Prof. Dr. Vittoria Borsò

BorsòFull Professor at Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf. 

Head of department of Romance  Languages and Literatures I (Romance literature and cultural studies in Spanish, French and Italian).

Vittoria Borsò began her academic career at the University of Mannheim, where she obtained her doctorate in Romance philology with a study about metaphors in the novels of Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola (Metapher: Erfahrungs- und Erkenntnismittel. Die metaphorische Wirklichkeitskonstitution im französischen Roman des XIX. Jahrhunderts, 1985), which was honoured with summa cum laude. In 1991 she achieved habilitation at the same university with a critical study about magic realism in Spanish America in the context of Mexican culture and literature (Mexiko jenseits der Einsamkeit. Versuch einer interkulturellen Analyse – Kritischer Rückblick auf die Diskurse des Magischen Realismus, 1994).

She received a scholarship from the Humboldt Foundation for research projects in the United States, Rice University (Houston) and University of Texas (Austin), from 1985 to1986. As visiting professor she taught at numerous universities in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Vittoria Borsò was faculty director of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Düsseldorf (1998-2001) and pro-rector for International Affairs (2003-2007). Since October 2007 she has been a member of the University Council of the University of Düsseldorf. In 2000 she was conferred the title of Cavaliere Ufficiale of the Republic of Italy.

She is a member of the executive committee of the “UC-Intercampus Research Group on Cultural and Mexican Studies” and of the “Institute of Culture Studies and History of Theatre” of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She is co-editor of the collection “MediAmericana” by the editorial Vervuert and a member of the editorial board of the journal “Humboldt” published by the Goethe-Institute.

Vittoria Borsò is co-editor of 11 monographs published between 2000 and 2010 about the following topics: Modernities between the centuries (XVIII-XX), transculturation, unity and plurality in Latin American culture, topography of the strange, cultural topographies, translation as paradigm of the humanities and social sciences, historical representations and the media, memory and media, memory and script, messianic thinking in Europe, transfigurations of power. The volume Das andere Denken, Schreiben, Sehen. Schriften zur romanistischen Kulturwissenschaft(introduction by B. Waldenfels, 2008) assembles a wide range of her works. She published numerous articles about cultural and media theories and Spanish American, Spanish, French and Italian literature and culture (baroque, neo-baroque and 20th century).

Her current main research areas are: transculturality, biopolitics, visual culture and transmediality, topology and literary topographies, memory and mediality, forms and aesthetics of life (in connection with life sciences), materiality and production. (interdisciplinary project sponsored by the German Research Foundation/Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG]).

Issues Borsò

X. Octavio Paz and José Revueltas (2016/2)

IV. The Art of Government (2013/2)