Massimo CIARAVOLO

I obtained my degree in Scandinavian Languages and Literature at the University in Milan in 1990 with a dissertation on Hjalmar Söderberg’s literary criticism. I know Swedish, Norwegian and Danish well, besides English and German. I have a fairly good passive knowledge of French.

The main line of my research deals with the experience of modernity and of big cities in the last decades of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century, as it is represented in Swedish, Finland-Swedish, Norwegian and Danish literature (three books in 1994, 2000 and 2022 and several scientific articles). In this respect, the study of the work of the major Swedish author August Strindberg work has played a major role. I have edited and co-authored Storia delle letterature scandinave (2019). The inter-Scandinavian perspective is paramount for me as a researcher and a teacher.

Modern and contemporary literature (19th, 20th, 21st century) is my main concern. I have researched also in the Scandinavian literature of the Holocaust, autobiographical writing, the relationship between literature and history, literary historiography, the self-taught proletarian Swedish writers, the contemporary Scandinavian literature of migration and post-migration, Scandinavian children’s literature. Since 1987 I have been a literary translator from Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, mainly prose works but even poetry. My book En ungdomsvän från Sverige (2000) won a literary prize by Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland in 2001. In 2023 I was awarded the Prize "for the introduction of Swedish culture abroad" by the Swedish Academy.

I was a researcher of Scandinavian studies at the University of Milan from 1996 to 2005. I was associate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Florence from 2005 to 2017. Since 2017 I have worked as associate professor of Scandinavian studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. From 2005 to 2008 I was also a contract teacher of Scandinavian literature at the University of Milan. In all my years as a university teacher of Scandinavian studies I have held courses of Scandinavian languages, literature and culture. Since 2005 I have tutored or co-tutored many dissertations in my subject area. I was a member of the board of the Doctoral program in Scandinavian theatre and performing arts at the University of Turin (2003 and 2008), of the board of the Doctoral program in Compared languages, literature and culture at the University of Florence (2010-11, 2013-19). Since 2022 (38th cycle) I have been a member in the Doctoral program in Languages, Cultures, Modern Societies and Linguistics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

I organized four international conferences in Italy (2009, co-organized with Andrea Meregalli; 2013; 2015; 2019) and I have taken part and presented papers at many national and international conferences. I am a member of the international editorial board of European Journal of Scandinavian Studies, as well as co-editor of the same journal; a member of the Editorial committee of the Swedish journal Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap; a member of the international scientific committee of Biblioteca di Studi di Filologia Moderna, a full-text open-access series of books at the University of Florence. I am furthermore a member of the editorial committee of the journal Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale, Sezione di Letteratura, cultura, storia. Since 2025 I am a member of the scientific board at Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici in Rome.

I am a member of ASTRI, the Italian association of Strindberg studies, and I was the chairman of this association from 2018 to 2022.

I am a referee for international research projects as a member of the Review Panel RJ Programmes at Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, a fund of the Central bank of Sweden aimed at promoting scientific projects and long-term programmes within humanities and social sciences (from 2022 to 2025).

I have taken part in competitive research groups that have obtained funds. I was a member of ScandLit, about the translation, mediation and reception of Scandinavian literature in Italy (2016-18); and I was a member of Forms and modes of authorship in European culture from early modern to contemporary times (2016-18). I have obtained funds from Swedish and Nordic institution to support the organization of international conferences and the development of Swedish language teaching at Ca’ Foscari university of Venice.

I am committed in “third mission” and public engagement by taking part in presentations of books and authors, literary discussions and radio programs.