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Italian Language and Literature - in the Library and on the Web
Guides to Research
Dictionaries
Manuals of Grammar/Stylistics/Pronunciation
Guides to literary terms/theories/character plots
Histories of the language/linguistics
Selected bibliographies
Databases and Internet Sources
Guides to Research
Italian Studies Web: The Italian Studies Web is designed to provide access to scholarly resources in Italian Studies. It covers links to research sites, newspapers and journals, national catalogues, etc. and has been created by Jeffrey Larson from Yale University, as part of the WESS website.
Manuale critico-bibliografico, per lo studio della letteratura italiana. 1980.
This is the thirteenth edition of this standard work. The author gives a brief overview of a topic or the state of a field, and then follows the essay with a detailed bibliography; examples are "La Questione della lingua," "Neoclassicismo," and "Dante." A short glossary and detailed table of contents are found in the back of the volume.
(Mugar Reference X PQ4037 P8 1980m)
Introduzione allo studio della lingua italiana. 1971.
An introduction and annotated bibliography to the Italian language, this volume covers generalities, the history of the language, and a brief look at dialects. Subject and name indices conclude the work.
(Mugar Reference X PQ4037 P8 1980m)
Dictionaries
Collins Online Dictionaries (BU only) - English translations of words in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Russian in a bilingual format.
Grande dizionario della lingua italiana. 1970-
The nineteen volumes of this dictionary comprise a comprehensive, scholarly resource to the Italian language. The detailed definitions include considerable etymological information and copious citations from important authors.
(Mugar Reference X PC 1625 B3)
Vocabolario illustraro della lingua italiana. 1968
A two-volume dictionary, this source makes an effort to provide illustrations (some in colour) of the concepts it covers. Brief etymological information is provided. Some entries include citations from the works of noted Italian authors.
(Mugar Reference X PC1625 F67)
Dizionario etimologico italiano. 1950
The five volumes in this dictionary form a comprehensive source of information on the Italian language. Words are dated by which century they entered the language; however, there are neither examples nor citations. Another good source for etymologies is the Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, mentioned above.
(Mugar Reference X PC 1580 F501)
Manuals of Grammar/Stylistics/Pronunciation
Coniugatore di verbi
Once the tense and/or person are selected (in passive, active or reflexive voice) it is possible to conjugate most Italian verbs. The conjugator is produced by Texel laboratorio testi elettronici.
La Grammatica italiana. 1951
This source approaches grammar as it relates to the language and culture as a whole (a sort of "educazione morale, d'interiore disciplina"). Thus, while grammatical strictures are discussed, this is not a rulebook.
(Mugar Reference X PF3112 D77 1997)
Guides to literary terms/theories/character plots
Dizionario letterario Bompiani delle opere e dei personaggi di tutti i tempi e di tutte le letterature. 1949
The first of these eleven volumes begins with essays on various literary movements before beginning the alphabetical entries of works. Each entry is signed, many are illustrated, and the longer ones have bibliographical information. The volumes containing synopses and analyses of individual works are followed by the eighth volume, which provides information about characters. The ninth volume is the index.
(Mugar Reference X PN41 F471)
Literary Theory: An Introduction. 1996
Terry Eagleton gives an excellent summary and explanation of the wealth of literary theories which have appeared in the last century. He provides some background and intellectual history, showing inter-relationships between theoretical camps. There is also a good bibliography. (Mugar PN94 E2 1996)
The Harper Handbook to Literature. 1985
Edited by Northrop Frye, this is an alphabetically-arranged source containing concise definitions and examples of terms and concepts used in literary analysis.
(Mugar PN41 F75 1985)
Cyclopedia of Literary Characters. 1963
This source offers the names of over 16,000 characters in 1,300 literary works. International in scope, it does have lengthy and informative descriptions of noteworthy Italian literary characters. It is arranged alphabetically by literary work, with a character index in the back.
(Mugar Reference X PN41 F602)
Themes & Motifs in Western Literature: A Handbook. 1987
This is a guide to important elements commonly appearing in literature. It includes character traits, myths, themes, motifs and images. Several textual examples and references to scholarly studies are given for each theme/motif.
(Mugar Reference X PN43 D34 1987)
Histories of the language/linguistics
The Italian Language. 1984
This is a good one-volume treatment of the history of Italian. T. Gwynfor Griffith translated, abridged and "recast" Migliorini's well-known Storia della lingua italiana (Mugar PC1075 F60). In addition to a general bibliography at the end of the book, there are subject and word indices.
(Mugar PC1075 M513)
The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. 1996
This reference source is a handbook which attempts to "provide a comprehensive survey of Italian literature from its origins to the present day..."
(Mugar Reference X PQ4038 C35 1996)
Storia della letteratura italiana.1965-1969
An extensive nine-volume set covers the history of Italian literature from its beginnings to 1969. The long bibliographies for each chapter are collected at the end of each main section.
(Mugar PQ4037 F651)
The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 1994
These ten volumes contain articles on central linguistic themes, their related concepts and relationships with other disciplines. They intend to be authoritative, comprehensive and international in scope. There is an alphabetic list of the articles; the longer entries are signed and followed by bibliographies.
(Mugar Reference X P29 E48 1994)
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 1992
The goal of this source is to present articles on the full range of linguistic disciplines (applied, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc.), their inter-relationships, and intersections with other disciplines. It provides a detailed index and a language list. The signed essays are followed by bibliographies.
(Mugar Reference X P29 I58 1992)
Selected Bibliographies
Italian Women Writers: a Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook
The sourcebook contains long signed chapters on fifty-one authors (arranged alphabetically) from the fourteenth century to the present. Each article includes a section on textual analysis and is followed by a bibliography of the authors works (in Italian and in translation) and criticism on the author. There is a selected general bibliography, as well as an index.
(Mugar Ref. X PQ 4063 I88 1994)
Bibliographie linguistique de l'annie...-Linguistic Bibliography for the Year.... 1939-present
Although slow to arrive (it can take up to three years to compile), the bilingual bibliography can be quite useful. It organizes records as "general," related to linguistics, or by language. There is an index of authors, reviewers, editors, and people who are the subject of articles.
(Mugar Reference X Z7001 B53)
Bibliografia della linguistica italiano. 1958, supplement 1969
The three-volume set and its supplement form a retrospective bibliography of Italian linguistics, covering 1860-1966. Sections include the history of the language, descriptive linguistics, dialects and the history of Italian linguistics.
(Mugar Reference X Z2355 A2 H315)
Repertorio bibliografico della letteratura italiana. 1953
This covers in two volumes 1948-1949 and 1950-1953, respectively. The first part of each volume is arranged by authors' names in alphabetical order. The second part is a subject index, referring back to the first part.
(Mugar Z2341 F53)
American Dante Bibliography 1953-
From the Dante Society of America, housed at Brandeis University Libraries
Databases and Internet Sources
Databases
Internet Sources
BU Literature and Language eResources
Italian Women Writers Project (IWW)
From University of Chicago, provides extensive corpus of literature written by Italian women authors beginning with those from the late 12th and 13th centuries, up to 1945.
The Princeton Dante Project
The text of the Divina Commedia,edited by Giorgio Petrocchi and published by Mondadori (Milan, Italy, 1966-67; 2nd ed., Florence, Le Lettere, 1994) for the Edizione Nazionale of the works of Dante sponsored by the Società Dantesca Italiana.
WESS Italian Studies Website (WWW)
Italian Literature - Some works of some Italian writers, in Italian