7 Gennaio 2024

Manuela D’Amore Literary Voices of the Italian Diaspora in Britain: Time, Transnational Identity and Hybridity Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 314. ISBN: 978-3-031-35437-3 This volume studies the literary voices of the Italian diaspora in Britain. They are mostly unknown to specialist and non-specialist readers, but deserve full recognition: they have recounted the history of the migrant community in the period 1880-1980, while creatively experimenting with hybrid forms of expression and blending words with visuals. Their focus on the horrors of the Second World War – especially on the tragedy of the Arandora Star (2nd July 1940) – offers clear evidence of their civil commitment.  Made up by 21 authors and 34 pieces of prose, verse and drama, Literary Voices of the Italian Diaspora in Britain will appeal to specialists in different areas of study. It discusses topical issues like migration and social integration, cultures and foods in transition, as well as plurilingualism. More importantly, it begins to fill the void left by a critical tradition which has only appreciated the northern American and Australian branches of Italian writing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-35438-0

Maria Grazia Sindoni Multimodality and Translanguaging in Video Interactions Cambridge University Press, Elements in Applied Linguistics, 2023, pp. 75. ISBN: 9781009286947 This Element presents and critically discusses video-mediated communication by combining theories and empirical methods of multimodal studies and translanguaging. Since Covid-19 gained momentum, video-based interactions have become more and more ingrained in private and public lives and to the point of being fully incorporated in a wide range of community practices in personal, work and educational environments. The meaning making of video communication results from the complex, situationally based and culturally influenced and interlaced components of different semiotic resources and practices. These include the use of speech, writing, translingual practices, gaze behaviour, proxemics and kinesics patterns, as well as forms of embodied interaction. The Element aims at unpacking these resources and at interpreting how they make meanings to improve and encourage active and responsible participation in the current digital scenarios. https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/multimodality-and-translanguaging-in-video-interactions/7BA4AC0FD92A20DE089053E7B513392C

Jeanne Dubino, Orkun Kocabıyık, Elisabetta Marino, Andrew Smyth (eds.) War in Travel Literature Cambridge Scholars, 2023, pp. 313. ISBN: 1-5275-0482-4 These twelve chapters show how war functions as a subject, theme, impetus—willing and not—and backdrop in travel writing. Literature about travel and war in tandem enables readers to rethink both categories. The forms of travel writing about war addressed in this collection, including cookbooks and military magazines along with nonfiction narrative and  memoir, reveal how heterogenous travel writing can be. To study travel in connection with war expands readers’ understanding of the multiple motivations instigating travellers’ journeys. War is about more than fighting on a battlefield; its reach is extensive, encompassing the spheres surrounding its battlefields and fronts. The many actors involved in any conflict attests to the ways war is absorbed into their worlds, permeates their thoughts and spurs their actions. Readers interested in travel literature from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the present day will find this volume to be of especial interest. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-0482-0

Virginia Pulcini The Influence of English on Italian: Lexical and Cultural Features De Gruyter Mouton, 2023, pp. 285. ISBN: 9783110754957 Open Access The volume explores the history of language contact between Italy and Anglophone countries and illustrates the phenomenon of lexical borrowing. Types of English-induced borrowings are presented on the basis of quantitative and qualitative information provided by Italian lexicographic sources and corpus-based evidence. Criteria of currency and frequency are discussed with reference to a multilingual project (GLAD – Global Anglicism Database), offering a contribution to loanword lexicography. The book is addressed to scholars and nonexperts interested in the input of English borrowings into Italian. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110755114/html?lang=en

Stefania M. Maci, Massimiliano Demata, Mark McGlashan, Philip Seargeant (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Discourse and Disinformation Routledge, 2023, pp. 454. ISBN: 9781032124254 This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of research into discourses of disinformation, misinformation, post-truth, alternative facts, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and “fake news”. Divided into two sections, it provides a detailed look at the methodological challenges and approaches for studying disinformation, along with a wide range of case studies covering everything from climate change denial to COVID-19 conspiracies. The studies address how discourses of disinformation are constructed and developed, what rhetorical and persuasive strategies they employ, how disinformation can be discerned from real news, and what steps we might take in order to create a more trustworthy news environment. Authored by leading experts from around the world, and showcasing the most up-to-date methodological approaches to the topic, the volume makes a significant contribution to current linguistic research on politics, and is an essential guide to the discourses of disinformation for advanced students and researchers of English language studies, linguistics, and media and communication studies. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003224495/routledge-handbook-discourse-disinformation-stefania-maci-massimiliano-demata-philip-seargeant-mark-mcglashan

Ersilia Incelli, Renzo Mocini, Judith Turnbull (eds.) The Research-Practice Interface in English for Specific Purposes. Past, Present and Future Cambridge Scholars, 2022, pp. 297. ISBN: 1-5275-8910-2 This volume, edited by Ersilia Incelli, Renzo Mocini and Judith Turnbull, is a Festschrift in honor of Professor Rita Salvi, acclaimed scholar of English and English linguistics in the Faculty of Economics at ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome for many years. The book, made up of fourteen chapters, stems from the work of scholars, researchers and colleagues who have been working with Professor Salvi throughout her long career. These numerous research projects have dealt with a wide range of topics revolving around English linguistics, from Global English to business discourse, from teaching and testing techniques to ESP and corpus linguistics. ESP represents the main focus of this book, including both theoretical and practical aspects connected to the teaching of specialized English. To be sure, in a globalized and hyperspecialized world, an English language course based merely on the four basic skills that mainly involves everyday language is simply not enough to prepare students to be proficient English users in their future professional lives. The pedagogical benefits of ESP expose students to real-life specific occupations and practices. Undoubtedly, the book proves to be a valuable tool for researchers and particularly for language teachers and educators in their key role as mediators between research and teaching. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-8910-0

Carmen Ciancia Beyond Standard English. Variation and Change in Eastern England Carocci, 2023, pp. 104. ISBN: 978-88-290-2028-7 When foreign learners of English take up an English course, they are commonly taught the standard form of the language. However, when they visit an English speaking country for the first time (e.g. the UK), they face difficulties in understanding the real English, mostly in terms of pronunciation differences. Why? This and many other questions are answered in this book, which explores the hidden mechanisms of how language works, the complex relationship between language and ideologies, and describes language as a social phenomenon by showing how societal structures affect the way people talk, particularly in Eastern England. Other topics covered include fieldwork and data analysis for students and researchers embarking on research projects in Sociolinguistics.

Arianna Maiorani, C. Bruna Mancini (eds) Space and Place as Human Coordinates: Rethinking Dimensions across Disciplines Cambridge Scholars, 2021, 1-5275-7462-8, 1-5275-9873-X This truly multidisciplinary book explores how culture-founding terms like ‘space’ and ‘place’ have been reconsidered, re-elaborated and how they have acquired new meanings through academic research that crosses the traditional borderline between the humanities and social sciences. All chapters explore from different perspectives how the notions of space and place are still modelling our sense of reality by investigating social and cultural phenomena of various types that evolved between the 20th and 21st centuries. The essays collected here provide evidence of the growing necessity of building bridges across disciplines to allow knowledge, in general, and academic work, in particular, to work towards new forms of epistemology. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and students in the areas of cultural studies, discourse analysis, multimodality, communication and media, linguistics, literary and film studies, anthropology and ethnography. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-7462-5/

David Punter, C. Bruna Mancini (eds) Space(s) of the Fantastic. A 21st Century ManifestoRoutledge, 2021, ISBN Hardback: 9780367680282, ISBN Paperback: 9780367681692 This book provides a series of new addresses to the enduring problem of how to categorize the Fantastic. The approach taken is through the lens of spatiality; the Fantastic gives us new worlds, although of course these are refractions of worlds already in being. In place of ‘real’ spaces (whatever they might be), the Fantastic gives us imaginary spaces, although within those spaces historical and cultural conflicts are played out, albeit in forms that stretch our understanding of everyday location, and our usual interpretations of cause and effect. Many authors are addressed here, from a variety of different geographical and national traditions, thus demonstrating how the Fantastic – as a mode, a genre, a way of thinking, imagining and writing – continually traverses borders and boundaries. We hope to move the ongoing debate about the Fantastic forward in a scholarly as well as an engaging way. https://www.routledge.com/Spaces-of-the-Fantastic-A-21st-Century-Manifesto/Punter-Mancini/p/book/9780367681692#

Girolamo Tessuto, Richard Ashcroft, Vijay, K. Bhatia (eds.) Professional Discourse across Medicine, Law, and Other Disciplines: Issues and Perspectives Cambridge Scholars, 2023, pp. 385. ISBN: 1-5275-9471-8 This volume provides a stage for an extensive exploration of the interface between medicine, law and other disciplines or professions. It offers the reader opportunities to understand how this integrative, interactive interdisciplinary process can be examined through the lenses of language, discourse, and communication. Grown out from the newly established CIRLaM (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Language and Medicine) that builds upon extensive research done by CRILL (Centre for Research in Language and Law), contributions in this volume cover cross-wise issues raised by paradigmatic cases of bioethics and law, nursing ethics and law, pharmacy ethics and law, bioethics and religion, risk management and ethics, social inclusion and bioethics, and environmental ethics. This book is part of the Medical Discourse and Communication international, double-blind referred series (formerly Legal Discourse and Communication) – Editor-in Chief: G. Tessuto. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9471-5