About

Ms Maria Belova started her PhD in Italian Studies in October 2013, under the supervision of Professor Ann Hallamore Caesar and Dr Katrin Wehling-Giorgi. In 2013/4 she taught on the first year module Italian for Historians.

Research interests

Ms Belova's PhD thesis is entitled ‘Giovanni Raboni in Context: Between Intertextuality and Tradition’. Raboni played an important role in the literal and cultural life of the second half of the twentieth century, contributing not only with his own poems, his work as a literary critic, collaboration with the theatre and his cinema reviews, but also with his translations. The thesis will analyse how Raboni’s work as a critic plus his talent as a translator is reflected back on his own poetry. The inclusion of different cultures and literary traditions permeates his poems. At present there is little research in English about the poetry of Raboni despite the fact that much of his poetry has been translated into English and also that his poems bear striking resemblance to that of contemporary English modernists such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. In Italy, however, the situation is different as Raboni is considered “l’ultimo dei classici” because of his links to tradition such as Dante and the sonnet form, Manzoni and his theme of metaphorical plague.

Ms Belova's broader research interests include:

• Comparative Literature
• Italian-Russian cultural connections
• Twentieth-century Italian Poetry
• Translation Studies
• Audiovisual Translation
• Spatiality and Urban Studies
• Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language
• Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language

Teaching

IT109 Italian for Historians I

IT108 Modern Italian Language I (Intermediate)

IT212 Italian for Historians II (Conversation)

LL293 Russian Beginners (Accelerated)

LL2A8 Russian Level 5

Qualifications

• MA Audiovisual Translation (University of Roehampton, London)

• BA and MA Italian and Russian History, Literature and Culture (Russian State University for the Humanities)