Library Research Guide for 20th Century Italian Poetry (Italian 177)

Italian 177—20th-Century Italian Poetry
Professor Laura Baffoni-Licata, Fall 2008

The course traces the evolution of Italian Poetry through the 20th-Century. Special emphasis is on the poetic work by Pascoli, D’Annunzio, Ungaretti, Montale, Quasimodo, Sereni, Luzi, and P. Levi. The poetic text is examined from a historical, political, philosophical, and literary angle. The historical approach, in particular, emphasizes the time in history when the poetic text was written. It shows how political, and socially unsettling and dramatic times—-specifically those of World War I and II–deeply affected the author and his poetry. Through linguistic and thematic analysis, students are encouraged to develop their own critical voice and creative response to the text.

Library Research Sources & Tips
Prepared by Chao Chen, Reference Librarian at Tisch Library

Critical Biographies and Literary Surveys · Cultural and Historical Backgrounds

Literary Criticism and Interpretation: &

Language Dictionaries · How to Cite · RefWorks · Renew Books · Interlibrary Loan Request · Course Reserves

617-627-2057 chao.chen@tufts.edu
homepage

Critical Biographies

Poeti italiani del '900. (Stacks: PQ4113 .P646 1997)

Dictionary of Literary Biography. (This online series of publication include the following two print volumes on Italian poets.)

Twentieth-century Italian poets. First series. Ref. PQ4057 .T92 1992
Twentieth-century Italian poets. Second series. PQ4057 .T922 1993

Dizionario autori: italiani contemporanei. (Ref. PQ4057 .D58 1996)

Poetry Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of the Most Significant and Widely Studied Poets of World Literature.(Ref. PN1010 .P499) 79 vols.
Entries provide an introductory biographical sketch, an author portrait, a primary bibliography, annotated full text and excerpted criticism of the poets' works and sources for additional reading. When available, comments from the poets themselves are included. Approximately 90-95% of critical essays are full text.

Literary Surveys

Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies. (Ref. PQ4006 .E536 2007)
The Oxford companion to Italian literature. (Stack: PQ4006 .O84 2002)
L'enciclopedia della letteratura. (Stacks: PN41 .E46 1997)
Dictionary of Italian literature. (Ref. PQ4006 .D45 1996)
Dizionario della poesia italiana: i poeti di ogni tempo, la metrica, i gruppi e le tendenze. (Stacks: PQ4057 .C83 1983)
The Cambridge history of Italian literature. (Stacks: PQ4038 .C35 1999)
--with bibliographies and chronology of events in politics, literature and other arts.

Letteratura italiana. (Stacks: PQ4037 .L46 1997)
Introduzione alla letteratura italiana del Novecento: la poesia, la narrativa, la critica, le riviste e i movimenti letterari. (Stacks: PQ4087 .L87 1985)
Storia della letteratura italiana contemporanea: 1940-1996. (Stacks: PQ4088 .M275 1996)

Terms and Concepts:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. (online)

Cultural and Historical Backgrounds

The Cambridge companion to modern Italian culture. (Stacks: DG451 .C35 2001)
Encyclopedia of contemporary Italian culture. (Stacks: DG450 .E53 2000)
Historical dictionary of modern Italy. (Ref. DG555 .G53 1999)
Italian fascism: history, memory, and representation . (Stacks: DG571.16 .I85 1999)
Dictionary of modern Italian history. (Ref: DG545 .D53 1985)

Literary Criticism and Interpretation

Books

Sources:

Tufts Library Catalog [http://library.tufts.edu/]
WorldCat. [From the Tisch Library website, http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/, select Other Library Catalogs]

Tips:

Subject Browse in the Catalog: step 1. select Subject; step 2, enter the subject heading (the exact language used in the Catalog)

You get an overview of 217 books and other publications on Italian poetry in 46 sub-topics:

Scroll down to the subject heading, Italian poetry -- 20th Century; you can see other sub-topics and number of items available.

Research on a Poet in the Catalog: step 1. select Subject; step 2, enter the poet's name, last name first.

Results:

Articles in scholarly journals (from the Tisch Library Homepage [http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/], select Articles via Databases.)

Key Databases
Note: MLA is the most comprehensive and authoritative source for the literature of the discipline, and links directly to our electronic journals. JSTOR and Project Muse, while far from being as comprehensive, offers the advantages of an multidisciplinary coverage and full texts.

MLA International Bibliography 1923 -
an international index to books and journals on the modern languages and literatures, including linguistics and folklore.

JSTOR and Project Muse
These are two collections of electronic journals in many different disciplines. Project Muse offers more recent issues, while JSTOR has more earlier issues. There are some overlap of journals in the two collections.

Tips: the success of your search in a relevant database depends on how well your search language match that of the Database.

Sample search in MLA—start with broad terms to get a sense of what the database has to offer on your topic.

use AND between keywords;
use OR and ( ) to include related words and/or concepts;
use * to include all forms of a word.

Search results:

**How to find full texts

Sample search in JStor—a narrower and more specific search is more effective, because the full texts of articles are being searched here, as compared to citations and descriptors in MLA (in other words, only titles, brief notes when available, and descriptors assigned by the database —tags.)

This sample search is looking for articles on imagery and/or metaphors in Ungaretti's poems/poetry with war as their theme.

Results (a very manageable number of articles):

Other Relevant Databases

Essay and General Literature Index 1985 -
Cites essays and articles contained in collections of essays and other works published in the United States, Great Britain and Canada. More than 300 volumes and 20 annual or serial publications indexed annually. Focuses on humanities and social sciences literature.

Historical Abstracts 1969-
Scholarly literature in European and world history from 1450 to the present. Does not include the United States and Canada.

Google.Scholar