Dr. Myriam swennen Ruthenberg

Dr. Myriam Ruthenberg teaches Italian literature, culture and language at all levels in an Italian Studies program that she created and became official in 1993 with what was then the second of only two B.A. programs in the State of Florida. She served as Chair of the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature from 2003 to 2008. She holds two teaching awards and a university Leadership Enhancement Award, and more recently she became the recipient of the university-wide Faculty Talon Award "in recognition of exceptional leadership, commitment and service to FAU." She has served on the editorial board of professional journals in her field. She was Treasurer of the American Association of Italian Studies for three years. In 2007 she was knighted by the Republic of Italy, which granted her the title of "Cavaliere nell'Ordine della Stella dellla Solidarietà italiana."

Without ever abandoning her love for Boccaccio and the post-Boccaccian novella, Dr. Ruthenberg has concentrated her research on the writer, translator and cultural critic Erri De Luca. The latter became the topic of several articles, an edited volume titled Scrivere nella polvere: Saggi su Erri De Luca (Pisa: ETS, 2005), and the first English translation of one of this author's works (The Senses of Memory). Re-writing lies at the core of her published research on the early Renaissance novellatore and chronicler Giovanni Sercambi, and her articles on Elsa Morante and Tomasi Di Lampedusa focus on the recasting of respectively Medieval and Renaissance texts in a twentieth-century mold. She is currently working on an authored book, titled Erri De Luca e la scrittura alla vigilia della creazione.

Books

Scrivere nella polvere: Saggi su Erri De Luca. Ed. Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg. Pisa: ETS, 2005. Print.

Italian Cultural Studies 2001. Eds. Anthony Julian Tamburri, Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg, Graziella Parati, Ben Lawton. Boca Raton: Bordighera P, 2004. Print.

Articles and book chapters

"From Kohelet/Ecclesiaste to Montedidio: The Rest of the Story." California Italian Studies 5, (2015): 566-88. http://escholarship.org/uc/ismrg_cisj

"'Cantando narrare': Healing Melancholy in Decameron X,7." Atti del convegno 'Umana cosa  è aver compassione degli afflitti ...': Raccontare, consolare, curare nella narrative europea de Boccaccio al Seicento. The University of Turin, December 12-14, 2013, Levia Gravia. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso (2015): 61-72.

"Translation as Desecration: From Montedidio to God's Mountain." Tradurre Figure/Translating Figurative Language. Eds. Miller, Donna Rose & Enrico Monti. Selected Papers from the International Conference on "Tradurre Figure/Translating Figurative Language." The University of Bologna, December 12-14, 2012. Quaderni del CeSLiC (2014): 215-27. http://arca.unive.it/retrieve/handle/10278/38528/29086/TradurreFigure_Volume_MillerMonti2014.pdf

"The Tale of Ricciardo and Catella (III.6)." In 'The Decameron' Third Day in Perspective. Eds. Francesco Ciabattoni and Pier Massimo Forni. The U of Toronto P (2014): 108-30.

"Sacrifice, Sacrament, and the Body in Ricky Tognazzi's 'La Scorta'." Mafia Movies. Ed. Dana Renga. The U of Toronto P (2010). http://bit.ly/1eT18RD

"Giovanni Sercambi." Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Ed. Gaetana Marrone-Puglia. Routledge/Taylor & Francis (2006). http://www.routledge.com/Encyclopedia-of-Italian-Literary-Studies/Marrone-Puppa/p/book/9781579583903

Scrivere nella polvere: Saggi su Erri De Luca (Pisa: ETS, 2005). http://www.edizioniets.com/Scheda.asp?N=88-467-0980-2

"Telling Lies Telling Lives: Giovanni Sercambi between 'Cronaca' and 'Novella'." The Italian Novella. Ed. Gloria Allaire. Routledge Medieval Casebook Series. New York: Routledge (2002): 69-80. http://bit.ly/1M4e7xX

"'Eccomi' sulla spiaggia-confine di Tu, mio: Erri De Luca, il mare e l'asciutto." Narrativa. Université de Paris X, Nanterre 20.21 (2001): 169-80.

“Modi narrativi e stile del 'Novellino' di Masuccio Salernitano” by Donato Pirovano. pp. 284.
Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1996. Modern Language Notes 115.1 (2000): 137-41. Print.

“From Water to Dust: A Dehydrating Essay on Erri De Luca.” Differentia: A Review of Italian Thought. 1.1-2 (1999): 51-59. Print.

“Coming Full Circle: Romance as 'romanzo' in Elsa Morante's L'isola di Arturo.” Modern Retellings of Chivalric Texts. Ed. Gloria Allaire. London: Ashgate (1999): 147-63. Print.  

“Prove di domanda: Intervista silenziosa con Erri De Luca.” Gradiva 1.7 (1999): 51-62. Print.

“Death of an Epic, Death of an Epoch: Ariosto and Tasso in Tomasi di Lampedusa's ‘Il Gattopardo’” Forum Italicum 32.2 (1998): 403-26. Print.

“Romancing the Novel: Elsa Morante's ‘L'isola di Arturo’.” Romance Languages Annual 9 (1997): 336-41. Print.  

"The Paraphrase of an Imaginary Dialogue: The Poetics and Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini" by Thomas Erling Peterson. pp. 356. Forum Italicum 31 (1997): 282-8. Print.n (Review article)

“Erri De Luca, il Libro e la Lingua.” Il Veltro 40.3-4 (1996): 311-15. Print.

“Il realismo poetico di Pier Paolo Pasolini in 'Ragazzi di vita'.” Carte italiane 4 (1984): 37-52. Print.

Literary Translations 

The Senses of Memory. Trans. of De Luca, Erri. I colpi dei sensi. Rome: Fahrenheit 451, 1993. 24 pp. Chelsea (1999): 44-57. Print.

“Beatrice Caracciolo” by Erri De Luca (from the Italian); “Don’t Play with Fire” by Nadia Tazi from the French) and “Do you have a Light?” by Nathalie Heidseck de Saint Phalle (from the French) in Caracciolo, Beatrice. Fuoco. Paris: Ed. La Frontiera (2013) 182-85;

“Tufa” translation of “Tufo” by Erri De Luca in Cusani, Cristina. Tufo, Exhibit catalogue. Pica Gallery Naples (2012): page number unknown.

“Fish don’t close their eyes” Translation of De Luca, Erri. I pesci non chiudono gli occhi. Milan: Feltrinelli, (2011): 9-19. Upon author’s request,  2012

“Pasta” Translation of  De Luca, Erri. “Pasta” in Napòlide. Naples: Libreria Dante & Descartes, (2009): 95-98. Upon author’s request, 2011

Translation for short film & documentary:

“Tu non c’eri” (You weren’t there); text by Erri De Luca, February 2015. Upon author’s request (subtitles)

“La musica provata” (“Trying Music”); text by Erri De Luca, for Oh!Pen, November 2014  (synopisis, project description, stage directions, subtitles)

“Doctor Tapping;” documentary on Vittorio Camardese, for Oh!Pen, January 2014 (subtitles)

“Jamil’s Essay;” documentary on racial and religious tolerance, for Oh!Pen, January 2014 (synopsis and project description)

 

“Terragni & Pagano” for documentary on Italian Fascist Architecture, for Oh!Pen, February 2014 (synopsis, project decriptions, and stage directions)

“Trees that walk” text by Erri De Luca, for Oh!Pen, May 2014 (subtitles).

“Trees that Walk.” From “Alberi che camminano” Text by Erri De Luca, for Oh!Pen. April 2013 (synopsis, project description, ands stage directions)

“Impressions from the set” and “Napolide” in Di là del vetro, short film directed by  Andrea di Bari; texts by Erri De Luca, Rome: Pesce Rosso Comunicazione e Design, 2011, upon author’s request (subtitles)

Non-refereed publications

“Orvieto Between Heaven and Earth/Orvieto tra cielo e terra.” Orvieto tra cielo e terra/Orvieto Between Heaven and Earth. Tipografia Ciccarelli, Acquapendente (2017[2018]): 11-12 (Photographs by Pasquale Comegna and Angelika Leik)

“Open City: Seven Writers and Rome.” Ed. William Weaver. South Royalton, VT, 1999. 460 pp. Palm Beach Post. September 12, 1999.