Stefano ERCOLINO

Stefano Ercolino is an associate professor of Comparative Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. A literary theorist, his work focuses on the history and theory of the novel, the philosophy of literature, modernism and postmodernism, critical theory, image theory, and intermediality, with a specific interest in nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century European and American literatures and arts, as well as in current debates on world literature.

His work has appeared in Comparative Literature, Novel, Historical Materialism, Orbis Litterarum, Neohelicon, and b2o, among others. He is the author of The Maximalist Novel (Bloomsbury 2014; paperback ed. 2015; Italian ed. Bompiani 2015), The Novel-Essay, 1884–1947 (Palgrave Macmillan 2014; paperback ed. 2016; Italian trans. Bompiani 2017), and, with Massimo Fusillo, of Negative Empathy in Literature and the Arts (Routledge 2026, forthcoming; Italian ed. Bompiani 2022). Along with Francesco de Cristofaro, he edited Experimental Criticism: Franco Moretti and Literature (Verso 2026, forthcoming; Italian ed. Carocci 2021), and he is currently co-editing Philosophy of Atmospheres: Analytic Perspectives with Elvira Di Bona (Routledge 2026, forthcoming).

He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of L’Aquila. He has taught at Yonsei University’s Underwood International College and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester, a DAAD Postdoctoral Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin, and a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University.

He currently serves as a board member and treasurer of the Association for the Study of Comparative Theory and History of Literature (Compalit). In 2022, he obtained the National Scientific Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) as Full Professor of Comparative Literature.