Massimo Verzella, Graduate Teaching Instructor
Office: Minard 318E14
Email: Massimo.Verzella@ndsu.edu
I earned both my M.A. in Foreign Languages and Literatures (major in English and minor in French) and my PhD from the University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. My M.A. thesis is entitled: The Winter’s Tale: gli inganni dell’arte (The Winter’s Tale and the Deceptions of Art). My PhD dissertation is devoted to women writers in Jacobean England. My main focus during my M.A. and PhD studies was Early Modern Literature with a particular focus on Shakespearean drama.
Later on I decided to diversify my studies and I have developed an interest in Victorian literature (Dickens, Gaskell, Butler), Nineteenth century English drama (Osborne, Bond, Hampton), Italian-American writers (John Fante); ESL (English as a Second Language) and ESP (English for Special Purposes). My time at the “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara involved components of teaching and research, both as a PhD student/Research fellow and contracted instructor.
I have enrolled in the PhD program in English: Rhetoric, Writing and Culture at NDSU with the aim of connecting literary and linguistic studies and branch out into other areas that fascinate me, from genre theory to rhetorical criticism, from technical writing to translation theory.
Currently, I teach two units of English 120 College Composition.
Recent publications include:
Co-edited Elizabeth Gaskell and the Art of the Short Story, (with Francesco Marroni, Renzo D’Agnillo). Bern, New York: Peter Lang, 2011.
“Tracing the Linguistic Fingerprints of the Unitarian Ethos: A Corpus-based Study of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Short Stories”, Elizabeth Gaskell and the Art of the Short Story”. Ed. R. D’Agnillo, F. Marroni, M. Verzella. Bern: Peter Lang, 2011. pp. 87-100.
“Samuel Butler’s The Authoress of the Odyssey and the Debunking of Classical Scholarship and Victorian Hellenism”. Letteratura e cultura vittoriana. Ed. Giulia Pissarello. Pescara: Tracce, 2012.
“The Paradoxical Vision: Samuel Butler’s Use of Ambiguity in Erewhon”. Papers from the 24th International AIA Conference: Challenges for the 21st Century: Dilemmas, Ambiguities, Directions. Rome: Edizioni Q, 2011. pp. 147-153.
“A Matter of Degree: First Steps in a Corpus Stylistic Approach to Emma”. Emma: Critical Readings. Ed. Gloria Lauri-Lucente, Francesco Marroni. Rome: Aracne, 2011. pp. 57-70.
“Il linguaggio degli ultimi drammi di Shakespeare”. Le ultime opere di Shakespeare. Ed. Clara Mucci, Laura Tommaso. Napoli: Liguori, 2010. pp. 31-46.
“Implementing the Lexical Approach: Motivational Strategies and Classroom Practice”. Merope, 55-56 (Jan-July 2009). pp. 83-121.
