FALCETTO BRUNO

BRUNO FALCETTO

- Academic Positions and Teaching Activities
Full Professor of Contemporary Italian Literature (L-FIL-LET/11) at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Milan, where he teaches Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature and 19th- and 20th-Century Italian Literature in the Master’s degree program.
From 2011 to 2017 he served as Chair of the Degree Board in Literature (Bachelor’s degree in Literature and Master’s degree programs in Modern Literature and in Philology, Literatures and History of Antiquity). From 2017 to 2019 he coordinated the Research Committee of the Department of Literary, Philological and Linguistic Studies and was a member of the Department Board (2021–2023). He conceived and currently directs the project “I mestieri delle Lettere” (“Careers in the Humanities”). He also served on the University Disciplinary Board – First Section (2016–2021).
He was a member of the Executive Board of the University Centre for the Promotion of Italian Language and Culture G. e C. Feltrinelli (CALCIF) and of the steering committee of C.R.C. Skribotablo, devoted to the teaching of written and spoken Italian L1/L2/LS in a multilingual world.
He was Head of the Italian Studies area for the Silsis-Mi Linguistic-Literary track (2007–2011); coordinator of the TFA teacher training program for the linguistic-literary and historical-geographical area (2012–2013); delegate of the Rector to the University-School-Industry working groups (skills and training) of the Lombardy Regional School Office; and Lombardy coordinator for MOD PER LA SCUOLA. He was also responsible for PARI (Entry Requirements Assessment Project) of the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Milan and contributed to its design. He conceived and coordinates the research group Servono per vivere. Didattica dei saperi letterari e linguistici (“Necessary for Living: Teaching Literary and Linguistic Knowledge”) within the Department of Literary, Philological and Linguistic Studies of the University of Milan.

- Education and Professional Career
Researcher in Italian Literature (L-FIL-LET/10), University of Milan (2001–2004). Research fellowship holder (1999–2000). Postdoctoral fellowship recipient (1994–1996). Teacher of Italian and History in secondary schools (1986–1993). PhD in History of the Italian Language and Literature (1989–1992). Degree in Modern Literature (1986).

- Collaborations with Research Institutions, Academic Bodies, Associations and Scientific Committees
He was a member of the ANVUR TECO-D/Lettere Working Group (2018–2022). He coordinated the local unit of the COBASCO Project (COmpetenze di BAse Comuni – Lettere) and of the SUL Project (Scuola e Università per Lettere), established within the framework of the MIUR Orientation and Tutoring Plans for 2017–2018, 2019–2020 and 2021–2023.
He served on the Executive Board of the Italian Society for the Study of Literary Modernity (MOD) from 2017 to 2024. He was a member of the PhD Board in Literary, Artistic and Environmental Heritage Studies at the University of Milan and also served on the Scientific Committee of APICE (Archives of the Word, Image and Editorial Communication). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Laboratorio Calvino (Sapienza University of Rome, University of Milan, University of Milano-Bicocca and University of Oxford) and of the “Laboratorio Calvino” book series published by Carocci. He is a member of the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Centenary of Italo Calvino’s Birth, established by decree of the Italian Minister of Culture on 22 March 2023, no. 130, and of the Archival and Bibliographic Compendium of Italo Calvino (National Central Library, Rome). He serves on the Scientific Committee of “Consonanze,” the series of the Department of Literary, Philological and Linguistic Studies, and on the editorial boards of the journals “Prassi Ecdotiche della Modernità Letteraria”, “P.I.S.A.N.A. Revue d’études nieviennes,” “AOQU. Achilles Orlando Quixote Ulysses. Rivista di epica,” and “P.R.I.S.M.I. Revue d'études italiennes.” He is co-editor of “La MODernità della scuola.”

- Research Interests
His research has focused on 19th- and 20th-century fiction and poetry, with particular attention to forms of realist writing. He has published major monographs (such as Storia della narrativa neorealista, Mursia, 1992; L'esemplarità imperfetta. Le “Confessioni” di Ippolito Nievo, Venice, Marsilio, 1998) as well as essays in journals and conference proceedings on authors and texts, including numerous studies on Ignazio Silone and Mario Soldati, and contributions on Luigi Meneghello, Marcello Gallian, Carlo Levi, Vasco Pratolini, Giorgio Caproni, Primo Levi, recent conversational poetry, and Raffaello Baldini.
The reconstruction of authorial identities has been one of the central concerns of his research, pursued through a comprehensive and analytical approach combining the study of the development of works across different stages of their genetic processes and in the material and historical variations of their editions, with bibliographical investigation and critical reassessment of the whole body of texts produced by authors, including dispersed writings of various kinds. This perspective has guided extensive editorial work, resulting in the complete editions for Mondadori’s “Meridiani” series of Romanzi e racconti by Italo Calvino (with Claudio Milanini and Mario Barenghi, 1991–1994), Romanzi e saggi by Ignazio Silone (1998–1999), and the works of Mario Soldati (Romanzi, 2006; Romanzi brevi e racconti, 2008; America e altri amori. Diari e scritti di viaggio, 2011). He also conceived and coordinated the project for the republication of Soldati’s works in Mondadori’s “Oscar” series. He reconstructed Mario Soldati’s editorial trajectory, contributing to the definition of the new series “Carte raccontate” of the Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori (Scrivere a tempo pieno. Mario Soldati autore Mondadori, edited by Bruno Falcetto, Milan, Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, 2007).
The study of Calvino’s work has been one of his principal and continuing research interests since his undergraduate thesis (La narrativa di Italo Calvino 1945–1963, supervisor Vittorio Spinazzola). This interest has resulted in numerous essays, ranging from La tensione dell'esistenza. Vitalismo e razionalità in Calvino dal “Sentiero” allo “Scrutatore” (“Nuova Corrente”, 99, 1987) to Punteggiatura emozionale. Le prose giapponesi di Calvino, “Strumenti critici”, XLI, no. 1, January–April 2026. He recently edited and published the short narratives by Calvino not included in Ultimo viene il corvo (Un dio sul pero. Racconti e apologhi degli anni Quaranta, edited by Bruno Falcetto, Mondadori, Milan 2023), highlighting the significance of youthful writing paths left in the shadows by the author himself.
His interest in Calvino has also led to the organization of major conferences (whose proceedings were later published), including Calvino & il comico (1988) and Calvino & l'editoria (1990), both edited with Luca Clerici. In 2002 he was a member of the Scientific Committee that organized, for the Milan Triennale, the exhibition and conference dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of Le città invisibili. On that occasion he co-edited, with Mario Barenghi and Gianni Canova, the volume La visione dell'invisibile. Saggi e materiali su “Le città invisibili” di Italo Calvino (Milan, Mondadori, 2002). In 2017 he contributed to the planning and served on the Scientific Committee of the international conference held in Milan, Geneva and Rome: “E io non scenderò più!”. Il barone rampante di Italo Calvino, 1767–2017. In 2023 he co-organized with Mario Barenghi, Laura Di Nicola and Martin McLaughlin the conference Calvino guarda il mondo. Pluralità, coesione, metamorfosi, promoted by the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Centenary of Italo Calvino’s Birth, Sapienza University of Rome and Laboratorio Calvino, in collaboration with the National Central Library of Rome and Villa Medici – French Academy in Rome.
From a methodological perspective focused on the dynamics of the literary system, he has also studied issues relating to publishing (Editoria libraria in Italia dal Settecento a oggi. Bibliografia 1980–1998, edited by Luca Clerici, Bruno Falcetto and Gianfranco Tortorelli, Milan, il Saggiatore – Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, 2000; Scrivere a tempo pieno. Mario Soldati autore Mondadori, first volume in the “Carte raccontate” series, Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, 2007), popular literature and contemporary literary culture, with contributions on authors, genres and forms (science fiction, comics, narrative debuts and the figure of the author, literary debate in newspapers). He was a member of the editorial staff and regular contributor to the annual review “Tirature,” edited by Vittorio Spinazzola (Milan, il Saggiatore – Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, 1990–2020), and also served on the editorial board of the journal “Linea d’ombra” (ed. Goffredo Fofi, 1985–1995).
For many years he has worked on issues concerning the teaching of literature, assessment of essential knowledge, competency-based education, literary reading education, and the development of bibliographic and digital literacy from the perspective of a “situated reading competence” enabling conscious orientation within the publishing and media landscape. For Garzanti Scuola he created the series “Di cosa parlano i poeti” (“What Poets Talk About”), publishing the volume on Giorgio Caproni in 1997. He designed and edited the collective volume Lector in aula. Didattica universitaria della letteratura italiana contemporanea (ETS, Pisa 2020) and published the monograph Servono per vivere. Per un’educazione all’uso della letteratura (Turin, Loescher, 2025).
Other research interests, pursued within a relational-functional approach to forms, formats and transformations of literary experience between the twentieth century and the new millennium, concern narrative representations of space and forms of critical discourse on literature, with particular attention to dissemination formats. For the centenary year, he conceived and edited Un anno con Calvino, a monthly publication in the newspaper “La Repubblica” featuring previously unpublished or little-known texts by the writer.

- Conference Organization
In 2001 he was appointed to the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Centenary of Ignazio Silone’s Birth and contributed to the organization of the international conference L'età dei totalitarismi. Ignazio Silone e la cultura letteraria e politica degli anni Venti/Trenta (L'Aquila–Pescina, 2001). He conceived and organized: Mario Soldati a Milano. Narrativa, editoria, giornalismo, teatro, cinema (Milan, 22 May 2007); Maestria e apprendistato. Per i cinquant’anni dei Piccoli maestri di Luigi Meneghello (with Francesca Caputo, Milan, 8 May 2014); Raccontare riflettere divulgare. Mario Soldati e gli italiani che cambiano 1957–1979 (Milan, 7–8 May 2015); Lector in aula. Didattica universitaria della letteratura italiana contemporanea, annual seminar of MOD – Italian Society for the Study of Literary Modernity (Milan, 22–23 February 2018); La scuola di Meneghello – Meneghello per la scuola (with Francesca Caputo, Milan, 21–22 November 2022). To the series of conferences devoted to Italo Calvino already mentioned should be added L’esperienza dei libri. Calvino per la scuola (Milan, 22 February – 26 March 2024).