Department Chair
Associate Professor
BA (English and Philosophy) Trent University
MA (English) University of Western Ontario
PhD (English) University of Western Ontario
Email: diane.piccitto@msvu.ca
Teaching and Research Interests
Romanticism, William Blake, the long nineteenth century, drama and performance, Shakespeare, Early Modernism, queer theory, pop culture, as well as identity, action, gender, and sexuality
Selected Publications
Monographs
Blake’s Drama: Theatre, Performance, and Identity in the Illuminated Books. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Essay Collections
Co-editor (with Terry F. Robinson), The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830. University of Michigan Press, 2023.
Co-editor (with Angela Esterhammer and Patrick Vincent), Romanticism, Rousseau, Switzerland: New Prospects. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Journals and Journal Issues
Co-editor (with Patricia Pulham), Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing, 1790-1914. Edinburgh University Press, January 2014-2022.
Co-editor (with Angela Esterhammer and Patrick Vincent), “Romantic Prospects,” special issue of European Romantic Review, vol. 24, no. 3, 2013.
Co-editor (with Christa Schönfelder, Christian Villiger, and Reto Zöllner), Zeitgenossenschaft/Le Contemporain/Contemporaneity. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich, vol. 19, 2011.
Articles and Book Chapters
“Theatrical Spectatorship in Byron’s Cain and Blake’s The Ghost of Abel: From Oblivion to Redemption.” The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830. Edited by Diane Piccitto and Terry R. Robinson, University of Michigan Press, 2023, pp. 327-50.
“Teaching Blake’s Illuminated Books Performatively, or How to Do (Dramatic) Things with Blake.” Teaching Romanticism XXVI: Drama, part 2 (2018), edited by Dana Van Kooy as part of the Teaching Romanticism series in Romantic Tenxtualities: LIterature and Print Culture. 1780-1840 <http://www.romtext.org.uk/teaching-romanticism-xxvi-drama-part-2/>.
“Apocalyptic Visions, Heroism, and Intersections of the Human and ‘the Not Human’ in Blake’s Milton.” Beastly Blake. Edited by Helen P. Bruder and Tristanne Connolly, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 111-33.
“Transcendentalism, Romanticism, Transatlanticism.” Handbook of Transatlantic North American Studies. Edited by Julia Straub, de Gruyter, 2016, pp. 59-78.
“Blake and the European (Pre)History of Melodrama: Beyond the Borders of Time and Stage.” British Romanticism in European Perspective: Into the Eurozone. Edited by Steve Clark and Tristanne Connolly, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 193-209.
“Manfred, Freedom, and the Swiss Alps: The Transformation of the Byronic Hero.” Romanticism, Rousseau, Switzerland: New Prospects. Edited by Angela Esterhammer, Diane Piccitto, and Patrick Vincent, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 168-82.
“1793 and the Aftermath of the French Revolution.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History. Edited by Dino Franco Felluga, extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net, 2012, web, <http://www.branchcollective.org/>.
“Reclaiming ‘the Grandeur of Inspiration’: Authenticity, Repetition and Parody in William Blake’s Milton.” Paradoxes of Authenticity: Studies on a Critical Concept. Edited by Julia Straub, Transcript, 2012, pp. 243-62.
“1793.” In Introduction: “Jahrgänge: Versuche über historische Gleichzeitigkeit” [Years: Experiments on Historical Simultaneity]. Zeitgenossenschaft/Le Contemporain/ Contemporaneity. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich, vol. 19, 2011, pp. 18-21.
Reviews
Review of Leo Damrosch’s Eternity’s Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake. Modern Philology, vol. 114, no. 4, 2017, pp. E266-68.
Review of Mary A. Favret’s War at a Distance: Romanticism and the Making of Modern Wartime. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich vol. 19, 2011, pp. 307-08.
Review of Celestine Woo’s Romantic Actors and Bardolatry: Performing Shakespeare from Garrick to Kean. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich vol. 17, 2009, pp. 251-53.
Review of Translators, Interpreters, Mediators: Women Writers 1700–1900, edited by Gillian E. Dow. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich vol. 16, 2008, pp. 253-55.
Selected Service
2024- Faculty Representative on Senate and Senate Executive
2018, 2023 Member of the Faculty Association Bargaining Team
2021-2022 Faculty Association President, ex officio member of Senate
2020-2022 Faculty Association President
Faculty Association Representative on the MSVU EDIA Committee
Faculty Association President, pro tem member of the Board of Governors
Member-at-Large on the Executive of the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT)
2019-2021 Faculty Representative on Senate
2018-2022 Faculty Representative on the 2SLGBTQIA+ (Pride Advocacy) Committee
2019-2020 Chair of the Faculty Association Ad Hoc Constitution Review Committee
2018-2020 Chair and founder of the Faculty Association Equity Action Committee (EAC)
2018, 2019 Co-organizer of MSVU’s Pride Parade Participation and Pride Week Events; MSVU’s Pride Marshal
2016-2018 Member-at-Large on the Faculty Association Executive
Selected Awards and Honours
2022 Equity Award, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT)
2020 Early Career Research Award, MSVU
2018, 2019 Nominee for the Alumnae Early Career Teaching Award, MSVU
