Italian Language and Literature

Overview

The Yale University Library supports research and teaching in all aspects of literature in Italian. Yale’s  Department of Italian Studies offers the Ph.D. in Italian literature with wider methodological concerns and discourses, such as history, rhetoric and critical theories, comparison with other literatures, the figurative arts, religious and philosophical studies, medieval, Renaissance, and modern studies, and the contemporary state of Italian writing. Yale’s extensive collections support the needs of undergraduates, MA and Ph.D. students, teaching faculty, post-docs, and other research affiliates.

Collection Highlights and Expanding Areas of Focus

The Yale University Library has a long tradition of collecting materials in Italian language and literature, The main body of the Italian literature collection is in Sterling Memorial Library. Virtually all periods of Italian literature are covered, including the vernacular literature before Italian, and the Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Highly specialized or dated works are in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

In addition to the extensive collection of Italian literature, Sterling Library houses a rich array of resources related to the Italian language, including reference works, bibliographies, works on origin and history of language, lexicographical works, and comparative language studies. The collection also includes works on and in many Romance regional languages of the Italian Peninsula, such as Sicilian, Venetian, and Tuscan dialect.

The library seeks to support research and teaching through targeted acquisitions, both of new materials and retrospectively. In recent decades, this has resulted in particularly strong collections in the early medieval Latin literature, Renaissance literature, the literature of the Italian Enlightenment; 19th century literature and culture; 20th and 21st century Italian fiction and criticism. Current collecting for Sterling Memorial Library includes fiction, literary theory and criticism, literary sociology, aesthetics, comparative literature, general literature, folklore, reference works and bibliographies, anthologies, and works on humanism and scholarship.

Expanding Areas of Focus: Migration, race, and diversity in Italy; Queer Italian studies; contemporary fiction and critical theory

Academic Departments and Programs Supported

  • Department of Comparative Literature
  • Department of Italian
  • Department of Linguistics
  • Early Modern Studies Program
  • Program in Medieval Studies
  • Program of Film and Media Studies
  • Program of Theater Studies
  • Program of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Because Italian language and literature have cross-disciplinary implications, these collections also offer support for research and teaching in other Western European language and literature departments (e.g., English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, German) as well as area studies such as African Studies.

Selection Responsibilities

The Yale University Library’s general collection in Italian language and literature is managed by the Librarian for Western European Humanities. Curators in the Beinecke Library collect manuscripts and rare works. Italian feature film is collected by the Yale Film Archive. Documentaries are collected upon request. Relevant works on social theory, including studies of race, gender, or sexuality are also collected by the Marx Library.

Subjects Collected

  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Drama
  • Literary criticism and theory
  • Literary history
  • History of the Italian language
  • Italian language grammar, linguistics, and syntax

Formats Collected

  • print books
  • eBooks
  • print journals
  • electronic journals
  • online databases
  • streaming audiovisual material selectively (when part of a larger package)
  • DVD/Blu-ray collected selectively on request
  • Comics and graphic novels collected selectively
  • Microform collected selectively
  • reference materials: dictionaries, handbooks, encyclopedias, and bibliographies are collected electronically when available, otherwise in print  

Languages Collected

Primary (literary) texts are collected first in Italian and, if available, in English translation.   For important writers some editions are acquired in other major European languages. Criticism and theory are collected in Italian and in English, with important contemporary critical works also acquired in other languages, especially German, Spanish, and French.

Chronological and Geographical Focus

Current materials are emphasized, with out-of-print materials purchased to replace damaged or lost copies of significant works, or in response to faculty or student requests. In terms of time periods covered in the materials themselves, the collections range from medieval to contemporary.

Exclusions

In general, the following formats and genres are not collected:

  • children’s literature
  • cookbooks
  • genre fiction  : romance, fantasy, thrillers, horror
  • manuscripts
  • popular fiction  
  • preprints
  • self-published works
  • software
  • textbooks and workbooks
  • young adult literature

Subject Librarian
Michael Printy
Head, Humanities Group and Librarian for Western European Humanities
Department: Area Studies and Humanities
(203) 436-9215