Marco Petrelli

Marco Petrelli is a tenure-track Assistant Professor (RTDb) of Anglo-American Literatures at the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics, University of Pisa. He holds a Ph.D. in English-language Literatures from the University of Rome "Sapienza" and has previously taught at the Universities of Catania, Parma, Turin, and Bologna.

In 2021 he obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN – Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) for the position of Associate Professor; and in 2025 the ASN for the position of Full Professor.

He has published numerous essays in Italian and international journals on authors such as Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Stephen King, Sara Taylor, Jesmyn Ward, Toni Morrison, H.P. Lovecraft, Alan Moore, and Natasha Trethewey. His books include "Paradiso in nero. Spazio e mito nella narrativa di Cormac McCarthy" (2020); "Nick Cave. Preghiere di fuoco e ballate assassine" (2021); and the co-authored volume "Cormac McCarthy: saggi a margine del canone" (2020). He also translated George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying into Italian (2021).

His research interests span the literatures and cultures of the U.S. South, the American Gothic, African American literature, Postmodernism, Geocriticism, and Graphic Narratives. He is also a literary critic for the newspaper il manifesto.

Recent essays include “A Theory of Southern Time and Space: Memory, Place and Identity in Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard” (The Southern Quarterly); “‘I need the story to go’: Sing, Unburied, Sing, Afropessimism, and Black Narratives of Redemption” in Jesmyn Ward: New Critical Essays (Edinburgh UP); and “'There are better ways and places to spend your time': Historical Stillness, Quantum Narration, and Black Spacetime(s) in Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book” (From the European South). He is currently working on a book about spectrality, the blues and African American literature.