Francesca Zambon

WINTER-SPRING 2024

Francesca Zambon earned her PhD in Italian Studies at Brown University (2023) with a dissertation titled Resistance to and through Autobiography: Poetry and Politics in Post-War Italy. During Fall 2023, she held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor at the same institution under the Deans’ Faculty Fellowship.

Her research explores the relationship between literature, politics, and gender and sexuality studies, challenging conventional notions of the “political” and investigating how writers resist and transcend oppressive narratives imposed by institutionalized hegemonic perspectives. Her current book project, expanding upon her dissertation, delves into the relationship between poetic production and political activism in post-World War II Italy, aiming to redefine traditional understandings of poetic engagement and foster a more inclusive, intersectional, and transnational dialogue on post-war Italian poetry and political poetry at large.

Francesca completed her BA at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and her MA at the University of Bologna, specializing in twentieth-century neo-avant-garde poetry with a focus on Edoardo Sanguineti. She obtained a Magistral License from the School of Superior Studies “Collegio Superiore di Bologna” and a Doctoral Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies from the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. Considering both the legacies and limitations of neo-avant-garde practices, she explored diverse dimensions of art as a form of political resistance, including Artaud’s concept of “cruelty” within and beyond the Living Theater and the performativity of poesia-teatro; the transgressive bodies in Carol Rama’s paintings; Carla Cerati’s militant photography; and the artistic responses to Aldo Braibanti’s 1968 “plagio” trial.

As a fellow at CIMA, Francesca’s project delves into the phonic-optic dimension of Balestrini’s work, viewing it as a vital component of his poetics of denunciation and resistance. By tracing his personal, geographical, and socio-political displacements alongside the evolving sciences and technologies of post-war Italy, she explores Balestrini’s work as an embodiment of an evolving yet structured materiality. In alignment with the Futurist call to “embrace the life of matter”, yet situated at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Balestrini aims to capture the tangible materiality of revolution—the experience of bodies immersed in the physical and sonic dimensions of societal upheaval, creating a chain of vibrations that are both physically and intellectually perceived. Ultimately, Francesca seeks to extract and illuminate modes of resistance relevant today, with Balestrini’s artistic trajectory symbolizing the demise of the revolutionary aspirations of 1968 while also creating a space for forging a new dimension of struggle.