Roberto Di Bella

Born and raised as son of Italian-Spanish parents in Gummersbach (West-Germany), Roberto studied German and Romance languages and literature (Italian/French) at the Universities of Bonn, Rome, Munich and Aachen. From 2006 to 2011, he was a DAAD lecturer at the University of Toulouse (France) and received his PhD at the University of Cologne in 2011, followed by various freelance activities as a lecturer for German Language and Literature (e.g. University of Cologne) and cultural mediator. Since 2021, he is a Research Associate at the newly established Collaborative Research Centre 1472 “Transformationen des Populären” (“Transformations of the Popular”) at the University of Siegen.

In the research project “A06: Pop, Literature and New Sensibility: Theories, Writing Modes, Experiments”, his interest is focused on the editorial and translation activities of the German writer and poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (1940-1975), a pioneer of the German so-called “Pop-Literatur”. In several highly influential translation anthologies such as ACID. Neue amerikanische Szene (1969) and Silverscreen. Neue amerikanische Lyrik (1969), he (with a little help from some friends) attempted to popularize the “New American Scene” of the late 1960s (especially second-generation of Beat poets, New York School and Intermedia) on the West German literary scene – with long-term impact on German-language literature and publishing sector.

By joining the EBSN, he would like to discuss the history of this complex and intriguing transatlantic reception with international scholars, and, by doing so, try to better understand the complexity of Beat poetics in literature, media, and the arts.

For more information visit his websites:
https://www.uni-siegen.de/phil/germanistik/mitarbeiter/di_bella_roberto 
http://www.brinkmann-wildgefleckt.de (personal blog on Rolf Dieter Brinkmann)