The Library of Foreign Languages and Literatures continues to expand its collections with a selection of new titles acquired over the summer months. As always, all volumes are available through Minerva.
English Studies
The new acquisitions in English Studies bring together scholarship on the literary canon, postcolonial perspectives, and ecocriticism. Elizabeth Inchbald: scandalo e convenzione by Carlotta Farese reconstructs the profile of a key figure in English culture between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, examining the relationship between the novel and the theatre during the Regency period. This perspective is complemented by L'Empire invisible, devoted to the work of Nobel Prize laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, which explores the legacies of colonialism and the dynamics of memory in contemporary fiction. On the theoretical side, Romantic Ecocriticism traces the origins of ecocritical thought in the Romantic period.
German Studies
The German Studies acquisitions focus on the rewriting of literary classics and the relationship between literature and performance. The graphic novel adaptations of Schimmelreiter, Der Geisterseher, and Marquise von O demonstrate how landmark works by Storm, Schiller, and Kleist can be reinterpreted through new visual and narrative forms, while Parola, gesto, corpo explores the theatrical dimension of Heinrich von Kleist's work.
A contemporary perspective is offered by The Theater of Milo Rau, devoted to one of the most innovative directors on today's European stage, whose work brings together aesthetics, ethics, and politics. The selection is completed by Elessi l'amore a terra natia by Mascha Kaléko, which draws renewed attention to one of the most significant poetic voices of German-language exile literature.
Slavic Studies
The new acquisitions in Slavic Studies span a broad chronological range, from the Middle Ages to the late Soviet period, highlighting the relationship between texts, history, and cultural memory.
La Rus' di Kiev by Lorenzo Pubblici reconstructs the role of Kyivan Rus' as a meeting point between Europe and Asia in the medieval period, while the companion volumes devoted to Dostoevskij's and Tolstoj's major novels provide new tools for approaching two masterpieces of Russian literature. On the Polish side, Il congedo dei messi greci and Orfeo sarmatico introduce Italian readers to the work of Jan Kochanowski, a central figure of the Renaissance. The selection concludes with Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More by Alexei Yurchak, now regarded as a classic in the study of the late Soviet Union, offering an analysis of Soviet society in the years leading up to its collapse.
Scandinavian Studies
The Scandinavian Studies acquisitions trace a path that connects Old Norse philology, cultural history, and modern literature. The medieval core of the collection includes a new translation of the Skáldskaparmál section of Snorri Sturluson's Edda, editions of Icelandic sagas, studies of Danish runestones, research on manuscripts from the Arnamagnæan Collection, and works on medieval Icelandic culture, providing essential resources for the study of Nordic civilisation.
Modern Nordic literature is represented by major authors such as Sigrún Pálsdóttir, Peter Seeberg, Yahya Hassan, and Selma Lagerlöf, alongside studies devoted to Henrik Pontoppidan and William Heinesen, offering a broad view of the richness and diversity of the Nordic literary tradition from the nineteenth century to the present day.
