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Mihaela Caponegro

Department/Program(s):

Position: Graduate Student

Email: mihaelag@princeton.edu

National College “Mihai Viteazul”, – Degree in Romance Languages

National College “Mihai Viteazul”, Romania – Degree in Romance Languages

Rutgers University NJ - BA Major in French Cultural Studies

Minor in Italian Literature

Princeton University - MA French Literature

PhD Candidate

My research interests are centered around travel literature of the Early Modern period, specifically the journey to Rome and the contexts in which the various reasons behind this trip fluctuate from pilgrimage, and journey of initiation/ education to diplomatic missions and plain and simple fashionable tourist attraction.

Currently I am working on my doctoral dissertation entitled “The Journey to Rome : Montaigne’s Journal de Voyage as a Pre-Text for the Essais”. As the title suggests, in my dissertation I will pay particular attention to the text of the Journal as a possible pre-text for subsequent editions of the Essais, (post 1580) and to consider Montaigne’s long trip as a central event in the process of resuming the writing the essays. In the first part, I will analyze the 1582 edition, in the light of the textual additions he made immediately following his return (1581), and in the second part, I will examine how first hand experiences reported in the Journal are transformed in material for meditation and reflection as they are incorporated in subsequent editions of the Essais, and how the theme of the “journey” resonates with the process of writing, and developing his essays.

My interests also include Italian and French cinema, particularly the movement of Neorealism developed in Italy post World War II, and cultivated by directors such as Roberto Rossellini (Roma città aperta, 1945) and Vittorio de Sica (Ladri di biciclette, 1948), and the movement La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave) developed in France in late 1950 and 1960, and which was influenced by the Italian Neorealism. Representative directors who promoted and developed this trend are François Truffaut (Les quatre cent coups, 1959) and Jean-Luc Godard (A bout de souffle, 1960).