Nicoletta Pesaro

Current position
Since 2022 Full professor of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of Asian and North African Studies Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
2006-2022 Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of Asian and North African Studies (former East Asian Studies), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
2000-2006 Contract teacher of Chinese Language and Translation, Course for Translation and Interpreting, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Research
Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature; Theory of Narrative; Translation Studies; Genre Studies

Current projects
1) Chinese narratives and the narration of China in Italy
2) Coediting a book on the history of Chinese poetry in the Twentieth Century
3) Unnatural narratives and gender in modern Chinese literature
4) Women’s mobility and the dissemination of Chinese literature in Italy/Europe
5) Genres and gender in modern Chinese literature
6) Italo Calvino’s reception and translation in China
Since 2008 head of the “LaboratORio”, Research group on the Translation of Asian and North African Languages (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) https://thewaysoftranslation.com

 Education
1999 Ph.D. in Chinese Language, Literature and History (University La Sapienza Rome)

 Academic appointments
2023- Coordinator of the PhD Programme on Asian and African Studies (Ca’ Foscari).
2022- Member of the Archivio Scritture e Scrittrici Migranti.
2021- Member of the Commissione Ministeriale per la Valutazione delle Scuole Superiori per Mediatori Linguistici.
2015-17 Head of Studies of the Dept. of Asian and North African Studies.
2012- Member of the board of the PhD on Asian and African Studies.
2010-11 Deputy Head of the Department of East Asian Studies.
2012-2018 Member of the Board of The European Association for Chinese Studies.
2006-2022 Coordinator of the Chinese Translation and Interpreting Program of the University of Venice: MA in Interpreting and Translation for editorial and for special purposes.
2008-2012 Coordinator of the Chinese Translation and Interpreting Program of the University of Venice: BA in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation.
2006-2010 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral School in Oriental Studies.

Memberships

2015- East Asian Translation Studies (EATS)
2014- European Narratology Network (ENN)
2004- European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) 
1998- Associazione Italiana per gli Studi Cinesi (AISC) since 2023 President of the Association  

Grants and fundings
2024-Supervisor of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. Project title: IDRA - Aquatic Imaginations: Interrelation of Fiction and Policy in Shaping a Sustainable Future. MC Researcher: Chiara Cigarini.
2023- Principal Investigator of a PRIN – Research Projects of National Relevance funded by Italian Ministry of Research, project title: “Chinese narratives and the narration of China in Italy: literature, cinema and art at the intersection of cultural diplomacy and cultural industry”.
2022- Task leader in PNRR funded project iNest, New Narratives and Communication Strategies: “Mindful communication and cultural mediation for more sustainable, accessible, diverse and inclusive places”.
2022- supervisor of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. Project title: In Diversity We Trust: Preserving and Promoting the Literary Heritage of Chinese Minorities. MC researcher: Mario De Grandis.
2022-23 Supervisor of a Post-Doc Research project funded by the Department of Asian and North African studies: Reenchanting the Anthropocene: Healing Nature through the Supernatural within Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction.
2020 Grant assigned by the Marco Polo Center for Global Europe-Asia Connections (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) for the project The Narrative of the Anthropocene with Chinese Characteristics: Climate-Fiction Between Realism and Dystopia
2019 Funding “Visiting” from the Université Franco Italienne
2017 Funding “Label scientifique et financement” from the Université Franco Italienne for the publication of the research on Globalised Chinese Literature
2017 Ca’ Foscari Teaching Mobility Grant (Nanjing Univ.)
2016 Ca’ Foscari Teaching Mobility Grant (Peking Univ.)
2015 Ca’ Foscari Teaching Mobility Grant (Beijing Academy of Social Sciences)
2012 Funding from Barilla SpA for the project ”Food and Cultural Mediation between Mediterranean and Asian Countries”
2012 Ca’ Foscari Mobility Grant (Beijing Capital Normal Univ.)

Teaching experience
Modern Chinese language; Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature; Chinese Translation; Chinese linguistics.

International
2018 Sept.-Oct. Guest lecturer: Fudan Univ. Shanghai
2018 June Guest lecturer: Universita Autònoma de Barcelona, Escola d’Estiu de Doctorat: Traductologia, Estudis Interculturals i Àsia Oriental
2011 November Guest lecturer: Beijing Capital Normal Univ.
2008 April Erasmus Program: Charles Univ. (Prague)

Supervised Ph.D.
2022- Jin Wenxin, Finding the Real Self under Shadow: A (Sur-)influence Study between American Confessional Poetry and Chinese Third Generation Poetry
2018-22 Federico Picerni, co-supervision with University of Heidelberg
2015-18 Martina Codeluppi, co-supervision with Université Sorbonne - Paris 3
2008-10 Paolo Magagnin, co-supervision with Université de Aix-en Provence

Supervised Post-Doc Research 
2023-25 Project title:Le narrazioni della Cina in Italia: letteratura, traduzione e industria culturale (PRIN 2022)
2022-25 Project title: New Narratives and Communication Strategies-Mindful communication and cultural mediation for more sustainable, accessible, diverse and inclusive places (iNEST Spoke 6 PNRR)
2022-23 Project title: Reenchanting the Anthropocene: Healing Nature through the Supernatural within Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction.
2020-21 Project title: The Narrative of the Anthropocene with Chinese Characteristics: Climate- Fiction Between Realism and Dystopia Grant assigned by Marco Polo Center for Global Europe- Asia Connections (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Post-Doc Grant recipient: Martina Codeluppi

Organised conferences and workshops (Ca’ Foscari)
2023 November 23, University of Venice, "Storie di mobilità femminili nella creazione, traduzione e diffusione delle culture e letterature tra Asia e Europa”.
2023 July 17, University of Venice, The Makers of Modern Chinese Literature. Presented paper: “Making Modern Chinese Literature Through Genres: Some reflections on the Function Played by Genres in Creating, Promoting, and Translating Literature”.
2021 Dec. 1, Ca’ Foscari, Joint Doctoral Workshop: Translation Studies, theories and methodologies.
        May 4,  Online workshopIl romanzo del nuovo millennio: Mondo arabo Cina e  Giappone a confronto.
2019 Dec. 4 , Ca’ Foscari,  International Workshop: Histories of Trust Between East and West.
        June 28-30, The 3rd East Asian Translation Studies Conference: From the Local to the Global and Back. Translation as a Construction of the Plural and Dialogic Identities of East Asia  
         April 22, Department of Asian and North African Studies/Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies -Joint Doctoral Workshop
The Evolution of Modern Translation Theory in Asia and the West  
         April 15-16, International Conference, Translation History and Translation stories
2018 May 7, Doct. Workshop, New frontiers in translation studies: ethic and translation, eco-translation, post-translation studies, gender and power
2017 October 2, Int. Workshop, Chinese Sci-Fi Literature: History, New Achievements, and Future Perspectives
        May 25-26, Doct. Workshop, Traduzione culturale, identità e migrazioni
2016 Nov. 25-26, International Workshop, Littérature chinoise et globalisation
        May 5-6, Doct. Workshop, I Translation Studies. Dimensione intralinguistica e interlinguistica delle lingue dell’Asia e del Nord Africa
2014 Nov. 26-27, Doct. Workshop, Between Texts, Beyond Words: Intertextuality and Translation. Keynote speaker: Lawrence Venuti.
        June 25-26, Doct. Workshop, Relazioni asimmetriche: La traduzione come insieme di pratiche e teorie, oggetto e strumento di ricerca
2011 Febr. 25-26, La traduzione dalle lingue orientali: limiti, specificità e prospettive
2009 May 15, Intern. Conf. The Ways of Translation: Constraints and liberties of translating Chinese

 Main attended conferences, presented papers and invited lectures

2024
- Hong Kong, University of Science and Technology, 24-25 June, Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL), panel: Green Planet: Plant-Human Entanglements in Literature, presented paper: “Can Xue’s phytophilia and her materialistic reflection on human condition”.
- Aix-en-Provence, Université Aix-Marseille, April 25-26, Workshop Femmes chinoises, femmes plurielles. Keynote speech: "Against Realism: ‘Unnatural Narratives’ by Female Writers in Contemporary Chinese Fiction".
- Stockholm, Stockholm University, March 25, invited lecture: “The language of trauma, poetry, and repetition. Translating Liu Xiaobo’s Niannian liusi”.
- Venice, VIU Venice International University, March 1. Graduate Seminar Translation: Why Is It a Political Question? Perspectives in Philosophy and Translation Theory. Invited lecture: “Translation and Translation Studies as a field of tension”.
2023
- Siena, Università per Stranieri di Siena, December 5-7. Convegno: Tradurre il trauma. Invited paper: Il linguaggio del trauma, poesia e ripetizione.Tradurre Elegie del Quattro giugno di Liu Xiaobo". 
- Venice, Università Ca' Foscari, November 27, Countering Gender-based Violence against Women in Europe and China: Legal, Social and Literary Perspectives. Invited paper: "Literary representations of violence against women in modern China". 
- Venice, Università Ca' Foscari, November 23. Storie di mobilità femminili nella creazione, traduzione e diffusione della cultura e letteratiura tra Asia ed Europa. Presented paper "Ritagli di carta: spazi umani e letterari, le traduzioni e le relazioni intellettuali di Anna Bujatti attraverso la sua biblioteca".
- Roma, Università La Sapienza, XX convegno dell'Associazione Italiana Studi Cinesi (AISC), Sept. 21-23. Presented paper: 
- Lyon, Université Jean Moulin, Lyon 3, June 1-2. Colloque international Pionnières Oubliées, presented with Jin Wenxin: “Herself under His Shadow: The In/visibility of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton in Chinese Translations and the Canonisation of Zhai Yongming and Shen Rui’s Poetry”.
- Napoli, Università l’Orientale, May 25. Invited lecture: “Tradurre Lu Xun: scelte traduttive e riflessioni letterarie”.

2022 
- Siena, Università per Stranieri di Siena, December 6. Invited lecture: “Tradurre Lu Xun: la grazia del testo, la durezza della traduzione”.
- Milano, Università Statale di Milano, November 22-23. International conference Recent trends and new perspectives on translation and history: “The positionality of the literary translator in modern China. Two case studies”.
- Milano, Università Cattolica di Milano, September 16. Giornata di Studi dell’Associazione Italiana, La Cina e la storia. Invited paper: “Dalla narrativa alla narrazione, dai fatti alla finzione: riflessioni sul ruolo della storia nella letteratura cinese moderna”.
- Napoli, Università L’Orientale, June 22-23. International conference Genealogies of Literary Form in Contemporary China. Presented paper: “From the avantgarde to the unnatural narrative: Can Xue’s fictional world and its political meaning”.
- Dublin, University College of Dublin, June 16-18. International Workshop Interpreting China: Engendering Transnational Dialogues, with the China Academic Network on Gender (CHANGE). Invited paper: “Translating and mediating Chinese poetry: Ming Di’s ‘double shadows’”.
- Beijing, Tsinghua University-New South Wales University (Sidney), May 20-22. International online conference Chinese Cultures, Translation and Contemporaneity: Literature – Cinema - Performance - Visual Arts. Invited paper: “Comparable Diversities: Translating Modern Chinese Literature with a Transcultural Approach”. 
- Bologna, Università di Bologna, Alma Mater, April 12, invited online lecture: “Agenti della traduzione e traduzione letteraria dal cinese: la traduttrice è un animale sociale”.  

2021
- Beijing, Ah Q fabiao bainian jinian xueshu yantaohui (Symposium on the One Hundreth Anniversary of the Publication of The True Story of Ah Q) online. December 26. Invited paper: "Ah Q zhengzhuan zai Yidali de jieshou, fanyi ji gaibian" (Reception, Translation and Adaptment of the True Story of Ah Q in Italy).
- Torino, Università degli Studi di Torino, XIX convegno dell'Associazione Italiana Studi Cinesi (AISC), November18-20: “Scritture femminili a Hong Kong: alienazione psicologica, urbana o politica? L’impossibilità del realismo”.
- Leipzig, XXIII Biennial Conference European Association for Chinese Studies, Aug. 24-28, online. Presented panel: “‘Unnatural narratives’ with Chinese characteristics: fantastic, weird, metafictional, impossible and posthuman elements in modern Sinophone literature. 
Presented paper: Impossible Worlds of her Own: “Unnatural Narratives” in Can Xue’s Fiction
- Verona, Università degli Studi di Verona, May 14 Giornata della Traduzione 2021, invited presentation with B. Bisetto: “La traduzione letteraria dal cinese: contesti ed esperienze”
-  Milano, Università Cattolica, May 13, invited online lecture: “Letteratura cinese moderna: scrittori e scrittrici tra adesione e dissenso”
- Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento, May 5, invited online lecture: “Fang Fang e le altre: la narrazione del virus delle scrittrici cinesi tra impegno locale e sensibilità globale”
- Cagliari, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, April 8, invited online lecture: “Letteratura cinese moderna: scrittori e scrittrici tra adesione e dissenso”

2020
- Beijing Renmin Daxue, November 19, International Webinar Chinese Literature in Central and Eastern Europe: The Translatable and Untranslatable. Invited paper: “Translating Zhang Ailing. Challenges and problems 翻译张爱玲的问题和挑战”
- Fribourg, University of Fribourg, August 28-29, International Online WorkshopEarth and its Others: The Geographies of Science Fiction. Presented paper “Social Space and Dystopian Geography in Hao Jingfang’s Novel Wandering Maerth”

2019
- Venice, December 5-6, International Conference Non reproductive freedom, accepted paper: “‘Men control our vaginas; the state controls our wombs’.
Modern Chinese literature and the representation of the female reproductive body”
- Venice, November 26 Doctoral School Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, invited lecture: “La (ri)traduzione di un classico della letteratura cinese moderna: problemi linguistico-culturali, sfide e opportunità”
- Bergamo, November 7-9, International Conference “East in Translation. Tradurre arabo, cinese e giapponese oggi”, Università degli Studi di Bergamo. Invited paper: “Theoretical and Practical Reflections on the Re-translation of a Modern Classic of Chinese Literature”
- Venice, September Associazione Italiana Studi Cinesi, Biennial Conference, organised panel:
Due grandi “metafore storico-letterarie” del Novecento cinese: tra creazione, appropriazione e transculturazione, tra contestazione e rinnovamento
, presented paper: “Un’appropriazione “europea” del Quattro Maggio: ‘La vera storia di Ah Q’ negli adattamenti teatrali di Christophe Hein e Dario Fo”- July 17-19, Changsha, Univ. of Hunan, Ass. of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL). Proposed panel Fitting the Space of Translation: New Geographies of Chinese Literature. Paper: «Ah Q travels to Europe: Christoph Hein’s Die wahre Geschichte des Ah Q (1983) and Dario Fo’s Storia di Qu (2011)»
- May 2-4, University of Mons, International Conference: 4 May 1919: History in Motion – A Political, Social and Cultural Look at aTurning Point in the History of Modern China, Paper: «Transculturing the May Fourth: From Lu Xun’s Ah Q Zhengzhuan (1921-22) to Dario Fo’s La storia di Qu (1989; 2011)»
- March 27-28, SOAS University of London, Chinese Translation Workshop: Translating Cultures, literature, films, and non-fiction. Invited paper: «Sinophone Routes: Between Translation, Self-Translation and Deterritorialisation»

2018
- Venice, Dec. 17, Int. conf., Viaggi e scritture: cartografie della violenza. Corpi migranti tra culture e accoglienze: invited paper «La morte della lingua madre: inadeguatezza del linguaggio e rappresentazione del corpo in Yiyun Li»
- Hong Kong, June 1-2, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, International Workshop Translating Science Fiction, Translation in Science Fiction: Chinese and English: invited paper «Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction: The Translation of a Genre»
- Bergamo, May 11, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, China 1918: Days of the madmen The Revolution of China’s Literature Language and Politics: invited paper «Lu Xun: A «Hard» Translator Between China and the West»

2017
- Venice, Nov. 29-30, Ca’ Foscari, Mujeres en fuga/ Femmes en fuite. Invited paper: «Xiao Hong: corpi in fuga»
- Paris, Nov. 16-18, Univ. Paris 7-Paris Diderot, Intern. Conf. The Body in East Asia’s Modern and Contemporary Literature. Paper: «Human, Inhuman, Posthuman Female Bodies in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature: Literary Descriptions of Psychological and Social Unease»
- Hong Kong, June 21-23, The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Ass. of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL). Proposed panel Transmediality, Transculturation, and the Formation of Canon: The Role of Media and Genre Adaptation in Selecting Literary Works and Shaping the Image of Literature. Paper: «Such is the Way of the Media: Non-state Narrative and the Consecrating Role of Media in Contemporary China»

2016
- Beijing, Oct. 13-15, Peking Univ. and Ca’ Foscari, International Conf. Humanities, Different Traditions and Methodologies. Multicultural Perspectives in Chinese Language and Literature. Paper: «为什么读（译）经典？重译鲁迅的文化与语言上的挑战 Why Read (Translate) the Classics? Re-Translating Lu Xun: a Cultural and Linguistic Challenge»
- Erlangen, Sept. 27-28, Intern. Workshop on Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication in Chinese Literature. Invited Paper: «The Clash Between Personal Fate, Future, and Society in Ge Fei’s Latest Fiction»
- Tokyo, July 9-10, Meiji Univ., East Asian Translation Studies (EATS) Proposed panel Reconstructing Displaced Chineseness: Sinophone Literature and Translation. Paper: «The Resilience of Chineseness and the Desire of Displacement: Sinophone Writers Zhang Ailing and Yiyun Li in Italian Translation»
- Venice, May 6, Ca’ Foscari, Translation Studies Between Research and Practice: The Intralingual and Interlingual Dimension of Asian and North African Languages, Paper: «Diglossia, Translation, and Rewriting: The Perception of Chinese Writers at the Beginning of the 20th Century»
- Paris, Febr. 26, Univ. Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, Invited lecture Des copies originales : les traductions sans texte premier. Title:« L’écrivain en ‘quatrième personne’: traduction, identité et perspective chez Ma Jian »

2015
- Bruxelles, Dec. 9-12, Vrije Univ. & Univ. of Ghent, Intern. Conf. Translation in Exile. Paper: «Between the Transnational and the Translational: Language, Identity, and Authorship in Ma Jian’s Novels»
- Beijing, Aug. 24-25, The 2nd International Communication Forum on Chinese Culture, Paper: «增加“文学资本”:中国当代文学的传播和接受 Increasing the “Literary Capital”: for a Better Reception of Contemporary Chinese Literature»
- Shanghai, June 17-20, ACCL, Fudan Univ. Paper: «文类的翻译: 制衡中国现代小说理论的限界与机遇 Translating Genres: Limits and Opportunities in Defining the Modern Chinese Novel»
- Paris, June 4-5, Inalco & Sorbonne Nouvelle: Colloque L'enseignement des littératures étrangères et traduction. Paper: « Par des mots au-delà des mots : stratégies cross-médiatiques dans l’enseignement de la littérature chinoise moderne et contemporaine »
- Erlangen, May 27, Univ. of Erlangen, invited lecture: «The cultural turn in translation studies and Chinese translation»
- London, Apr. 23-24, Univ. of London, Intern. Conference Translation Talk. Paper: «A ‘Violent Transaction’? Chinese Reception of Contemporary Metalanguage on Translation»
- Paris, Febr. 27, Univ. Paris 7 Diderot: Intern. Workshop Pratiques et discours modernes chinois des genres littéraires : définitions, réinventions, glissements. Invited paper: « Le discours chinois sur le roman dans les matériaux modernes de recherche et pour l'enseignement. Traduction, adaptation, domestication et foreignization d’un genre » 

2014
- Aix-en Provence, Sept. 18-19, Colloque Intern. Mo Yan et son œuvre, traduction, réception et intérpretatios.  Invited paper : « La voix du conteur. Thèmes et modèles narratifs dans le rapport entre Mo Yan et l'écriture d’Italo Calvino »
- Braga, Jul. 25-26, XX Conf. of the EACS. Paper: «The power of genres: Chinese writers and their use of genre theory in the modern literary field»

 2013
- Paris, Oct. 18-19, Univ. Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris Diderot-Paris 7 & Univ. Aix-Marseille Colloque Intern. Mo Yan : au croisement du local et de l’universel. Invited paper: « Métalepses, focalisation multiple et déformation sensorielle : la construction critique d’un ‘esprit sociale’ dans les romans de Mo Yan »
- Beijing, May 27, Capital Normal Univ. Intern. Conf., Chuanshang jiyi yu wenhua biaozheng: Wenxue ruhe shuxie lishi, Paper: «“从侧面切入”：历史创伤与叙述模式 The Oblique Approach: Historical Trauma and Narrative Patterns»
- Venice, Intern. Conf. Peking University Linking Ancient and Contemporary: Continuities and Discontinuities in the Chinese History of Literature and Thought. Paper: “The Tradition of Telling and the Desire of Showing in Ge Fei’s ‘fictional minds’”

2011
- Beijing, Teaching Modern Chinese Literature, Capital Normal Univ. Paper: «文学教育在为难中? (Is the teaching of literature in peril?)»
- Venice, La traduzione dalle lingue orientali: limiti, specificità e prospettive. Paper: «Discorso e sintassi nella traduzione letteraria dal cinese. Strategie testuali e strategie traduttive nel ‘Kuangren riji’ (Diario di un pazzo, 1918) di Lu Xun»

2010
- Venice, Ca’ Foscari, William Faulkner’s Legacy. Invited paper: Faulkner and Chinese modern fiction: between nativism and modernism.
- Aix-en-Provence, Traduire l'humour des littératures asiatiques. Invited paper:  « Humour amer: quelques exemples d’ironie tragique dans des romans chinois du vingtième siècle »
- Riga, XVIII Conf. of the EACS. Paper: “Authorship, Ideology, and Translation: the case of Ma Jian”

2009
- Venice, Ca’ Foscari, The Ways of Translation: Constraints and liberties of translating Chinese. Paper: “The rhythm of thought: some problems of translating syntax in modern Chinese literature”
- Aix-en-Provence, Littératures d’Asie: traduction et réception. Paper:  « Feishiyi de ci: la parole peu poétique: réflexions sur la traduction de Mu Dan »

2008
- Hong Kong, Gao Xingjian, a Writer For His Culture, a Writer Against His Culture. Invited paper:  «From A Preliminary Discussion of the Art of Modern Fiction to Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible: Gao Xingjian’s Use of Narrative Patterns to Rethink China»