Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II

Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II ( ; ; May 20, 1947 – January 27, 2019) was a Maltese-American literary scholar and translator. He served as William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame until his retirement in 2017, when he was named professor emeritus. Buttigieg co-translated and co-edited the three-volume English edition of Antonio Gramsci's ''Prison Notebooks''.

Early life and education

Buttigieg was the eldest of eight children born to Joseph Anthony and Maria Concetta Buttigieg () in Ħamrun, Malta. He began his education in Ħamrun, completing undergraduate work and a master's degree at the University of Malta. He earned a taught postgraduate degree, a B.Phil., from Heythrop College of the University of London and a Ph.D. in English (1976; with a dissertation on aesthetics in James Joyce's ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'') from Binghamton University. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1979.

Career and personal life

Buttigieg taught at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces starting in 1976 and there met Jennifer Anne Montgomery, also a new faculty member. In 1980, they married and also joined the faculty of Notre Dame.

Their son, Pete Buttigieg, was elected as mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2011, ran for the Democratic nomination as presidential candidate in the 2020 election, and became the Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration. Pete said in his first book, '' Shortest Way Home'', that his father was called racial slurs, even though he was European, because of his darker skin.

Buttigieg specialized in modern European literature and theory. He was translator and editor of the three-volume English edition of Marxist philosopher and politician Antonio Gramsci's ''Prison Notebooks'', published from 1992 to 2007 with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a founding member and president of the International Gramsci Society, founded to facilitate communication among those who study Gramsci. Buttigieg also served as chair of the English Department at Notre Dame and was promoted to William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English. He took emeritus status upon retiring in 2017. He died on January 27, 2019.

Bibliography

*''Criticism Without Boundaries: Directions and Crosscurrents in Postmodern Critical Theory'' (University of Notre Dame Press, 1987).
*''A Portrait of the Artist in Different Perspective'' (Ohio University Press, 1987).
* ed. with Carmel Borg and Peter Mayo, ''Gramsci and Education'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
* ed. with Thomas Kselman, ''European Christian Democracy: Historical Legacies and Comparative Perspectives'' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003).
* ed. and trans. ''Prison Notebooks'' (vols. 1–3) by Antonio Gramsci (Columbia University Press, 1992–2007).

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buttigieg, Joseph
1947 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century Maltese writers
20th-century translators
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American translators
Alumni of Heythrop College
American academics of English literature
American anti-capitalists
American communists
American literary theorists
American Marxists
American Marxist historians
American Marxist writers
American socialists
Binghamton University alumni
English-language writers from Malta
Italian–English translators
Italian-language writers from Malta
Maltese emigrants to the United States
Maltese Marxists
Maltese socialists
People from Ħamrun
Naturalized citizens of the United States
New Mexico State University faculty
Pete Buttigieg
University of Malta alumni
University of Notre Dame faculty