Linguistic-Literary Area

The Linguistic-Literary Area of the Department of Human Sciences for Education at the University of Milano-Bicocca has conducted or is currently conducting research in the following scientific-disciplinary groups:

Contemporary Italian Literature (10/LICO-01)

This scientific-disciplinary group contains only the scientific-disciplinary field (SSD) of the same name, Contemporary Italian Literature (LICO-01/A).

The ongoing or completed research activity of the Linguistic-Literary Area includes the following scientific-disciplinary field (SSD) afferent to GSD 10/LICO-01:

Contemporary Italian Literature (LICO-01/A)
formerly L-FIL-LET/11 Contemporary Italian Literature
It deals with Italian works, in both standard Italian and dialects, of the contemporary age up to the present day, and their authors, as well as with the distinctive and unprecedented features of literature that assert themselves in this age, giving rise to literary modernity, and the peculiar forms of the new system of production, reception, and critical and editorial mediation. Precisely because literary modernity is constituted in dialectic with the illustrious tradition and its dominant poetics, in the research and teaching activities within the field, special attention is paid to aspects of discontinuity, fracture, parodic revival, and rewriting aimed at recontextualizing the past, with respect to the codes and canons of the past; to hybridizations of literary modes and forms; and to the establishment of a plural tradition of the new. Also belonging to the field are sociologically oriented investigations into the formation of the bourgeois and then mass readership, the consequent renewal of the subject matter and language of works, and the profound transformations that the triumph of the novel brought about in the system of literary genres. Also among the specific interests of the field are: the birth of children's literature, the development of female authorship, the fortunes of consumer fiction, and the cross-pollinations between literary texts and other forms of artistic expression. The field also deals with the interpretation of texts; the morphology of literary genres in contemporary times; literary processes of linguistic and cultural osmosis and homogenization and episodes of identity resistance in the horizon of globalization; the history of the culture industry; literary journalism, magazines, and militant criticism; cultural mediations and new modes of critical and popular discourse; postmodernity and the "surrounding literature" of the third millennium, also examined in its inter- and multi-media implications; and the emergence of original practices of transmission of literary texts through new media. On the level of methods and tools, the field's research and teaching activities make use of all the most up-to-date methodologies of literary criticism and textual analysis, theory of literature, authorial philology, computational lexicography and digital humanities, intertextuality (including but not limited to literary ones), archives and correspondence, sound and audiovisual documents. Finally, in view of the space reserved for the texts of literary modernity in secondary school curricula, the field promotes in-depth study of the methods, techniques, and content of the didactics of contemporary Italian literature, with particular reference to the modes of literary education in a culture shaped by the web and visual media

Italian Linguistics and Philology (10/LIFI-01)

This scientific-disciplinary group brings together, without undermining the specificities of the two fields, the history of the Italian language and philology, based on shared objects of study and the contiguity and complementarity of themes, methodologies, and tools.

The ongoing or completed research activity of the Linguistic-Literary Area includes the following scientific-disciplinary field (SSD) under GSD 10/LIFI-01:

Italian Linguistics (LIFI-01/A)
formerly L-FIL-LET/12 Italian Linguistics.
Studies on Italian in all its varieties, including the dialects of Italy and minority languages, with reference to written, oral, and media-transmitted texts. Research involves the description and analysis of graphic phenomena; phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical structures; the historical development of these systems; and their relationships with other linguistic systems. In particular, the History of the Italian Language investigates the processes of formation and evolution of Italian from its earliest stages to the contemporary period. Italian Dialectology and the Sociolinguistics of Italian explore the dynamics of geolinguistic configurations, language contact, and the social and specialized uses of the language. Special attention is devoted to literary language and its formal structures, including stylistics and metrics.
Other research areas within the field include lexicography, grammarography, the debate on linguistic standardization and language policies for Italian, the spread of Italian abroad, the theories and methodologies of Italian language teaching for both native and non-native speakers, computational analysis of texts and corpora, and the editing of texts for linguistic analysis. The field also encompasses studies of textuality and pragmatics, which contribute to defining the style, communicative functions, and meaning of texts.

Glottology and Linguistics (10/GLOT-01)

This scientific-disciplinary group encompasses scientific and educational activities in the fields of theoretical, historical, experimental, and typological studies of language and languages; historical linguistics, with reference to theories, problems of linguistic change, and methodologies of description, comparison, and reconstruction; as well as the history of linguistic thought.
It includes the study of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicon, and pragmatics of natural historical languages and dialects, including applications in medical-clinical and forensic contexts. Also included are studies of the relationships between language, ethnicity, and society—such as dialectological, geolinguistic, sociolinguistic, and ethnolinguistic research—as well as issues related to multilingualism, language contact, identity, and language policies.
The field also covers the study of computational models of natural language, the creation and analysis of corpora of written, spoken, and signed languages, research on language disorders, and cognitive, neurolinguistic, and psycholinguistic studies, including those relating to language education.
It further includes linguistic and translanguaging research applied to Italian Sign Language and its literature; linguistic and philological studies of the languages of ancient Italy, Illyria, and Celtic-speaking regions, with particular attention to epigraphic sources; and studies of the Baltic languages.
Also covered are linguistic, philological, literary-critical, and translanguaging studies applied to the Albanian language and the Arbëreshë varieties, as well as to the Finno-Ugric languages, with particular focus on Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian.

The ongoing or completed research activity of the Linguistic-Literary Area includes the following scientific-disciplinary field (SSD) under GSD 10/GLOT-01:

Glottology and Linguistics (GLOT-01/A)
formerly L-LIN/01 Glottology and Linguistics
Theoretical, historical, experimental, and typological studies of language and languages; historical linguistics, with reference to theories, problems of linguistic change, and methodologies of description, comparison, and reconstruction, as well as the history of linguistic thought. The field includes the study of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicon, and pragmatics of natural historical languages and dialects, including applications in medical, clinical, and forensic contexts.
It also encompasses the study of the relationships between languages, ethnicity, and society—such as dialectological, geolinguistic, sociolinguistic, and ethnolinguistic issues—as well as questions related to multilingualism, language contact, identity, and language policies.
Further areas of focus include computational models of natural language, the construction and analysis of corpora of written, spoken, and signed language, research on language disorders, and cognitive, neurolinguistic, and psycholinguistic studies, including those related to language education.
The field also covers linguistic and translanguaging studies applied to Italian Sign Language and its literature; linguistic and philological research on the languages of ancient Italy, Illyria, and Celtic-speaking regions, with particular attention to epigraphic documentation; and studies of the Baltic languages.
All of these areas of research make use of resources, methods, and technologies, as well as digital platforms and environments, for the collection, analysis, processing, and dissemination of linguistic data.

Cultures and languages of Central, South, East and Southeast Asia (10/ASIA-01)

This scientific-disciplinary group deals with the scientific and didactic-educational activity inherent in linguistic, philological, literary, historical, historical-religious, and historical-artistic studies with regard to the various linguistic and geographical areas of Central, South, East, and Southeast Asia.

The ongoing or completed research activity of the Linguistic-Literary Area includes the following scientific-disciplinary fields (SSDs) pertaining to GSD 10/ASIA-01:

Languages and Literatures of China and Southeast Asia (ASIA-01/F)
formerly L-OR/21 Languages and Literatures of China and Southeast Asia
The field makes specific reference to primary sources in the languages of the area, as it relates to the study and teaching of language, linguistics, philology, history of literature and literary criticism including comparative studies, studies on translation and interpretation, to cultural studies in the languages and literatures of China and Southeast Asia (including the Sino-speaking literatures of non-Sinic areas and literatures in non-Chinese languages expressions of the Chinese ''diaspora''), from the origins to the contemporary age, as well as to studies of mediological languages and texts produced in the field of visual, audiovisual and performing arts, also with regard to the specific teaching methodologies for the different declinations of the disciplines identified by the SSD.
Language and Literature of Japan, Language and Literature of Korea (ASIA-01/G)
formerly L-OR/22 Languages and literatures of Japan and Korea
The field is concerned with scholarly and educational activity in relation to Japan and Korea. It includes, with specific reference for both areas to the primary sources of the respective languages, as well as in relation to written and oral production from the origins to the contemporary age, the following fields of study: linguistics, history and didactics of language, dialectology, translation, translation studies and interpretation, philology, paleography, epigraphy, literature, literary criticism, visual arts, discursive and expressive forms other, cultural studies. The methodologies adopted are particularly those of linguistic, philological and literary-critical research, with approaches that are also interdisciplinary in nature.

Ancient and modern cultures and languages of Africa and West and Central Asia (10/STAA-01)

This scientific-disciplinary group encompasses research and educational-training activities related to the studies of civilizations in ancient Egypt and Western Asia, the Middle East, Africa and countries of the Islamic world from the fifth millennium B.C. to the present.

The ongoing or completed research activity of the Linguistic-Literary Area includes the following scientific-disciplinary fields (SSDs) pertaining to GSD 10/STAA-01:

African Languages and Literatures (STAA/01-I)
formerly L-OR/09 Languages and literatures of Africa
Studies on the languages and literatures of Africa (Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and "Khoisan" languages, as well as isolated languages), in their production both written and oral and in their dialectal varieties. The field also includes the study of vehicular languages (pidgins, creoles, etc.) derived from the encounter with colonial languages, the phenomena of code-switching, and the study of African literatures expressed in European languages. It also includes studies on the material culture and history of the areas concerned, as well as on the interactions between the Libyan-Berber world and the great Mediterranean civilizations from prehistory to the modern world. The methodologies adopted are those of linguistic, anthropological, ethnological, philological, and critical-literary research.
Arabic Language and Literature (STAA/01-L)
formerly L-OR/12 Arabic language and literature
Studies on the Arabic language, its dialects and history, conducted with the methodologies of linguistic research (including historical, dialectological, sociolinguistic, translanguaging, glottodidactic perspectives). Studies related to literary works in Arabic from the origins to the contemporary age, conducted with the methodologies of philological, linguistic, literary-critical, paleographic, diplomatic and epigraphic research.

Despite the diverse specificities of the various research lines within the Linguistic-Literary Area, its members share some common themes and research goals.

These include the social values and implications of literature and linguistics, issues related to multilingualism and language contact—particularly those arising from migration and integration processes—and the acquisition and teaching of Italian, foreign, minority, and immigrant languages. Research is conducted within the broader framework of school integration challenges, including those faced by pupils with language and learning disorders and the rights of linguistic-cultural minorities.

Another focus is the social functions and reflections of literature: its role within social discourse, literary representation of formative processes and relationships with the environment, and reading practices including social reading.

The analysis of literary heritage is approached from stylistic and philological perspectives, encompassing a broad scope of places and times: the North African and Near Eastern manuscript traditions; Chinese and Japanese fiction; and Italian authors from the sixteenth century to the twentieth and contemporary periods.

Finally, reflection on translation is explored mainly—though not exclusively—in its linguistic aspects, with particular attention to the Chinese and Japanese linguistic environments.