September, 2010
Curriculum
Vitae
MARY
ANN FRESE WITT
EDUCATION
LANGUAGES
French--near native,
Italian--fluent, German--good reading, fair speaking and writing, Latin and
Spanish--reading knowledge.
TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
1969-71 Assistant Professor of French,
1972-76 Visiting Associate Professor of English and Director of
Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities funded by the Kenan
Foundation, North Carolina Central University.
1977-88 Assistant, Associate Professor, Coordinator of Italian,
then Coordinator of French, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature,
North Carolina State University.
1988–2003 Professor, Coordinator,
French, then joint chair of Foreign Languages and Literature/English World
Literature program. Coordinator, Italian
1990-91 and Visiting Professor, Department of Romance Studies,
1992-1993
1997 Visiting
Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Program in
(winter
quarter) Comparative Literature,
1999, fall Visiting Professor, Duke Program in
2003-2004 Director of Graduate Programs, FLL, NCSU
2005– Professor emerita
(taught half-time through 2007)
GRANTS AND AWARDS
National Endowment for
the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1974; American Philosophical Society
Grant-in-Aid; Faculty Research and Development Grant, N.C. State 1980-81; Danforth Fellow, 1981; Fulbright Grant to Italy, 1982,
Senior Research Fulbright Grant to Italy and France, 1985-86; N.C. State faculty research fund: 1987-88.
PUBLICATIONS
Articles
"L'Etranger
au cinema et l'imagerie visuelle de Camus,"La Revue des lettres modernes,
1969 (5), pp. 111-122.
"Confinement in 'Die Verwandlung' and 'Les Sequestrés d'Altona, 'Comparative Literature,
Winter 1971 vol 23, pp. 32-44.
"Imprisonment in Camus 'Modern Tragedies,'" Comparative
Drama, Spring 1971 vol 5, pp. 3-20.
"Kafka et Camus," La Revue des lettres modernes, 1971 (4),
pp. 71-86.
"EugPne Ionesco and the Dialectic of
Space," Modern Language Quarterly, September 1972, pp. 312-326.
"Malraux's Early
Prisons; Absurdity and Transcendence," Malraux Miscellany, Autumn
1976.
"Race and Racism
in Native Son and The Stranger," The Comparatist,
I, i, 1977.
"Buzzati's Un Caso Clinico and Camus' Malentendu: Theaters of Transition; Tragedies of
Space," The Comparatist, Spring 1982.
"Malraux's
Shamanism: Initiatory Death and
Rebirth," in Witnessing Andre Malraux: Visions and Re-visions,
"Spatial Narration
in Notre Dame des Fleurs and Le Balcon," in Myths and Realities of Contemporary French
Theater. vol. 17,
"Six Characters in
Search of an Author and the
"Modes of Narration in Pirandello's Sei Personaggi," in Luigi
Pirandello: Poetica e Presenza, Rome: Bulzoni, 1988. pp. 607-616.
"La Figliastra di Pirandello e la creazione artistica," Prometeo
7 (28), fall 1987, pp 147--152.
"Mothers and
Stories: Female Presence/Power in
Genet," French Forum, vol 14, no.2 May,
1989. pp. 173-186.
"Murder as Sign
and Cycle in "Les Nègres," Proceedings of the American Semiotic
Society 1990.
"Towards a Theater
of Immobility: Henry IV, The Condemned of Altona,
and The Balcony, Comparative Drama, vol. 24 summer 1990. pp. 151-172.
"Pirandello's
Sicilian Comedies and the Comic Tradition," in Pirandello and the
Commedia dell'Arte, Publication of the
Pirandello Society of America, vol. VI, 1990, 12-20.
"Mothers or
Women? Feminine Conditions in Pirandello,"
in Joseph di Gaetani, ed. A
Companion to Pirandello Studies,
"Pirandellian Theater and Fascist Discourse", South
Atlantic Quarterly, spring 1992, 91, 2, pp 303-331.
"Pirandello's 'La Patente': mode,
genre, narrative" in Raymond Prier, ed. Aesthetics and the Text,
"Reading Modern
Drama: Voice in the Didascaliae," Studies in
the Literary Imagination (special
issue on Gérard Genette), vol. 25,
no.1 Spring 1992. pp.103-112.
"Fascist
Aesthetics and Theatre under the Occupation:
The Case of Anouilh," Journal of European Studies xxiii
(1993), pp 49-69.
"Il linguaggio femminile nel teatro di Pirandello," in Enzo
Lauretta, ed. Pirandello e la lingua,
"Authority and
Constructions of Actress in the Drama of Pirandello and Genet," Comparative
Literature Studies , vol. 32, no. 1, spring 1995, pp 42--57.
"Pirandellian dislocation or the dying dramatic
author", in Ars dramatica,
ed. Rena Lamparska, N.Y.:
Lang, 1997.
"Mimesi e diegesi nella 'Patente'" in Pirandello e la sua
opera, ed. Enzo
Lauretta,
Edited cluster of
essays Literary Canons after the Canon Wars , ”The Comparatist, May, 2000, 5-63. Wrote
“Introduction–Issues of the Canon, 5-8 and “Are the Canon Wars Over? Rethinking
Great Books,”57-63.
"Pirandello's
Woman Writer and the Birth Metaphor:
Problems in Translation." Journal
of the Pirandello Society of America, fall, 2000.
“Race in The
Stranger and Richard Wright’s Native Son,” in Derek C. Maus, ed.,
Readings on Albert Camus, The Stranger, San Diego: Greenhaven
Press, 2001, 110-124.
"Aesthetic Fascism
and Modern Tragedy: D'Annunzio's
Fedra.” In
John Burt Foster, ed. Culture/s in Contention: Differences, Affiliations, Liminalities.
Translation: Carmen Covito,
“Skeletons without Closets,” in Martha King, ed., After the War: A
Collection of Short Fiction by Postwar Italian Women Writers.
“Retrying the Stranger
Again,” (with Eric Witt). In Michael J. Meyer, ed. Law
and Literature,
“Babies and Books:
Birth as Metaphor in Nietzsche and Pirandello,” Comparative Critical Studies (
“From Saint Genesius to Kean:
Actors, Martyrs, and Metatheater,” Comparative Drama 43, 1 (Spring 2009),
19-44.
“Metatheater on Metatheater:
Kushner on Corneille,” Forthcoming in David Gallagher, ed., Metatheater and Metafiction, Edwin Mellen Press.
Translation: Valeria Parrella, “Forty
Flush” (with Martha Witt), forthcoming in Metamorphoses.
Book Reviews
"Published
in
"Eugenio
Montale, New Poems," McGill Literary Annual, 1977.
"Jean-Paul
Sartre, Life/Situations," McGill Annual, 1978.
"Jeanette
Savona, Jean Genet," The French Review, spring 1986.
"Elise Gelfland,
Imagination in Confinement," L'Esprit créateur, spring 1987.
"Pirandello's
Tales of Madness," (translation), The Comparatist,
fall 1988.
"Gisele Bickel,
Jean Genet et la transcendence," French Forum, September 1989.
"Catharine
Savage Brosman, Jules Roy,"
"Gail Finney, Women in Modern
Drama," Comparative Drama, fall 1991.
"Wladimir Krysinski, Pirandello et le champ
de la modernité," The Comparatist,
1992.
"Jack Murray, The
Landscapes of Alienation: Ideological
Subversion in Kafka, Céline, and Onetti," The Comparatist,
1993.
"Anna Meda, Bianche statue contro il nero abisso, Italica, 1995.
"Carla Locatelli, ed. I Silenzi
dei testi e i silenzi della critica," The Comparatist, May,
1998.
“Nicoletta Pireddu, Antropologi alla corte della bellezza,” Italian
Culture, XX, 1 & 2, 237-239.
“Philip Cranston,
Tones/Countertones: English Translations,
Adaptations, Imitations and Transformations of Short Poetic Texts from the
Latin, Italian, French, Spanish and German,” The Comparatist,
vol 32, May, 2008.
“Anne Tomiche and Karl Zieger,
eds, La recherche en littérature générale et comparée en France en 2007: Bilan et perspectives,” Recherche
littéraire/Literary Research,
2008.
« Kelly Comfort,
ed. Art
and Life in Aestheticism.” The Comparatist,
May, 2009.
“Ben Stolzfus, The Target:
Alain Robbe-Grillet and Jasper Johns. Comparative
Literature, 62, 1 (Winter, 2010), 100-102
“Eduoardo F. Coutinho, ed. Discontinuities and Displacements: Studies in Comparative Literature (vol.
I of Beyond
Binarisms),
Recherche littéraire/Literary
Research, vol 26 (Summer, 2010), 63-67.
Review
Essays
"Edward
Said, Culture and Imperialism," The Comparatist
1994.
"Richard
Golson, ed. Fascism and Culture," The
"Harold
Bloom, The Western Canon," The Comparatist,
1996.
Books
The Humanities: Cultural Roots and Continuities with Instructor's
Guide (controlling author),
Fifth,
sixth and seventh editions of The Humanities
(2 vols) and Instructor's Guide published with
Houghton Mifflin,
Existential
Prisons: Confinement in Mid-Twentieth
Century French Literature.
Her Husband
(translation, with Martha King, of Luigi Pirandello’s Suo
marito), with afterword.
The Search for Modern
Tragedy: Aesthetic Fascism in
(editor) Nietzsche and the Rebirth of the Tragic
(includes my 40-page introduction and 40-page essay)
PAPERS AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
“Race and Racism in Native
Son and The Stranger” , The Southern Comparative Literature
Association, October, 1976
"Teaching
Literature in Translation," Mountain Interstate Foreign Language
Conference, October, 1980
Participant in
twelve-member tri-state conference on teaching
humanities in professional and technical schools, October, 1980,
"Buzzati's Un Caso Clinico and Camus' Le Malentendu: Theaters of Transition, Tragedies of
Space," at Southern Comparative Literature Association, October, 1981
"Prisons and
Quests: Spatial Paradoxes in Malraux and
Sartre," at Twentieth-Century Literature Conference,
"Genet's 'Notre
Dame des Fleurs':
The Cell as Generator," NEMLA,
"Teaching Italian
Poetry at the Elementary Level," Mountain Interstate Foreign Language
Conference, October, 1982
"Spatial Narration
in Notre Dame des Fleurs and Le Balcon," Conference on Modern French Drama at
Chair of Section: "The Criminal in Modern French
Literature," NEMLA; March 1984
"Ritual in Les NPgres", Mountain Interstate
Foreign Language Conference, October 1984
"In Search of the One True Text" (on
teaching the humanities), Southern Humanities Conference,
Chair of Section:
"Self and Other in the Works of Albert Camus," Twentieth Century
Literature Conference,
"Fascism and
Historical Regression in Pirandello's Enrico
IV." Twentieth Century
Literature Conference,
"Genet's Feminine
Discourse," Twentieth Century French Literature Conference,
Participation in NCSU
seminar for high school French teachers (led seminar on explication de texte and Camus) July, 1987
Chair of Comparative
Literature Section in Conference for Secondary School Teachers sponsored by
Wake County Collaborative, October 1987
"Murder as Sign
and Cycle in Les NPgres,"
American Semiotic Society in
"Genet's
Matriarchal Narrative," Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference,
September 1989.
"Revolution and Le Balcon,"
MIFLC, September 1989.
"Authority in the
Theater of Pirandello and Genet," Philological Association of the
Carolinas,
"Reading Modern
Drama, the Example of Pirandello,"
Dramatic Theory Section, Modern Language Association
"Pirandello's Sicilian Comedies and Commedia dell'Arte,"
Pirandello Society, MLA Chicago, 1991
"Anouilh's 'Antigone,': A
Fascist Play?" Twentieth Century
French Studies Conference,
"Reading Modern
Drama, Voice in the Didascaliae," Twentieth
Century French Studies Conference,
"Figuring of the
Law in Pirandello's 'La Giara', Philological
Association of the Carolinas,
"Author(ity) and Actress in the Drama of Pirandello," American
Association of Italian Studies,
"La lingua della donna nell'opera di Pirandello," International
Pirandello Conference at Agrigento, Italy, Dec. 1993
"Pirandellian Dislocation or the Dying Dramatic
Author," International Pirandello Conference,
The Modern Tragedy of
Possession: D'Annunzio's
Fedra," Modern Language Association,
December, 1994.
Session Chair, Feminism
and Francophone Literature, Southern Comparative Literature Association,
October, 1995.
"Fascist
Aesthetics and the Search for Modern Tragedy:
D'Annunzio's Fedra." Association for Philosophy and Literature,
Mimesi
e diegesi nella 'Patente', International Pirandello Conference,
"Are the Canon
Wars Over? Rethinking Great Books",
The American Comparative Literature Association,
"D'Annunzio's Adaptation of Nietzsche in La CittB
morta", Kentucky
Foreign Language Conference,
"Distance Learning
and the Teaching of Literature: A
Personal View", The Association for Core Texts and Courses,
Chair, "Great
Books, Core Texts, and Historically Black Institutions," The Association
for Core Texts and Courses,
‘Suo
marito’ for the Twenty-First Century? Translating and Evaluating Pirandello’s Woman
Writer.” Modern Language Association,
Chair of Session:
Translating, Interpreting, Adapting Pirandello II, Modern Language Association
December 1998.
“How to Kill Women”: Montherlant’s Aesthetic of Modern Tragedy”. Twentieth-century French studies conference,
“Aesthetics and Tragedy
in French Fascist Humanism,” American Comparative Literature Association,
“Aesthetic Fascism in
French Modern Tragedy under the German Occupation: Montherlant
and Anouilh,” American Comparative Literature Association, Boulder, Co, April,
2000.
“Ideological/Linguistic
Dilemmas in translating Pirandello,”
Panel on translation, Southern Comparative Literature Association,
“Translating/transferring
a Pirandellian woman writer,”American
Literary Translators’Association,
“D’Annunzio’s
Dionysian Women or the Birth of Tragedy from Sex,” The American Comparative
Literature Association, San Juan Puerto Rico, April, 2002. Organized and chaired seminar: “Nietzschean
Tragedy: Translations, Reconfigurations, Implementations.”
“Sartre’s theater under the Occupation: littérature engagée?” The Southern Comparative Literature
Association, October, 2002.
Chaired section,
“French Postwar Thought” at Conference on Psychoanalysis and Literature,
Moderator,
“Aesthetics,” Southern Comparative Literature Association,
“The Chorus as vox populi in the
Drama of Fascist Italy: Gabriele D’Annunzio.” Southern Comparative Literature
Association,
“Metatheatricality and Modernity.” The American Comparative Literature Association,
“Teach the
Translation.” The American Comparative Literature Association,
“World Literature and
the Question of Cultural Roots: Confessions of a Controlling Author.” Plenary
Session, Southern Comparative Literature Association,
INVITED LECTURES
"Teaching
Interdisciplinary Humanities,"
"Ionesco et La Cantatrice Chauve," Alliance Francaise, Raleigh, November,
1982
"Postmodernism and
the Absurd in Literature,"
"The Importance of
Foreign Language and Literature for the International Curriculum," International Studies, NCSU, February, 1983
"Jean Genet et la
prison," North Carolina Association of Teachers of French, May, 1983
"Literature of Imprisonment,"
"Modernism and Postmodernism in
Literature," N.C. Museum of Art (seminar for French teachers) July 16, 1987
"Author Surrogates
and the Construction of Gender in Pirandello", Colloquium on the Politics
of the Body in Italian Culture,
"Thoughts on
Popular Culture, Art, Literature, Standards, and Ideology" Keynote Speech, Master of Arts in Liberal
Studies Orientation,
"On Opening and
Closing Texts" Keynote Speech in
the Humanities, The Association for
Core Texts in Education,
"Fascist
Aesthetics and the Search for Modern Tragedy"
“Aesthetic Fascism and
Modern Tragedy: The Franco-Italian Connection.”
Program in Comparative Literature,
“Aesthetic Fascism and
Modern Tragedy: The Franco-Italian Connection.” Faculty Research Seminar, Dept.
of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
“Theater
and Fascism in
“Interdisciplinary
approaches to teaching the Humanities.”
“Theater and Fascism in
RADIO AND TELEVISION APPEARANCES
Leader of panel
discussion on Harold Bloom, The Western Canon, televised at
Interviewed for RAI-
Spoke for PBS radio
program “What”s the Word?” on the trial in Camus’s The
Stranger, taped September 2000.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Modern Language
Association, American Association of Teachers of French, American Association
of Teachers of Italian, International Comparative Literature Association,
American Comparative Literature Association, organizer and coordinator, annual
conference of the Southern Comparative Literature Association, Raleigh,
Sept-Oct 1994; Editorial Board, The Comparatist,
1977-82, Assistant Editor, 1982-91, Associate Editor, 1991-present; panel participant for selection of directors
of summer seminars for school teachers and reader of grant proposals, National
Endowment for the Humanities; reviewed manuscripts for Publications of the
Modern Language Association, Comparative Drama, The Comparatist, Comparative Literature, Duke
University Press, Florida University Press; vice president, Southern
Comparative Literature Association, 1998-2000, President, 2000–2002; Advisory Board, American Comparative
Literature Association, 1999-2003. Judge
for best graduate student essay in comparative literature: Aldridge Prize
(ACLA) 2001, 2003; Rutledge Prize (SCLA): 2002, 2003, 2004. Editor-in-Chief, The Comparatist,
2004–2007. Consultant to
COURSES TAUGHT
As Teaching Assistant:
Beginning and intermediate French (Berkeley, Harvard), English conversation and
American literature (
At
At
At North Carolina State
University: All levels of French and Italian language, Modern European
Criticism, Survey of French Literature I and II, French Seminar, Modern French
Novel, Modern French Drama, Traditional French Drama, French “cultures and
contexts”, French conversation and contemporary culture, French for Graduate
Students, Italian Reading and Conversation, Italian Novel, Italian Drama,
Scholars of the College Seminar ("Great Books,"), Interdisciplinary
Humanities (team), Independent Studies, Survey of Western Literature I and II,
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Seminars--"Theatricality and Reality in
Modern European Drama," "Modern European Drama and Politics,"
"The Existentialist Generation,"
"Visions of Hell" (Dante and modern European writers),
Graduate Seminar on World Drama), European Modernism, World Literature Seminar,
“Theater and Modernity,” Graduate French seminar, French theater and Society.
At
NEH Summer Seminars for
School Teachers at
At
At Duke in
DEPARTMENTAL AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Faculty
Advisor, Italian Club, 1977-78, 1979-1983
Member, Oxford
Committee, 1979-1980, Personnel Committee 1981-1984, Phi Beta Kappa Committee 1982--1988, NEH
Summer Stipend Committee 1982-85, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Committee 1982-85, 1988-1989, departmental representative to
university Humanities Commission, member of core curriculum sub-committee,
1984-85.
Chair of departmental
committee to establish guidelines for tenure and promotion of departmental
faculty members and of departmental committee to nominate faculty members for
leave, 1984-85, 1991-92, 1994-95, Chair inter-departmental Comparative
Literature Committee 1986-1990,
Departmental library liaison 1986-87, member of search committee German
1986, member of search committee French 1987, 1988, 1994. Participant in
Scholars of the College Program, Spring, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985. Coordinator of Italian 1977-78, 1979-83,
2000–, Coordinator of French 1983-85, 1986--1990, Advisor, (French) 1977--,
(MALS) 1989–2003
Member of board of
directors, Friends of the Gallery, 1986--1990, Member of advisory board to MALS
program, 1987–2002, CHASS Research Committee, 1988-89, Departmental
Representative to CHASS Graduate Committee 1989--1993, Chair 1991. Chair, Committee on M.A. in French and
Spanish, 1989--, Ten-Year Curriculum Review Committee, Co-Chair, FLL/English
Committee on World Literature, 1990–,Departmental Honors Committee, 1990–1996,
University Fulbright Committee, 1992--1996, Faculty Senate, 1993-95, Ad Hoc
University Committee on Teaching and Research, 1993-95, Senate Academic Policy
Committee 1993-95, Senate Personnel Committee 1993-94, Chair 1994-95, Thesis
director and committee member for M.A. students in English and MALS,1994-1997,
Committee member for PhD students in Education, 1994, 1996, Chair, departmental
exit interview committee 1995-96. Chair, departmental strategic plan committee,
1995-96, member, University mediation panel 1995-96, member, English Department
search committee for position in Modern Drama, 1995-96, chair, FLL search
committee for position in Latin American Studies, 1998-99, chair departmental
leave committee, 1998--99, Director and author of proposal for successful grant
for Summer Institute for Teachers of World Literature, 1999; Co-Director, 2000,
2001, Resident Scholar (seminar on MoliPre,
Tartuffe), 2000, search committee, FLL department Head, 2000-2001. Departmental Policies Committee, 2001, NCSU
representative, Foreign Language Access Committee (UNC system-wide),
2001-02. Member, PhD committee,
Department of Romance Studies (French),