Kent State University

Libraries & Media Services

Modern and Classical Language Studies Collection Development Guidelines

General Department Information

Curricular Focus:

Instruction in Modern and Classical Language Studies focuses on not only the mastery of language skills, but also the teaching of the literatures and cultures associated with the target languages. The Classics, French, German, Latin, Russian, and  Spanish are emphasized, as reflected in the degrees offered by the department. However, a variety of other languages are also taught at the elementary and intermediate level, including but not limited to American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese Greek, Italian and Japanese.

Departmental Goals:

MCLS aims to prepare its students for a variety of career fields in which language skills are much needed and desired, including but not limited to Education, Business, Translation and Politics/International Relations. In addition to preparing students in its major programs, the department plays a key role in delivering instruction to students across campus as part of the core Liberal Education Requirements.

Departmental Areas of Concentration:

The following reflects the current (January, 2004) research focus of the MCLS faculty in each language:

Russian:

• Nationalism in Russian literature
• Russian translation history
• Gender in Russian culture
• Russian Culture and Civilization
• A. Solzhenitsyn - his Life and Works
• 19^th c. Russian Literature and Poetry

French:

• Sixteenth-century French literature
• Rabelais
• Nineteenth-century French literature
• Gay French literature
• Pierre Loti
• Vygotskian and Sociocultural Theory
• Technology in the Second and Foreign Language Classroom
• The Teaching of Second and Foreign Language Literature
• Contemporary French Poetry
• Literature and other Arts
• Feminism, and Literary Translation
• Cultural History of French Sport
• International Mass Communication and National Identity
• French Regions and Regionalism
• Francophonie Translation studies
• Women's writing
• French political and security issues
• 18th century French novel
• Rétif de la Bretonne

Classics:

• Ancient Comedy
• Latin Christianity
• Hildegard of Bingen
• Greek and Roman Literature, esp. Greek tragedy and poetry, Ovid, Cicero
•  Greek and Roman Religion, esp. death-ritual
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Roman Imperial History and Politics
• Greek and Roman Historiography
• Roman Epigraphy and Numismatics

German:

• Cultural Studies and Theory
• Holocaust Studies
• Film and media studies Lyric poetry of the German Baroque and Enlightenment
• Nature and science in literature (18th century)
• Rhetoric and translation
• Translation Studies, Modern German Usage
• Historical Linguistics
• 19th and Early 20th c. German Art & Literature Constructs of Femininity and Masculinity
• Romanticism & Realism
• Pedagogy/Second Language Acquisition
• Women's Literature
• East German Literature
• Multiculturalism

Spanish:

• Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Pragmatics
• Socio-linguistics
• Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages
• Language acquisition, Discourse analysis
• Pre-Columbian civilizations, Contemporary Latin American literature
• Latin American history
• Medieval Spanish literature
• Golden Age Spanish literature
• Luso-Brazilian and Hispanic balladry
• Relations between folklore and literature
• The converso contribution to literature
• Crypto-Judaism
• Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom
• Foreign Language Methods
• Colonial Spanish-American literature and culture
• Latin American Indian writing
• Colonial Spanish-American Women Writers
• Colonial Writing influence on 20th century literature
• Translation Theory
• Practice and Pedagogy
• Contemporary Peninsular Literature
• Contemporary Spanish American Poetry and Narrative
• Gender Studies, Latin American Women Writers
• Contemporary Bolivian Theatre
• Women Short Story Writers from Central America
• Renaissance notion of women
• US Latino writers
• Poetry and Poetics

Degrees Offered: 

Bachelor of Arts 

• Classics
• French
• German
• Latin
• Russian
• Spanish

Bachelor of Science

• French Translation
• German Translation
• Russian Translation
• Spanish Translation

Masters of Art

• French Literature
• German Literature
• Latin Literature
• Spanish Literature

Scope of Coverage

Definitions:

Research Level A collection which includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers.  It also includes all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as an extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field.

Advanced Study Level  A collection which is adequate to support the course work of advanced undergraduates and master’s degree programs of sustained independent study; that is, which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or a wide range of basic monographs both current and retrospective, complete collections of the works of more important writers, a selection of representative journals, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.

Initial Study Level  A collection which is adequate to support undergraduate courses.  It includes a judicious selection from currently published basic monographs (as are represented by Choice selections) supported by seminal retrospective monographs (as are represented by Books for College Libraries); a broad selection of works of more important writers; a selection of the most significant works of secondary writers; a selection of the major review journals; and current editions of the most significant reference tools and bibliographies pertaining to the subject.

The following subject areas are collected at the advanced instructional level:

• Language acquisition
• Literary studies and cultural/historical studies for the following areas:
  • Classics
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Russian.

The following subject areas are collected at the Initial Study level:

Language acquisition and learning support materials for the following:

• American Sign Language
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Arabic
• Greek, and other languages as taught. (Offerings may vary by year.)

Apply the Following Parameters to the Above Scope of Coverage Areas

Language: Due to the focus of the department, materials are most prevalently collected in English, French, German, Greek, Latin, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.  In addition, some materials are also selected in Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Hebrew, Hindi and Korean to support the 10000 and 20000 level courses taught on these subjects.

Date of Publication: Emphasis is on newly published materials.

Geographical guidelines: No limitations. Materials from a variety of countries are purchased, however, a majority of the materials are published in the U.S, Canada and the U.K.

Society or Publisher Emphasis:

University presses are emphasized as well as various Academic and  Scholarly presses, including, but not limited to; De Gruyter, Chelsea House, Ariadne Press, Bristol Classical, Camden House, Duckworth, Brill, and Routledge.

Multiple copies:

Multiple copies are only purchased under special circumstances under advisement of the MCLS faculty.

Material Types

Monographs