Andrea Oppo

 

Address

c/o Pontifical Theological University of Sardinia
Dept of Philosophy
Via Sanjust, 13
09129 Cagliari (Italy)

Telephone: +39 070 407159
Email: andreaoppo@pfts.it

CV: Andrea Oppo (Curriculum vitae) [file.pdf]

Current position

Andrea Oppo is Professor of Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Arts, and Philosophy of Religion at the Pontifical Theological University of Sardinia (Cagliari, Italy).

Fields of Interest

Modern Philosophy (esp. phenomenology, existential philosophy, and meta-philosophy), Philosophy of Russian Silver Age (esp. Shestov, Florensky, Berdyaev, Losev), Philosophy of Art and Literature (esp. Russian avant-garde, Dostoevsky and philosophy), Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics, History of Western Philosophy (esp. Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Adorno, Heidegger).

“Truth”, “Meaning”, and “Identity” in arts, literature, and religion; Narrative as a philosophical paradigm (philosophy/literature borders); The meaning of a work of art; The “Religious Thought”: Russia and the West.

Education

BA, University of Florence, Italy (1997)

MA, University of Bologna, Italy (2001)

PhD, University College Dublin, Ireland (2005)

 

Other Degrees and Memberships

Associate Professorship Qualification in Philosophy, 5 December 2013, Italian National Exam [M-FIL/04 – Philosophical Aesthetics and Philosophy of Language]

Ordinary Membership in ASEES – The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Ordinary Membership in International Dostoevsky Society

Research scholar in the Northwestern University Research Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought

List of publications

(Monographs, Edited Books, Book Chapters and Articles for Academic Journals)

1) Books-Monographs:

- Antinomy and Symbol: Pavel Florensky's Philosophy of Discontinuity. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2024

- Lev Shestov. The Philosophy and Works of a Tragic Thinker. Boston, Academic Studies Press, 2020

- La prospettiva inversa. Il senso dell'icona russa (The Reverse Perspective. The Meaning of Russian Icon). Cagliari, PFTS University Press, 2016, pp. 122.

- La meraviglia e il fallimento. Un’introduzione alla filosofia (The Wonder and Failure. An Introduction to Philosophy). Rome, Castelvecchi, 2015, pp. 142.

- Filosofia e salvezza (Philosophy and Salvation: A Philosophical Dialogue), Cagliari, PFTS University Press, 2013, pp. 124.

- Estetiche del negativo. Studi su Dostoevskij, Čechov e Beckett (Aesthetics of Negativity. Studies on Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Beckett), series “Handbooks”, Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Sardinia. Cagliari: NGP 2009, pp. 64.

- Philosophical Aesthetics and Samuel Beckett. Oxford-Bern: Peter Lang 2008, pp. 268.

 

2) Edited Books:

- Shapes of Apocalypse. Arts and Philosophy in Slavic Thought, series “Myths and Taboos in Russian Culture” (series editor: Alyssa Gillespie), Boston, Academic Studies Press, 2013. [Open access]

- Il silenzio della pietra. Questioni sulla materia e la libertà (The Silence of the Stone. Questions on Matter and Freedom), series “Limine”, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2011.
 

3) Book Chapters:

- «The Shape of Nothing. The Antinomic Essence of Play and The Gambler», in Dostoevsky's "The Gambler."The Allure of the Wheel, S. Evdokimova (ed.), Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2024, pp. 185-205.

- «Anti-Socratic Attitudes in Russian “Nietzscheanism”», in Socrates in Russia, A. DeBlasio and V. Juharyan (eds.), Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2022, pp. 124-146.

- «Platone e Kant nell'epistemologia di Florenskij» (Plato and Kant in Florensky's Epistemology), in Il pensiero polifonico di Pavel Florenskij. Una risposta alle sfide del presente, S. Tagliagambe - M. Spano - A. Oppo (eds.), Cagliari: PFTS University Press, 2018, pp. 383-413.

- «Alice’s Parallel Series. Carroll, Deleuze, and the “Stuttering” Sense of the World», in Borderlands and Liminal Subjects. Transgressing the Limit in Philosophy and Literature, edited by D. D. Winchock and J. Elbert Decker, New York: Palgrave 2017, pp. 215-233.

- «Theatre at the Limit. Jerzy Grotowski’s Apocalypsis cum figuris», in Shapes of Apocalypse. Arts and Philosophy in Slavic Thought, edited by Andrea Oppo, Boston, Academic Studies Press, 2013, pp. 225-243.

- «Black Holes. A Philosophical Question on Endgame’s and Bartleby’s Stalemates», in “Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui” N° 23, edited by Y. Mével, D. Rabaté and S. Houppermans, New York/Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2011, pp. 307-317.

- «La scultura interrotta. Michelangelo, Rodin e un’idea del limite» (“The Interrupted Sculpture. Michelangelo, Rodin, and an Idea of Limit”), in Andrea Oppo (ed.), Il silenzio della pietra. Questioni sulla materia e la libertà (The Silence of the Stone. Questions on Matter and Freedom), series “Limine”, Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2011, pp. 21-46.

- «La filosofia come profezia. Gabriel Marcel lettore di Max Picard» (“Philosophy as a Prophecy. Gabriel Marcel: Reader of Max Picard”), in Daniele Vinci (ed.), Come all’inizio del mono. Il pensiero di Max Picard (Like at the Beginning of the World. Max Picard’s Thought), collana "Limine", Trapani, Il Pozzo di Giacobbe, 2011, pp. 159-170.

- «A Loss of Truth. A Tragic Turning Point at the Beginning of Shestov’s Philosophy», in Ramona Fotiade (ed.), The Tragic Discourse: Shestov and Fondane’s Existential Thought, “European Connections”, Oxford-Bern: Peter Lang, 2006, pp. 103-116.

 

4) Articles for Academic Journals:

- «Aleksei Losev on Plotinus' treatise "On Numbers"», in Solov'evskie issledovaniya 82/2 (2024), pp. 62-75.

- «L’estasi come fondazione della conoscenza. Lev Šestov lettore di Plotino» (Ecstasy as a Foundation of Knowledge. Shestov: Reader of Plotinus), in “Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica” 2/115 (2023), pp. 399-412.

- «What is the Truth of the Ridiculous Man? The Question of the ‘Difference’ in Dostoevsky’s Dream», in “Studies in East European Thought” (2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-023-09547-9

- «P.A. Florenskij i F.M. Dostoevskij: neobchodimaja antiteza» (Florensky and Dostoevsky: A Necessary Antithesis), in "Dostoevsky Studies," Vol. 25 (2022), pp. 53-72.

- «Conceptualising Discontinuity. Pavel Florenskii’s Preryvnost' as a Universal Paradigm of Knowledge», in "Russian Literature" 130 (2022), pp. 69-93.

- «La filosofia religiosa russa di fronte alla Rivoluzione d'ottobre. Il caso di Nikolaj Berdjaev» ("Russian Religious Philosophy Facing Russian Revolution. The Case of Nikolai Berdyaev"), in “Theologica & Historica” XXXI (2022), pp. 239-252.

- «Does a "Russian Philosophy" Exist? The Boundaries and Nature of a Question», in "Solov'evskie issledovaniya" 70/2 (2021), pp. 47-67 .

- «Shestov i Solov'ev: antipody russkoi religioznoi filosofii» (Antipodes of Russian Religious Philosophy: Shestov and Solovyov), in "Solov'evskie issledovaniya" 65/1 (2020), pp. 79-90.

- «La tesi della privazione dell'essere nella Teodicea di Leibniz» ("The Privation of Being Thesis in Leibniz's Theodicy"), in “Theologica & Historica” XXIX (2020), pp. 141-159.

- «Remnants of a "Mid-land". The Russian Concept of Faith and European Philosophy», in "Theologica et Historica" XXVII (2018), pp. 101-112.

- «Overturning Naturalism. Pavel Florenskii's Aesthetic Realism», in “The Slavic and East European Journal”, no. 62/1 (2018), pp. 42-59.

- «Se la misura di un corpo è un numero immaginario. Florenskij e il concetto di spazio in Dante» (“When the Measure of a Body Is an Imaginary Number. Florensky and the Concept of Space in Dante”), in “Theologica & Historica” XXIV, 2015, pp. 171-183.

- «A “Kantian” Shakespeare. The Defense of Morality in Shestov’s First Work», in “The Slavic and East European Journal”, no. 58/4 (2014), pp. 573-589.

- «La verità contro l’arte. Per una comprensione filosofica dell’icona russa» (“Truth vs. Art. Toward a Philosophical Understanding of Russian Icon”), in “Theologica & Historica” XXIII, 2014, pp. 131-160.

 

- «Prove di verità. Note per un’ermeneutica della storia» (“Proofs of Truth. Toward a Hermeneutics of History”), in “Theologica & Historica” XXII, 2013, pp. 173-185.

 

- «La matematica e la realtà. Breve anamnesi della più grande catastrofe» (Mathematics and Reality. A Short Anamnesis of the Biggest Catastrophe), in “Portales” 13, 2012, pp. 14-24.

 

- «L’influenza di T. S. Eliot sul teatro di Jerzy Grotowski» (“T.S. Eliot’s Influence on Grotowski’s Theatre”), in “Theologica & Historica” XXI (2012), pp. 131-143.

 

- «Fancy and Imagination in Coleridge. Una distinzione inattuale?» (“Coleridge’s Fancy and Imagination: An Outdated Distinction?”), in “Theologica & Historica”, XX, 2011, pp. 253-267.

- «La vera inutilità dell'arte. Estetica ed estetizzazione della realtà» (“The ‘True’ Uselessness of Art. Aesthetics and Aesthetization of Reality”), in "Giornale critico di storia delle idee", n° II, July-December 2009. (International Review of Philosophy, electronic format).

 

- «Le due anime dell’estetica russa: Solov’ëv e Šestov» (“The Two Souls of Russian Aesthetics: Solovyov and Shestov”), in "Theologica & Historica" XVII (December 2008), Annals of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Sardinia, pp. 243-282.

 

- «Shestov and Berdyaev. A Comparison of Two Russian Philosophers», in “Toronto Slavic Quarterly”, n° 25, Summer 2008. [University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) - Academic Electronic Journal in Slavic Studies].

 

- «Qualcosa era successo... Per una lettura filosofica del giornalismo di Buzzati» (“Something Happened… A Philosophical Reading of Buzzati’s Journalism”), in “Xàos. Giornale di confine”, IV, n. 1, March-June 2005/2006 (Electronic Review of Arts, Philosophy, and Literature).

 

- «La vera anima del genio crudele. Scavando al fondo dei Karamazov» (“The True Soul of the Cruel Genius. At the Bottom of Brothers Karamazov”), in “Xáos. Giornale di Confine”, Year II, N. 3 November-February 2003-2004 (Electronic Review of Arts, Philosophy, and Literature).

 

- «L’idea di male assoluto nei Demoni di Dostoevskij» (“The Idea of Absolute Evil in Dostoevsky’s The Possessed”), in “Xáos. Giornale di Confine”, Year II, N. 2, July-October 2003 (Electronic Review of Arts, Philosophy, and Literature).

 

- «Per via breve» (“Shortcuts”. Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics), in “Estetica”, N. 1/2003 (Genova, Il Nuovo Melangolo), pp. 103-112.

 

- «Quale Bellezza salverà il mondo? L’Idiota di Dostoevskij e un difficile enigma» (“Which Beauty Will Save the World? Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and a Difficult Enigma”), in “Xáos. Giornale di Confine”, Year II, N. 1 March-June 2003 (Electronic Review of Arts, Philosophy, and Literature).

 

- «Buzzati e il “giornalismo fantastico”» (“Buzzati and the ‘Fantastic Journalism’”), in “Problemi dell’informazione. Trimestrale di Media e Comunicazione”, N. 1, March 2002 (Bologna, Il Mulino), pp. 115-124.

 

- «All’origine della filosofia di Šestòv» (“At the Beginning of Shestov’s Philosophy”), in “Annali del Dipartimento di Filosofia di Firenze”, 2001 (Led, Firenze), pp. 133-151.

 

5) Book Editions and Translations from Russian into English or Italian:

- (With Massimiliano Spano) Pavel Florensky, Imaginaries in Geometry. English Translation by Anna Maiorova and Karen Turnbull (Milan, Mimesis International, 2021)

- Lev Shestov, Dobro v uchenii gr. Tolstogo i Fr. Nitsshe, introduction, notes and Italian translation by Andrea Oppo (L’idea di bene in Tolstoj e Nietzsche, Roma, Castelvecchi 2014).

- Lev Shestov, Pamjati velikogo filosofa. Edmund Gusserl’, Italian translation by Andrea Oppo (Edmund Husserl. Ricordo di un filosofo, Roma, Castelvecchi, 2014).