Claude Potts

Lampooning Presidents through Words, Images and Scholarship [repost]

Posted on October 1, 2025October 1, 2025 by Claude Potts

comic strip of Trump and Macron — *From Macron, L’an I: pardon de vous le dire par Zef, Kak, and Degreff (Paris: Florent Massot, 2018.)*

Recent acts of censorship of late night television talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have spurred interest in not only reposting this ever pertinent blog post originally published on November 27, 2018 but also updating it with some relevant books acquired since then. With or without humor, we find both presidents still (or again) in power and in the satirical spotlight. Enjoy! Amusez-vous!

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Lithgow, John. Dumpty : The Age of Trump in Verse. San Francisco: Chronicle Prism, an imprint of Chronicle Books, 2019. As two of the oldest modern democracies, France and the United States share a long tradition of freedom of speech and of the press (and at times governmental censorship). The two societies have found catharsis in the mockery of their highest elected officials through caricatures, cartoons, and critical writings. Here are a few recent library acquisitions, in English and in French, from both sides of the Atlantic in this category of political critique:

Baldwin, Alec and Kurt Andersen. You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year As President Donald J. Trump (a So-Called Parody). New York: Penguin Press, 2017.

Battistella, Edwin L. Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President, from Washington to Trump. 1st ed. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Bourhis, Hervé and Rudy Spiessert. Trump de A à Z. Bruxelles: Casterman, 2017.

Burrell, Ginger R. Un[Hood]ed. Morgan Hill, CA: Midnight Moon Press, 2017.

Campion, Étienne. Le président toxique : enquête sur le véritable Emmanuel Macron. Paris: Robert Laffont, 2025.

Cole, David, and Melanie W. Stinnett. Rules for Resistance: Advice from Around the Globe for the Age of Trump. New York: The New Press, 2017.

Merchet, Jean-Dominique. Macron Bonaparte: Essai. Paris: Stock, 2017. Collard, Susan P., ed. Revolution Revisited : Emmanuel Macron and the Limits of Political Change in France. Abingdon, Oxon ; Routledge, 2025.

Connolly, William E. Aspirational Fascism: The Struggle for Multifaceted Democracy Under Trumpism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Daniel, Jean-Marc. Macron: La valse folle de Jupiter. Paris: l’Archipel, 2018.

Darmon, Michaël. Les secrets d’un règne : dans les coulisses d’un quinquennat de crises. Paris: L’Archipel, 2021.

Dolez, Bernard et al., eds. L’entreprise Macron à l’épreuve du pouvoir. Fontaine: PUG, 2022.

Dosse, François. Macron, ou, Les illusions perdues : les larmes de Paul Ricoeur. Paris: Le Passeur éditeur, 2022.

Être postmoderne / Michel Maffesoli; postface de Hélène Strohl: Emmanuel Macron, icône ou fake de la postmodernité? Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2018.

Filoche, Gérard. Macron, ou, la casse sociale. Paris: l’Archipel, 2018.

Fottorino, Éric and Joep Bertrams. Détrumpez-vous!, Paris: Gallimard, 2017.

Fourquet, Jérôme. Le nouveau clivage: mondialisation, libre-échange, métropolisation, flux migratoires : état des démocraties occidentales. Paris: Les éditions du Cerf, 2018.

Drezner, Daniel W. The Toddler in Chief : What Donald Trump Teaches Us about the Modern Presidency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. Drezner, Daniel W. The Toddler in Chief : What Donald Trump Teaches Us about the Modern Presidency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.

Genté, Régis. Notre homme à Washington : Trump dans la main des Russes. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2024.

Christopher J. Gilbert. Caricature and National Character: The United States at War. Penn State University Press, 2021.

Giroux, Henry A. The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.

Hamming, Grant, and Natalie E. Phillips, eds. Interrogating The Visual Culture Of Trumpism. New York, NY: Routledge, 2025.

Johnston, David C. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Joly, Marc. La pensée perverse au pouvoir. Paris: Anamosa, 2024.

Toulouse, Anne. L’art de “trumper”, ou, Comment la politique de Donald Trump a contaminé le monde. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 2024. Lee, Bandy X. The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.

Lithgow, John. Dumpty : The Age of Trump in Verse. San Francisco: Chronicle Prism, an imprint of Chronicle Books, 2019.

Mayaffre, Damon. Macron, ou, Le mystère du verbe : ses discours décryptés par la machine. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’Aube, 2021.

Merchet, Jean-Dominique. Macron Bonaparte: Essai. Paris: Stock, 2017.

Mielczarek, Natalia. The Trump Presidency in Editorial Cartoons . 1st ed. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023.

Mongin, Olivier, and Lucile Schmid. Emmanuel Macron à contretemps. Montrouge: Bayard, 2022.

Nanos, Nik. The Age of Voter Rage. London: Eyewear Publishing, 2018.

Ngono, Emmanuel. Sacré Macron : une aventure qui a vraiment bousculé le fonctionnement institutionnel français / Emmanuel Ngono. Morancez (France): Éditions Cana, 2023. Ngono, Emmanuel. Sacré Macron : une aventure qui a vraiment bousculé le fonctionnement institutionnel français / Emmanuel Ngono. Morancez (France): Éditions Cana, 2023.

Taguieff, Pierre-André. Macron: miracle ou mirage? Paris: Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2017.

Toulouse, Anne. Dans la tête de Donald Trump. Paris: Stock, 2016.

Toulouse, Anne. L’art de “trumper”, ou, Comment la politique de Donald Trump a contaminé le monde. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 2024.

Trudeau, G. B. Day One Dictator: More Doonesbury in the Time of Trumpism. 1st ed. Cork: Andrews McMeel, 2024.

Trumpism: The Politics Of Gender in a Post-Propitious America / edited by Laura Finley and Matthew Johnson. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.

Willem. Macron: L’amour fou. Bordeaux: Les Requins marteaux, 2018.

Zef, Kak and Degreff. Macron, L’an I: pardon de vous le dire. Paris: Florent Massot, 2018.

New Acquisitions in Catalan Language and Literature

Posted on September 18, 2025September 18, 2025 by Claude Potts

Please find this selection of books in Catalan recently received and cataloged for your reading pleasure. Catalan is a Western Romance language and is the official language of Andorra, and the official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian.

Catalan is considered a Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL) in Europe and has received special support from the U.S. Department of Education under the auspices of Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Other languages of interest to research and teaching at Berkeley and historically supported by this program administered by the Institute of European Studies include Dutch, Portuguese, Modern Greek, Occitan, Yiddish, Galician, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and more.

El futur és una petita flama / Jordi Nopca

Estudis actuals de filologia catalana / M. Isabel Guardiola Savall, Caterina Martínez-Martínez, coordinadores.

Presents imperfectes / Elisabet Jané Goset

Avui, que ens són familiars la browning i els gàngsters / Mercè Rodoreda

Com un batec en un micròfon / Clara Queraltó

Noves perspectives en lingüística catalana : passat, present i futur / Colloqui Lingüístic de la Universitat de Barcelona

En primera persona / Vicenç Pagès Jordà

Mirades a la llengua catalana : de la variació diatòpica a la cultura popular / Joan Veny

No sabràs mai qui seia al teu costat / Jordi Sedó i Solé

Amb ulls ben nets de por i polseguera : l'aportació de Josep Vallverdú a la literatura catalana

Conèixer i (reconèixer) la llengua i la cultura catalanes / Isidor Marí

El rol del Roc : novella ludocriminal / Màrius Serra

A l'altra banda de la por / Marta Orriols

El dia de la mort d'en Roberto Bravo / Carles Ribas i Blanché

Per abastar una estrella : Verdaguer i el "Cant de Gentil" / Joan Santanach i Suñol

Documenting Italian-American Communities in California

Posted on August 18, 2025August 19, 2025 by Claude Potts

Italians reading war news, North Beach, San Francisco — Photo by Harold Ellwood. Italians reading war news, North Beach, 1935. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. The Bancroft Library. UC Berkeley. BANC PIC 2006.029–NEG box 625, sleeve 092981_01

The UC Berkeley Library has rich collections pertaining to Italian-American communities in California. An online exhibition Italian Americans in California created in 2007 imparts little known facts about centuries of immigrants to the Golden State and is now archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Here are just a few from this marvelously researched exhibit:

Though small in number, Italians were some of the first European explorers and settlers of California. From 1687 to 1711, Father Eusebio Chino (probably pronounced Kee–no) traveled in northern Mexico and Lower California. He was the first person to prove that Lower California was a peninsula, not an island. Other early Italian visitors to the shores of California were sailors and fishermen.
Though we often associate Italians in California with San Francisco, the initial Italian settlers established themselves in such diverse communities as Monterey, Stockton, and San Diego during the years of Spanish Rule. While the majority of Italians settled in the urban centers of the east, many, especially northern Italians came out west. As late as 1890, there were more Italian immigrants on the Pacific coast than in New England.
As early as the 1840s, settlers from Genoa began to arrive in the valleys of northern and central California after hearing their Ligurian (the region that includes Genoa) sailing relatives talk about how ideal the valleys were for vinting. Despite the fact that Liguria is not a major wine producing region in Italy, the wine industry in California was mostly built by Genoese.
The first significant wave of Italian immigrants came to California during the Gold Rush. Those who came quickly moved to buy land or work in service industries, rather than stay in the mines.
The majority of these Italian immigrants to California came from northern Italy. They began building communities, introduced Italian Opera to California in 1851, and founded an Italian language newspaper in San Francisco as early as 1859. Amadeo Giannini founded what became the Bank of America, first known as the Bank of Italy, in 1904 as a way for Italian immigrants to save and borrow small amounts, but the genius of his bank was the first use of branches put in locations closer to his customers.
The aftermath of the Gold Rush brought even more northern Italians to California. The ostentatious wealth of those who succeeded during the Gold Rush years brought with it a demand for stone and marble cutters from Italy to work on the mansions of the newly rich. The fishing grounds and warm climate began to attract Sicilian fishermen, especially in the Bay Area and San Diego.
San Francisco’s Little Italy bounced back from the 1906 earthquake in better shape than ever. At the same time, Italian immigrants had established themselves as the primary fishermen in the San Francisco Bay, and as a major agricultural force as well. Some children of the first wave of immigrants were coming of age in the 1900s to the 1930s, and these achieved greater success than their parents in law, politics, business, and agriculture, especially wine.
The cultural contributions of generations of Italian Americans in San Francisco in particular is impressive. Writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Philip Lamantia and others fostered the Beat movement in the post-World War II years, rebelling against the conventions of mainstream American life (consumerism, racism, homophobia, etc.).

From Doe Library’s collection in the Main Stacks and NRLF, here are some noteworthy publications:

A.P. Giannini : Banker of America / Felice A. Bonadio. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Avanti Popolo : Italian-American Writers Sail beyond Columbus / Edited by the Italian-American Political Solidarity Club. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2008. (in Bancroft)
Beyond Cannery Row : Sicilian Women, Immigration, and Community in Monterey, California, 1915-99 / Carol Lynn McKibben. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
The Brotherhood of the Grape / John Fante. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1999.
Conversations with Diane Di Prima / Edited by David Stephen Calonne. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2022.
Freedom’s Orator : Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960s / Robert Cohen. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2009.
From Italy to San Francisco : The Immigrant Experience / Dino Cinel. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1982.
Fulfilling the Promise of California : An Anthology of Essays on the Italian American Experience in California / Edited by Gloria Ricci Lothrop ; Introduction by Andrew Rolle. Spokane, Wash: California Italian American Task Force and the Arthur H. Clark Co., 2000.
Ferlinghetti : A Life / Neeli Cherkovski. Expanded edition. Boston: Black Sparrow Press, 2022.
Francis Ford Coppola : A Filmmaker’s Life / Michael Schumacher. New York: Crown Publishers, 1999.
Golden Gate / Valenti Angelo. New York: Arno Press, 1975, c.1939.
The Italian Theatre in San Francisco / Compiled by Lawrence Estavan ; Edited by Mary A. Burgess. 1st rev. ed. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 1991.
Kino en California : textos, cartografías y testimonios ; 1683-1711 Carlos Lazcano Sahagún, Gabriel Gómez Padilla. Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, México: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, 2021.
New Italian Migrations to the United States: Vol. 1: Politics and History since 1945 / Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
New Italian Migrations to the United States: Vol. 2: Art and Culture since 1945 / Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
Soft Soil, Black Grapes : The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California / Simone Cinotto ; [Translated from the Italian by Michelle Tarnopolski]. New York: New York University Press, 2012.
Struggle and Success : An Anthology of the Italian Immigrant Experience in California / Edited by Paola A. Sensi-Isolani and Phylis Cancilla Martinelli. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1993.
La valle del vino : un secolo di presenza italiana in California (1850-1950) / Pietro Pinna. Prima edizione. Roma: Viella, 2023.
The Varieties of Ethnic Experience : Kinship, Class, and Gender among California Italian-Americans / Micaela Di Leonardo. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.

At the play [portraits of prominent San Franciscans, California] — Garibaldi, C. G. (active ca. ). At the Play [Portraits of Prominent San Franciscans, California]. Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material. The Bancroft Library. UC Berkeley. BANC PIC 1963.002:0501–E

Select Finding Aids from The Bancroft Library

Early California Italian-American Newspapers in The UC Berkeley Library

ll Corriere del Popolo. San Francisco, CA: Pedretti Bros., 1914-1943, 1948-1967 (lacks issues)
L’Eco d’Italia. San Francisco, CA: Pierino Mori, 1966-1980.
L’Italo-Americano. Los Angeles, CA: Scalabrini Fathers, 1985-2016. Online archive for 2012-present available via UCB only. Former titles: Eco d’Italia and Italo-Americano di Los Angeles
La Voce del Popolo. San Francisco, CA, 1868-1939.

Italian fisherman with no crabs at Fisherman's Wharf. — Italian fisherman with no crabs at Fisherman’s Wharf. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. The Bancroft Library. UC Berkeley. BANC PIC 2006.029–NEG box 644, sleeve 093662_02

See also the website for the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco.

The Passenger: An Unconventional Travel Guide

Posted on June 27, 2025June 27, 2025 by Claude Potts

Published by Europa Editions, The Passenger series offers an unconventional take on typical travel guides with new writing, original photography, art, and reportage from around the world. The series was first launched in 2018 by the independent Italian publisher Iperborea, and was brought into English by Europa in 2020. It has also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean.

The book-magazine travels far and wide to bring back the best writing from the places it visits. It assembles not only reportage, but also long-form journalism and narrative essays with the aim of telling stories of the contemporary life of a place and its inhabitants: “It takes readers beyond the familiar stereotypes to portray the shifting culture and identity of a place, its public debates, the sensibilities of its people, its burning issues, its pleasures and its pain.”

An Author Recommends section provides cultural tips on books, films, music and more from contemporary authors such as Valeria Luisell (Mexico), Banana Yoshimoto (Japan), Enrique Vila-Matas (Barcelona), Pitchaya Sudbanthad (Thailand), Paolo Macry (Naples), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) and more. Digging Deeper provides short bibliographies for further reading, and The Playlist links to curated Spotify playlists of music from the featured city, country, or region. To date there have been eighteen volumes published in English, and all are shelved in Morrison Library’s travel section, waiting for their next trip.

The Passenger: Mediterranean — Mediterranean
(on order)

The Passenger: South Korea — South Korea

Recent Shipment of Lusophone African Literature

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Claude Potts

*Map of Luso-African Literary Publishers by City generated by Bee Lehman*

More than 80 works of literature from Angola, Cabo Verde, and Mozambique arrived in Doe Library last week. This selection of poetry, short stories, and novels in Portuguese was made possible through a generous 3-year grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) in Lisbon. The absence of Lusophone African literature from mainstream African literary studies (mostly in English and French) has been noted by contemporary scholars. These new works of post-colonial fiction and verse listed below are held by few academic libraries and reflect the UC Berkeley Library’s longstanding commitment to collect and make accessible underrepresented voices from across the world in more than 400 distinct languages. Please enjoy this curated list by book dealer Susanne Bach Books which provides a snapshot of the rich literary output from Lusophone Africa over the past three years:

100 poemas para Neto / Poetas da União dos Escritores Angolanos. Luanda, Angola: EAL – Edições de Angola, 2022.

A greve das palavras: contos juvenis / Celso Celestino Cossa. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique : Editorial Fundza, 2024.

A intimidade das sementes: narrativas / Amílcar Armando Raja. Maputo, Moçambique: Gala-Gala Edições, 2024.

A queda do Macombe Chipapata: tramas e revoltas / Celestino Joanguete. Maputo, Moçambique: Ethale Publishing, 2024.

Almas em tácitas / Lino Mukurruza. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2023.

Amei para me amar / Nyeleti. Inhambene do Céu, Moçambique: Massinhane Edições, 2024.

Amores da província: 3 novelas / Benjamim Pedro João. Maputo, Moçambique: Edições Tarymba, 2022.

Amores e outras cores / Armindo António. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus, 2024.

Antologia mulheres e seus destinos / vol. IV :coord., org. Lena Marçal. Cidade da Praia, Cabo Verde :[s.n.], 2024.

As coisas do morto / Francisco Guita Jr. Maputo, Moçambique: Gala-Gala Edições, 2024.

As peripécias de Caia: I volume da trilogia / Benjamim Pedro João. Maputo, Mozambique: Edições Tarymba, 2024.

Até depois da solidão: o diário de Ricardo / Nunes Cristovão; Osvaldo dos Anjos (Exilado). Maputo, Moçambique: Ntxuva Editora, 2023.

Boleia à chave da felicidade / Roberto Savanguanni. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique:Editorial Fundza, 2023.

Canção de setembro para Zamuzaria Maria / Rafael da Câmara. Maputo, Moçambique:Gala-Gala edições, 2023.

Criação do fogo / Álvaro Fausto Taruma.Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

De neve e de bruma = Di nevi i di serason / José Luiz Tavares; ilustrações de Yuran Henrique.Kabuverdi: Gongon Cartoneira, 2022.

Dedicatória: as minhas experiências mais gratificantes e as que não me orgulho / Abilito O Negro. Chimoio, Moçambique: Sguerra DEsign, 2022.

Deixa-me escrever-te / Timóteo Papel. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Fundza, 2023.

Delírios matinais / Emerson D’ Oliveira.Maputo, Moçambique: Edição de autor, 2022.

Dias rasgados ao meio / Jorge de Oliveira. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2023.

Dicionário de pequenas solidões / Ronaldo Cagiano. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus, 2024.

Escritores emergentes de Moçambique (antologia) / Benjamim Pedro João. Maputo, Moçambique: Edições Tarymba, 2022.

Estórias trazidas pela ventania / Adelino Albano Luís. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Editorial Fundza, 2023.

Eterno cacimbo / Mavu Keyambata. Luanda: Palavra e arte, 2023.

Eu te amo, tu és linda! Josina Costa Viegas. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores; Clube de Leitura de Qualimane, 2024.

Filosofar dos Corpos / Atanásio Mutoropa. Beira: Fundza, 2024.

Fui para dentro de mim e não voltei / Mauro da Silva. 2ª ed. Inhambene-Céu, Moçambique: Massinhane Edições, 2024.

Geba: onde o Tâmega desaguou no Índico / Miguel César. Maputo, Moçambique: Fundação Fernando Leite Couto, 2022.

Ginástica nictofóbica da terra / Wilton dos Zicas. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2023.

Há exorcismos em Njofane / Vitorino Ubisse Oliveira. Inhambane, Mozambique: Massinhane, 2023.

Incêndios à margem do sono / Óscar Fanheiro. Maputo, Moçambique: Fundação Fernando Couto, 2023.

Kwashala blues / Jessemusse Cacinda. Maputo, Moçambique: Ethale, 2023.

Lesões da memória / Ernesto Maluleque Júnior. Maputo, Moçambique: Ethale Publishing, 2024.

Makhalelo: cocktail de crónicas / Adriano Félix. Maputo, Moçambique: Editorial Fundza, 2022.

Mandume: o rei de Oukwanyama / Cigano Satyohamba. Luanda, Angola: Edição do autor, 2021.

Masika: o intuitivo / A’mosi Just A Label. Luanda, Angola: Konono Soul Books, 2023.

Masingita ou a subtileza do incesto / Juvenal Bucuane. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Editorial Fundza, 2022.

Memória subterrânea / Mudungazi. Maputo: Editora Kulera, 2024.

Meninas do crepúsculo Leste / Cecília António Moreira. Luanda, Angola: Editora Acácias,2024.

Mulher e marido / Manuel Rui. Luanda, Angola: Mayamba Editora, 2024.

Mutiladas / Eduardo Quive. Maputo, Mozambique: Editora Catalogus, 2024.

Nas areias do tempo / Luís Cezerilo. Maputo, Moçambique: Editora Lithangu, 2024.

Antologia mulheres e seus destinos vol. IV

De neve e de bruma = Di nevi i di serason

Navegar. Amor. Café. /Ruben Morgado. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus, 2024.

Névoa na sala/ Mélio Tinga. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus Editora, 2024.

Novas vozes, novas estórias / Abrahama Zacarias Noé. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus, 2024.

Nunca me abandones / Alcides Simões. Praia, Cabo Verde: Livraria Pedro Cardoso, 2023.

O amor de uma prostituta / Flora Salvador. Luanda, Angola: É Sobre Nós Editora, 2023.

O Amor que há em ti / Larsan Mendes Beira: Editorial Fundza. 2022.

O amor, o gato preto e outras insónias / José Pedro Pinto Lobo. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

O descalço dos murmúrios / Gibson João. Maputo, Moçambique: Fundação Fernando Leite Couto, 2023.

O endereço para dentro do segredo / Baptista Américo. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Editorial Fundza, 2024.

O galo cantou na baía… :(e outros contos cabo-verdeanos) / Manuel Lopes. Praia, Cabo Verde: Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional de Cabo Verde, 2023.

O Inventário da Memória: Ensaios/ José dos Remédios (org). Beira, Moçambique: Fundza, 2024.

O lado sujo da metáfora / Jeconias Mocumbe. Maputo, Moçambique: GalaGala Edições, 2024.

O louco que habita em nós: perversão por detrás da aparência / Catarino Luamba. Luanda: Kilunji, 2024.

O manual das mãos / Eduardo White. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance, 2022.

O retrato dos demónios / Naji Sacaúnha.Inhambene-Céu, Moçambique: Massinhane Edições, 2024.

Observador de sonhos / Bruno Morgado. Maputo, Moçambique: Catalogus, 2024.

Orera: um conto de amor e honestidade / Hélder Tsemba. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Editora Fundza, 2023.

Os bichos têm dono: estórias verídicas / Almiro Lobo. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

Os funerais de Manguituka, o terrível bandido e outros mambos / Albino Carlos.Luanda, Angola: Editora Acácias, 2023.

Os heróis que não sabiam voar /Honório Quimbuari. Luanda, Angola: Imprensa Nacional, 2023.

Os lobos não podem esperar / Natacha Magalhães. Praia, Cabo Verde: Pedro Cardoso Livraria,2022.

Os pores-do-sol / Lahissane. Maputo, Moçambique: Ethale Publishing, 2022.

Os últimos animais / Whaskety Fernando. idade da Beira, Moçambique: Editora Fundza, 2023.

Pedaços da eternidade / Piedade Manuel. Benguela, Angola: Editora Shalom, 2024.

Peneiras de poalha / Humberto Santos. Cidade da Praia, Cabo Verde: Livraria Pedro Cardoso, 2023.

Pétalas negras: ou a sombra do inanimado / Belmiro Mouzinho. Cidade da Beira, Moçambique: Fundza, 2022.

Pita kufa: o leito da morte / Carlos Paradona Rufino Roque. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

Poemas de infância e o reencontro com o passado – presente / Joaquim Nhampoca.Maputo, Moçambique: Edição de Autor, 2022.

Poemas do breve / Lex Mucache. Beira; Fundza, 2024.

Quando os mochos piam: contos / Geremias Mendoso. Maputo, Moçambique: Fundação Fernando Leite Couto, 2022.

Quarentena /Jorge Ferrão. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance editores, 2024.

Raízes e gritos / Lorna Zita. Maputo, Moçambique: Editora Kulera,2023.

Saudades do ventre da minha mãe / Márcio Batalha. Luanda, Angola: Editora Acácias, 2022.

Siavuma 100 anos / org. Ricardo Santos. Maputo: Alcance editores, 2024.

Singularidades IV: estudos africanos / Lourenço Rosário. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

Sonata de uma nação vagabunda / Mudungazi.Maputo, Moçambique: Editora Kulera, 2024.

Sopro / Nelson Lineu. Maputo, Moçambique: TPC Editora, 2023.

Tanto amor / Kaya M. Maputo, Moçambique: Editora Kulera, 2023.

Te amo mecanicamente / Marco Lole de Andrade. Songo, Moçambique: Soletra Editora, 2022.

Uma onça na cidade / Deusa D’África. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance editores, 2024.

Verdades dos mitos / Hélder Muteia. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2023.

Yolela / Zaki Wamai. Luanda, Angola: É Sobre Nós Editora, 2024.

Zero sobre zero: o espião que veio de Kigali / Aurélio Furdela. Maputo, Moçambique: Alcance Editores, 2024.

Zeus, quando é cão / Francisco Muianga. Beira, Moçambique. Editorial Fundza 2022.

Visit the Iberian Studies library research guide for more books about Luso-African Literature and Criticism.

New ebooks from Editorial Iberoamericana

Posted on April 11, 2025April 21, 2025 by Claude Potts

Just in time for the end of the semester, a couple hundred ebooks have recently flown in from from Spain from publishers like Akal, CSIC, Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Ediciones Universidad de Cantabria, Plaza y Valdés, Dickinson, Editorial Egales, Trotta Editorial, Ediciones Complutense and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. All are available through the Digitalia Hispánica platform. Below are some highlighted from Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert available to you wherever you may find yourselves this summer:

Bibliographie de la littérature française (BLF)

Posted on March 4, 2025March 4, 2025 by Claude Potts

The UC Berkeley Library has initiated a database trial to the Bibliographie de la littérature française (BLF). The trial ends on March 31, 2025.

Originally part (from 1894) of the quarterly issues of the Revue d’Histoire littéraire de la France (RHLF), and since 2002, it has been an annual volume published in special editions. It gathers together references of French and Francophone literatures from the 16th century to the present day. The BLF was first published by Armand Colin until 1997; then by the Presses Universitaires de France; and since 2017 by Classiques Garnier.

Since 1996, the BLF has been the result of the joint work of a team at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, who is in charge of the indexing, and the Société d’histoire littéraire de France. The digital publisher of the BLF, Classiques Garnier Numérique, ensures the technical management and updates of the database.

The BLF is updated daily, as soon as new publications are indexed. Thanks to this, it constitutes a unique tool for researchers, teachers, students, and all those who are seeking to inform themselves about French literature, writers, subjects or periods. More than 200,000 detailed records from 1998 to the present day are currently online, including 105,000+ book chapters; 75,000+ journal articles; and 28,000+ reviews.

If you are accessing the resource from an off-campus location, please log in using proxy or VPN. Feedback is welcome and can be sent to cpotts@berkeley.edu at any time.

image of man typing — https://fr.freepik.com

New Library Guide for Iberian Literatures

Posted on February 1, 2025February 6, 2025 by Claude Potts

Today, we are launching a new library research guide for Iberian Literatures & Criticism. The new guide will improve navigation and discovery in UC Berkeley’s vast literature collection in Romance languages, mostly found in a classification commonly known as the PQs. Over the course of the past year, we have critically reviewed the former guides, weeded outdated resources, and replaced them with more current content with links to digital resources when available.

This literary research guide, like the others for Italian and French & Francophone literatures launched last year, is now benefiting from the LibGuides platform, which makes it much easier to revise than the former PDFs. The guide is structured by sections for article databases, general guides and literary histories, reference tools, poetry, theater & performance, and literary periods. In addition to literature in Spanish and Portuguese, it also includes less commonly taught literatures and languages such as Catalan, Galician, Basque, Arabic, Ladino, and more. There is also a new section for Luso-African and Hispano-African literature.

The online guide also interfaces seamlessly with related guides published by the UC Berkeley Library. For example, on the home page, there is a prominent link to the online list of recently acquired publications on the general Spanish & Portuguese guide, making it even easier to stay current on new books in all of the call number ranges.

Because the guides are much easier to update, they encourage user interaction and invite community suggestions for inclusion (or deletion).

When you have time, please take a look at this new resource and let us know what you think.

Claude Potts, Romance Languages Librarian
Cameron Flynn, RLL Doctoral Candidate

Library event: Que vlo-ve? and Le Mot

Posted on January 21, 2025January 22, 2025 by Claude Potts

In these austere times where both financial resources and shelving space are limited, it has become a rare occasion when we are able to pursue full-runs of older periodicals. However, the recent acquisition of these two—one from France and the other from Belgium—in more or less the same time period has sparked the idea of hosting a hands-on journal presentation for those interested in interacting with the journals before the issues are processed, cataloged, bound, and stored in their distinct library locations.

Que vlo-ve?: bulletin de l’Association internationale des amis de Guillaume Apollinaire was published from January 1973 to 2004. Centered on the work of the celebrated 20th century French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Polish descent, its intention was not to duplicate articles published in the annual Guillaume Apollinaire series by Lettres Modernes. Instead, it was meant to welcome articles that could not easily find a place, news of the association and of the museum as well as news that members of the scholarly society wished to disseminate internationally.

Le Mot (1914-1915)

Sardonic and visually rich, this wartime French literary and artistic journal published by Jean Cocteau and Paul Iribe, was characterized by a restrained modernism and a fiercely nationalistic, anti-German perspective. Le Mot (The Word) was a wartime sequel to François Bernouard’s Schéhérazade: Album Mensuel d’Oeuvres Inédites d’Art et de Littérature (1909-11). Its primary purpose was to establish an entirely French artistic style and taste—anti-bourgeois and uninfluenced by German modernism.

Reports of the brutal treatment of noncombatants (such as mass executions that included women, small children, and the elderly) and damage to towns and cultural centers shocked the public, leading to a characterization, particularly within France, of the German soldiers as destructive and uncivilized “huns” particularly within wartime propaganda. The bi-monthly periodical included cover designs by not only Iribe and Cocteau but also Sem, Raoul Dufy, Léon Bakst, André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, and Pierre-Emile Legrain. Cocteau signed his drawings as Jim, the name of his dog. In August 1914, when war was declared with Germany, he was twenty-five years old. Like many patriotic young Frenchmen, Cocteau tried to enlist but was turned down because of his health. Looking for other ways to serve his country and the war effort, he collaborated with Iribe to launch Le Mot. As a teenager, Iribe drew illustrations for the popular caricature journal L’Assiette au Beurre (The Butter Plate), which ran from 1902 to 1912. He also freelanced for Le Témoin, Rire, Sourire and other periodicals and was enthusiastic about starting a satirical journal of his own.

Please join us for an interactive show and tell with special guest Willard Bohn, alumnus of the Department of French and Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at Illinois State University.

Thursday, February 6
4-5:30 pm
223 Doe Library (accessible through south end of the Heyns Reading Room)

No rsvp required.

—-
Claude H. Potts (he/him)
Librarian for Romance Language Collections

Meeting of Library’s Global & Area Studies Interest Group

Posted on January 21, 2025February 6, 2025 by Claude Potts

United Nations: For all children a safe tomorrow-IF you do your part — United Nations: For All Children a Safe Tomorrow-IF You Do Your Part. Issued by United Nations, Department of Public Information. United Nations poster collection, circa 1940s. The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. BANC PIC 2005.010:002–D

On Wednesday, January 15, members of the newly formed Global & Area Studies Interest Group (GASIG) convened via Zoom to discuss new directions and topics of interest for librarians and staff working on international issues and themes at UC Berkeley. The knowledge sharing group provides a forum for Library employees to address issues related to supporting teaching, learning and research about specific world regions and countries, as well as international and global studies broadly. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: collection development, collection management, digitization, metadata and discovery issues, campus partnerships, and fundraising.

Since its founding in 1868, students and faculty at UC Berkeley have concerned themselves with a breathtaking range of languages. In support of teaching and research, the University Library, which collects and preserves materials in all languages, now boasts a collection of nearly fourteen million volumes. It is among the largest academic libraries in the U.S. with more than one third of its print resources in more than 400 non-English languages, and even more in digital formats. Over a dozen Berkeley departments offer instruction in more than sixty languages.

The group will meet once or twice per semester, communicate via a group email list, and endeavors to host a series of educational events such as a library resource showcase featuring both hidden and well-known collections. Membership is open to all interested UC Berkeley Library employees across units, functions, and classifications. José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez (Bancroft Library) and Claude Potts (Arts & Humanities Division) are co-facilitators for the first two years. For more information or to join the group, please either one of us directly.