Research

My dissertation, Visions of Narrative Disobedience: Metafiction and Modernity in Southern Europe (1900-1935), and subsequent book project, examine the revival and re-fashioning of metanarrative and metatheatrical productions in Southern European countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal to shed light on literary efforts that are overshadowed by more traditional “grand narratives” of modernist discourse (such as those from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria). Within this framework, I argue that metafictional efforts by Luigi Pirandello, Miguel de Unamuno, and Fernando Pessoa forge comparable spaces in which author, characters, and readers are simultaneously entrusted with the creation of the narrative. These Southern metafictions become an act of defiance towards stagnant literary conventions and a tool to denounce personal, social, and political crises. Some of these arguments have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as MLN, PSA (Pirandello Society of America), and Pirandello Studies (a result of having received the Society for Pirandello Studies Award for Best Postgraduate Essay), spanning subjects such as literature, theater, film, and metafiction. 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Magario, Francesca. “Metafiction as the Expression of Crisis: The Case of Luigi Pirandello and Miguel de Unamuno.” PSA (Pirandello Society of America), vol. XXXVI, 2024, pp. 85-107. https://www.pirandellosociety.org/psa36toc

Magario, Francesca. “‘Per la filmopatia c’è una sola cura’: Alienation and Restorative Writing in Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore.” Pirandello Studies, vol. 44, 2024, pp. 94-105. https://www.ucd.ie/pirsoc/t4media/Vol.44.pdf

Magario, Francesca. “Gramsci on Pirandello’s Theater: Pragmatism and National Tradition.” MLN, vol. 138, no. 1, 2023, pp.67-89. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/mln.2023.a910963

BOOK REVIEWS AND TRANSLATIONS

Book Review: “Patricia Gaborik. Mussolini’s Theater: Fascist Experiments in Art and Politics.” Quaderni d’Italianistica, vol. 43, no. 1, 2022, pp. 226-228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33137/q.i..v43i1.40194

Translation from English to Italian: Ziolkowski, Saskia Elizabeth. “Italo Svevo e Virginia Woolf a Londra: Fama, Modernismo e Malattia.” Translated by Francesca Magario and Sergia Adamo. Aghios. Quaderni di Studi Sveviani. Ed. Sergia Adamo, no. 4, 2022, pp. 32-50.

PUBLIC FACING WORK

“Re-evaluating Identity by Teaching Italian Language and Literature”, on Igiaba Scego at Duke, Feb. 2023.