The Library of Foreign Languages and Literatures continues to expand its holdings with a selection of new titles acquired in October and November 2025. The works presented here, together with all other recent acquisitions from this period, are available through Minerva.
English Studies
The new acquisitions in English Studies share a strong focus on women’s writing and on the ways in which female authors have rethought the relationship between identity, experience, and language. La terra è il cielo by Paola Loreto offers an intense and up-to-date reading of Emily Dickinson’s work, highlighting the coherence of a poetics that intertwines nature, knowledge, and worldview. Leggere Woolf by Sara Sullam is devoted to Virginia Woolf and guides readers through the many facets of her activity—fiction, essays, and criticism—restoring the profile of one of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century. The selection is completed by Rachel Cusk, edited by Roberta Garrett and Liam Harrison, which examines the work of one of the most original voices in contemporary fiction, exploring her formal experimentation and her reflections on identity, the body, and human relationships.
French Studies
The new acquisitions in French Studies span centuries and genres, from medieval poetry to contemporary critical reflection. Eustache Deschamps: une poésie pour le temps présent highlights the continued relevance of a key author of the late Middle Ages, while Le prove del testimone by Bruna Conconi investigates the relationship between historiography and literature through Jean de Léry’s Histoire mémorable, offering a nuanced perspective on testimony in the sixteenth century. More theoretical and provocative in its approach, Sarei stato carnefice o ribelle? by Pierre Bayard invites readers to question the role of the individual in history, between responsibility, choice, and critical fiction.
Scandinavian Studies
Theatre and scenic experimentation are at the heart of the new acquisitions in Scandinavian Studies. Odin Teatret: et dansk verdensteater recounts the history of one of the most radical theatrical experiences of twentieth-century Europe, born from the encounter between different cultures and artistic practices. Alongside this laboratory-based perspective, Drammi borghesi by Henrik Ibsen, edited and translated by Franco Perrelli, brings back into focus the modernity of an author who revolutionised European theatre by staging the social, moral, and familial conflicts of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie.
Iberian and Latin American Studies
The new acquisitions in Iberian and Latin American Studies focus on memory, history, and their political uses in the Lusophone world. The volumes edited and authored by Miguel Cardina - O dispositivo mnemónico and A guerra colonial e as lutas de libertação - explore the ways in which liberation struggles, particularly in the context of Cape Verde and Portuguese colonialism, have been remembered, narrated, and reinterpreted over time. These works interweave history, culture, and collective memory and are essential for understanding the legacies of colonialism in the present.
Slavic Studies
The new acquisitions in Slavic Studies revolve around themes of historical memory, testimony, and writing as a form of resistance to annihilation. Da noi, ad Auschwitz by Tadeusz Borowski brings together some of the most lucid and uncompromising short stories and poems ever written about the experience of Nazi concentration camps, portraying from within the dehumanisation and moral ambiguity of camp life. This voice is complemented by La mia vita nel Gulag by Anna Szyszko-Grzywacz, an autobiographical account of deportation to Vorkuta between 1945 and 1956, offering a direct testimony of the Soviet лагеря system and its effects on the individual. The selection is completed by Galassia Lem, a collective volume devoted to Stanisław Lem, which explores the dialogue between literature, philosophy, and science in one of the most original authors of the twentieth century, showing how science fiction can also become a privileged space for critical reflection on humanity and history.
