Staff profile

Dr Nicole Prunster

Program Coordinator (Italian Studies), Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

HU3 209, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

MA (Sydney), PhD (Toronto).

Area of study

European Studies
Italian Studies

Brief Profile

Nicole completed an MA (on the theatre of Pietro Aretino) at the University of Sydney and a PhD in Italian language and literature (with a thesis on the theatre of Giambattista della Porta) at the University of Toronto. She also taught at both these two universities before joining the academic staff of La Trobe University, where her primary area of research is Italian theatre, with particular reference to the comic theatre of the sixteenth century. Besides Renaissance literature in general, she also has teaching and research interests in Medieval and contemporary literature. She is on the Editorial Board of Spunti e Ricerche.

Research interests

Italian Language

- Contemporary Italian society

- Medieval and Renaissance literature

Literary Studies

- Contemporary Italian literature

- Italian theatre

Teaching Units

  • Beginners and Advanced Italian (all levels)
  • EST2/3REI - Renaissance Italy 
  • ITA2/3MEI  Medieval Italy
  • Italian Honours (Italian theatre; the short story)

Recent Publications

  • Prunster, N 2008, Poliphony in Andrea Camilleri's Il Birraio di Preston, Spunti e Ricerche.
  • Prunster, N 2003, The Contemporary Italian Short Story, Spunti e Ricerche 18.
  • Prunster, N 2000, Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare: Four Tales of Star-Crossed Love.
  • Prunster, N 1996/97, Antonio Tabucchi: A Collection of Essays (with Bruno Ferraro).
  • Prunster, N 1993, Visions and Revisions: Women in Italian Culture (with Mirna Cicioni).

Research projects

Nicole is currently working on the Kohler Collection of Dramas (1700-1900), held in the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, and on Shakespeare’s Italian sources.