Robert Harrison

Bio

Professor Harrison received his doctorate in Romance Studies from Cornell University in 1984, with a dissertation on Dante's Vita Nuova. In 1985 he accepted a visiting assistant professorship in the Department of French and Italian at Stanford. In 1986 he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He was granted tenure in 1992 and was promoted to full professor in 1995. In 1997 Stanford offered him the Rosina Pierotti Chair of Italian Literature. In 2002, he was named chair of the Department of French and Italian. In 2006 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2014 he was knighted "Chevalier" by the French Republic. He is also lead guitarist for the cerebral rock band Glass Wave.

Professor Harrison's first book, The Body of Beatrice, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1988. The Body of Beatrice was translated into Japanese in 1994. Over the next few years Professor Harrison worked on his next book, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, which appeared in 1992 with University of Chicago Press. This book deals with the multiple and complex ways in which the Western imagination has symbolized, represented, and conceived of forests, primarily in literature, religion, and mythology. It offers a select history that begins in antiquity and ends in our own time. Forests appeared simultaneously in English, French, Italian, and German. It subsequently appeared in Japanese and Korean as well. In 1994 his book Rome, la Pluie: A Quoi Bon Littérature? appeared in France, Italy, and Germany. This book is written in the form of dialogues between two characters and deals with various topics such as art restoration, the vocation of literature, and the place of the dead in contemporary society. Professor Harrison's next book, The Dominion of the Dead, published in 2003 by University of Chicago Press, deals with the relations the living maintain with the dead in diverse secular realms. This book was translated into German, French and Italian. Professor Harrison's book Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition appeared in 2008 with the University of Chicago Press, and in French with Le Pommier (subsequently appeared in German and Chinese translations). His most recent book Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age came out in 2014 with Chicago University Press. In 2005 Harrison started a literary talk show on KZSU radio called "Entitled Opinions." The show features hour long conversations with a variety of scholars, writers, and scientists.

Academic Appointments

• Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, French and Italian

Administrative Appointments

• Chair, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (2002 - 2010)
• Rosina Pierotti Chair, Stanford University (1997 - Present)
• Professor, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (1995 - Present)
• Associate professor (tenured), Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (1992 - 1995)
• Assistant professor, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (1986 - 1992)
• Visiting assistant professor, Department of French and Italian at Stanford University (1985 - 1986)

Program Affiliations

• Modern Thought and Literature
• Philosophy and Literature

Professional Education

• Ph.D., Cornell University, Romance Studies (1984)
• B.A., University of Santa Clara, Humanities (1976)

2024-25 Courses

• Independent Studies (9)
  • Graduate Independent Study
    MTL 398 (Win, Spr)
  • Honors Thesis Oral Presentation
    DLCL 199 (Spr)
  • Honors Thesis Seminar
    DLCL 189B (Win)
  • Honors Thesis Seminar
    DLCL 189C (Spr)
  • Individual Work
    FRENCH 199 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
  • Individual Work
    FRENCH 399 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
  • Individual Work
    ITALIAN 199 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
  • Individual Work
    ITALIAN 399 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
  • Reading for Orals
    MTL 399 (Win, Spr)
• Prior Year Courses

  2023-24 Courses

  • Dante's "Inferno"
    COMPLIT 238A, ITALIAN 238A, ITALIAN 338A (Aut)
  • Dante's "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso"
    COMPLIT 238B, ITALIAN 238B, ITALIAN 338B (Win)
  • Philosophical Reading Group
    COMPLIT 359A, FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395 (Spr)

  2022-23 Courses

  • Concepts of Modernity I: Nihilism
    COMPLIT 273B, COMPLIT 334A, FRENCH 373A, ITALIAN 373, MTL 334A (Aut)
  • Giambattista Vico
    COMPLIT 221, COMPLIT 321, FRENCH 212, FRENCH 321, ITALIAN 221, ITALIAN 321 (Win)
  • Philosophical Reading Group
    COMPLIT 359A, FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395 (Win)

  2021-22 Courses

  • Dante's "Inferno"
    COMPLIT 235E, ITALIAN 235E (Aut)
  • Philosophical Reading Group
    COMPLIT 359A, FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395 (Aut, Win)
  • The Oceanic Novel: Woolf, Conrad, Duras, Tournier, Condé, Ortese
    COMPLIT 250B, COMPLIT 350B, FRENCH 250, FRENCH 350, ITALIAN 250, ITALIAN 350 (Win)

Stanford Advisees

• Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
  Corey Dansereau