri is a PhD candidate in the Department of French and Italian at Stanford. Her area of specialization is the Italian eighteenth century, with special focus on the relationship between literature, history, and science. More broadly, her research interests veer towards those aspects of the Italian Settecento that have had an impact on the modern period. She is particularly interested in the influences and legacies of 18th-century Italian writers and thinkers on 19th- and 20th-century culture.

Project Summary

Talking Ruins: Natural History and Philosophy of the Italian Enlightenment is an analysis of the imagery of ruins in eighteenth-century Italian literature and figurative arts. Not a mere thematic excursus, but rather an attempt to outline a complex image of the Italian Enlightenment by focusing on the intersections between the theme of ruins and central issues of eighteenth-century thought: the critical attitude towards the past, the relationship between man and nature, and the debate on human progress.