Paolini, Gilberto 1928–

PERSONAL: Born December 22, 1928, in L'Aquila, Italy; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of John and Assunta A. Paolini; married Claire J. Landro (a professor), June 18, 1960; children: Angela Janet, John Frank. Ethnicity: "Italian." Education: Liceo Classico D. Cotugno, maturità classica, 1949; University of Buffalo (now State University of New York at Buffalo), B.A., 1957, M.A., 1959; University of Minnesota, Ph.D., 1965; also attended Middlebury College, Spanish and Italian Schools, summer 1960 and 1961. Hobbies and other interests: Collecting stamps, genealogy.

ADDRESSES: Home—3 Gregory Farm Rd., Easton, CT 06612. Office—c/o Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 304 Newcomb Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118. E-mail—gpaolini@tulane.edu.

CAREER: University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, instructor in Italian and Latin, 1958–60; Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, instructor, 1962–65, assistant professor of Spanish and Italian, 1965–67; Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, associate professor, 1967–76, professor of comparative literature and sciences, 1976–93, professor emeritus, 1993–, director of scholars and honors program, 1981–83, chair of colloquia department, 1981–83. Appointed by Governor Edwin Edwards, 1986, and by Governor Buddy Roemer, 1991, to The Council for the Development of Spanish in Louisiana, State Department of Education, member, beginning 1986, chair of executive planning committee, 1988–89, vice president, 1991–92; guest on media programs. Military service: U.S. Army, 1952–54; served in Korea. U.S. Air Force Reserve, 1954–57.

MEMBER: Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas, Modern Language Association of America, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, American Association of Teachers of Italian, American Association of University Professors, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Society for Literature and Science, Sociedad de Literatura Española del Siglo XIX, Instituto Feijoo de Estudios del Siglo XVIII, Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (charter member; member of executive board), South Central Modern Language Association, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Louisiana Conference on Hispanic Languages and Literature (founder, 1980; director, 1980–), Association of Middlebury Italian School Alumni (vice president, 1968–70), American Legion, Sigma Delta Pi (president, Beta Nu chapter, 1958; founder of Theta chapter, 1977; vice president of southwestern region, 1989–92), Phi Sigma Iota.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished Service Award from Sociedad Española, New Orleans, LA, 1980; Knighted by Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, with the Cross of the Order of Isabel La Católica, 1984.

WRITINGS:

Bartolomé Soler, novelista: Procedimientos estilisticos, Editorial Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1963.

An Aspect of Spiritualistic Naturalism in the Novels of B.P. Galdós: Charity, Las Américas (New York, NY), 1969.

La vita transecolare nel contado aquilano: Villa S. Pio, Fontecchio e Familia Paolini di Aquila, Andromeda (Colledara, Italy), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Estudios Escénicos, Instituto del Teatro de Barcelona, 1973; Literary Studies in Honor of Joseph G. Fucilla: The Two Hesperias, José Porrúa Turanzas (Madrid, Spain), 1977; Estudios, ALDEEU (Erie, PA), 1990; Juan Valera, El Escritor y la Crítica, Taurus (Madrid, Spain), 1990; Studi, University of Perugia (Perugia, Italy), 1994; and Del Romanticismo al Realismo, Universitat de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), 2002. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Anales de Literatura Española, Critica Hispánica, Duquesne Hispanic Review, Forum Italicum, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Hispania, Kentucky Foreign Language Quarterly, Ojíncano, Revista de Letras, Italica, and World Literature Today. Editor, La Chispa: Louisiana Conference on Hispanic Languages and Literatures, 1981–1999; associate editor, South Central Bulletin, 1978–80; editor, Public Relations News, Hispania, 1981–84; editor, Papers on Romance Literary Relations (Tulane University), 1983. Member of editorial board, Forum Italicum, 1967–71, Crítica Hispánica, 1978–89; Discurso Literario, 1985–90, Letras Peninsulares, 1987–, MIFLIC, 1989, and Ojáncano, 1994–.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Disquisiones sobre el Naturalismo: historia interna; Voces finiseculares del Naturalismo en evolución; and S. Pio Fontecchio con la Chiesa e Abbazia S. Maria Agraiano: Centro Storico del Comitatus Aquilanus.

SIDELIGHTS: Gilberto Paolini told CA: "Since the second half of the twentieth century, there has been a great deal of scientific research into the relationship between behavior and genetics. These theories were originally sponsored by Lombroso, an Italian criminologist, in the second half of the nineteenth century, as well as by other scientists of the period. These theories, especially with the advent of Sigmund Freud, were then attacked, ridiculed, and set aside by scientists in the first half of the twentieth century. However, later in the century, researchers in genetics, psychology, and criminal anthropology began to refocus on the possible relationships among these topics.

"Since 1960 my research has focused on and continues to examine Italian, Spanish, Czechoslovakian, French, and Norwegian authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who, influenced by these theories of criminality or deviance, created novelistic case studies of abnormal social behavior in which inheritable traits and the environment affected or could affect the conduct of their characters. I have also focused on those authors and philosophers of earlier centuries and even of the classical period who, endowed with psychological insight, revealed in their works characters and circumstances with similar characteristics.

"The focus on the literary manifestations of sociobiology, like all research in the humanities, leads to a clarification of human values, resulting in greater understanding among peoples, cultures, and generations. As an illustration, we refer briefly to the critical writings of Palacio Valdés on the novel, through which we are able to perceive his belief that the true nerve center of any novel resides in the personality of the characters, which in turn is a result of the opposition and contrast of human passions, an essential part of the individual. Character or personality is the identification of desire and will, and it is created daily through a series of defeats and victories over the impulse of desire depending on the intervention of the will. Triumph over desire yields an ethical existence in which human beings, victorious over their own world and circumstances, may contemplate themselves in light of their own conscience, and from this contemplation emerges their happiness, consisting of their having succeeded in giving meaning to life and in verifying to themselves the essence of life; that is, to become masters of their own destiny and happiness."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Tibbits, Mercedes Vidal, editor, Festscript: Studies in Honor of Gilberto Paolini, Juan de la Cuesta (Newark, DE), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Books Abroad, 1963, John W. Kronik, review of Bartolomé Soler, novelista: Procedimientos estilísticos, p. 65.

Hispania, September, 1965, Dorothy McMahon, review of Bartolomé Soler, novelista: Procedimientos estilisticos, p. 617; 1970, Volume 53, Hensley C. Woodbridge, review of An Aspect of Spiritualistic Naturalism in the Novels of B.P. Galdós: Charity, p. 945; March, 1975, review of An Aspect of Spiritualistic Naturalism in the Novels of B.P. Galdós: Charity, p. 222.

Italica, winter, 2004, Nicholas Albanese, review of La vita transecolare nel contado aquilano: Via S. Pio, Fontecchio e Familia Paolini di Aquila, p. 583.

Ojáncano, April, 2005, Aída E. Trau, review of La vita transecolare nel contado aquilano: Villa S. Pio, Fontecchio e Familia Paolini di Aquila, pp. 103-108.