DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN

A Troubadour Reader by William D. Paden, Professor Emeritus of French, has appeared from the Modern Language Association.

From the MLA: "A supplement to William D. Paden’s Introduction to Old Occitan, [A Troubadour Reader] provides a diverse selection of thirty medieval lyric poems in Occitan for language learners. Featuring poems by women, poems composed especially early or especially late in the language’s literary use, and poems that feature Occitan in contact with other languages, the book highlights the range and wealth of medieval Occitan lyric poetry. Each poem is presented with a brief introduction, glosses on the text, and notes after each stanza. The volume also includes a section on basic Occitan grammar, a list of manuscripts, bibliographical references, and an index."

We are pleased to announce that Professor Cynthia Nazarian has been recognized by the Office of the Provost and honored with the University Teaching Award. Professor Nazarian will receive the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence.

Congratulations Professor Nazarian!

This past May, Professor Massimiliano Delfino published a collection of poetry, L'Apocalisse Nuda with the Italian press Marietti1820. 

The verses of Apocalisse nuda recount the contemporary sunset of Humanity. An end that did not bring with itself any further meaning, nor the promise of a new beginning. In a present characterized by increasing wars and totalitarianisms, imminent environmental disasters, incomplete processes of decolonization, degradation of work towards precarity and exploitation, and, above all, by the digitalization and virtualization of the human experience, the book proposes a path of emancipation from the present.

This  past March, Professor Paola Nasti published her long-awaited book on the Bible and intertextuality in Dante, I morsi della carità. Dante a la «Bibbia» with Giorgio Pozzi Editore. 

The essays collected in Professor Nasti's new book propose an organic journey into Dante Alighieri's biblical and religious culture to reflect on some of the central issues of the poet's work and thought which revolve around the concept of charity as a manifestation of the divine: the practice of Christ-mimicry and holiness, salvation, soteriology and ecclesiology, prophecy, knowledge, biblical interpretation and above all the charisma of poetry.