Lavinia Benedetti

Lavinia Benedetti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at the University of Catania, specializing in Languages and Literatures of China and Southeast Asia. She teaches Chinese language and literature and is actively involved in academic publishing, translation, and interdisciplinary research.

• Academic Rank: Associate Professor (SSD L-OR21)
• Institution: University of Catania
• Department: Languages and Literatures of China and Southeast Asia
• Email: lavinia.benedetti@unict.it, lavinia.benedetti@gmail.com
• Office: Tower overlooking the courtyard
• Office Hours: Tuesdays 8:30–9:30 a.m. via MS Teams

Her research focuses on Chinese literary traditions, particularly detective and crime fiction from the imperial and late Qing periods, gender representations, erotic literature, and cross-cultural reception. She has published extensively on figures such as Di Renjie and Feng Tang, and on texts like Rouputuan, analyzing their semiotic, political, and cultural dimensions. Her work also explores how Chinese identity has been imagined and misrepresented in European contexts.

The recent publications reflect a strong trend in analyzing gender, power, and morality in historical Chinese narratives, with a particular interest in marginalized female figures, political allegory, and literary innovation. Her scholarship bridges literary analysis, cultural studies, and translation, often engaging with both classical and contemporary Chinese texts.

She has contributed to international edited volumes and journals such as Frontiers of History in China, Kervan, and Comparative Literature in China. Her monograph The History of Detective Fiction in China (2017) is a key contribution to the field.

Lavinia Benedetti is also involved in academic collaboration beyond Italy, notably co-organizing a Chinese-Spanish translation expert course with the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), indicating her commitment to multilingual and interdisciplinary outreach.

She has translated Chinese literary and theoretical works into Italian and edited volumes on taboo topics such as stigma, censorship, and obscenity in Mediterranean and East Asian cultures.