Rita FRESU (Rome, 1967) is Full Professor of Italian Linguistics (L-PHIL-LIT/12, SC 10/F3 – Linguistica e Filologia italiana) at the University of Cagliari. Previously a permanent researcher (2004-2011) and Associate Professor (confirmed in post) (2011-2018) in the same university, she graduated at the University “La Sapienza” in Rome, where she earned her Ph.D. in History of the Italian and Vernacular Languages. She taught Italian L2 at the University of Nitra (Slovak Republic), and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University for Foreigners in Siena as well as an Adjunct Professor at LUMSA in Rome.
She is a member of the Ph. D Board in Linguistics (Roma Tre University, in agreement with Rome, “La Sapienza” University); she has supervised, and continues to supervise, various Ph.D. dissertations; she participated in various Ph.D. examination committees.
She is a member of ASLI (Associazione per la Storia della Lingua Italiana); SILFI (Società Internazionale di Filologia e Linguistica Italiana); SLiR (Société de Linguistique Romane); CSGGB (Centro Studi “Giuseppe Gioachino Belli”); and DASP (Deputazione di Storia Patria negli Abruzzi, of which she has been a Deputy since 2016, and member of Scientific Committee, too). For the period 2018-2020 she was a advisor member of the ASLI Scientific Board; in the same three-year period, she was a member of the ASLI Scuola Scientific Board, too. Since 2022 she is national Coordinator of ASLI Scuola.
She also is a member of Scientific Committee of Centro di Studi Delollisiani and of CISC (Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani).
She is a member of the scientific committee of several journals and book series in the philological-linguistic field (including the series “Vulgare Latium. Lingua testi storia”, Milan, FrancoAngeli, and the journal Women Language Literature in Italy/Donne Lingua Letteratura in Italia, Pisa-Rome, Fabrizio Serra); a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Contributi di Filologia dell’Italia Mediana; also she is co-editor (with S. Bozzola, R. Cella, D. Colussi, C. De Caprio) of the «Giornale di Storia della Lingua Italiana», and co-editor (with M. G. Bianco and A. Volpato) of the new series of Quaderni del Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani.
She is registered in REPRISE (at MIUR) and is a peer reviewer of national (VQR, PRIN, ecc.) and international (SNSNF-Swiss National Science Foundation) research project, as well as of books and specialist journals with double-blind peer review.
She is Associated Investigator for Unit of University of Cagliari in the project PRIN «Atlante della lingua e dei testi della cultura gastronomica italiana dall’età medievale all’Unità [AtLiTeG] / Atlas of language and of texts and Italian gastronomic culture from the Italian Medieval period to Unification [AtLaTIG]» (Principal Investigator prof. Giovanna Frosini, Università per Stranieri di Siena; bando 2017).
She was the Principal Investigator of the biennial research project «Trasmettere il sapere, orientare il comportamento: tipologia linguistica, generi testuali, modelli culturali della prosa educativa», funded as part of the agreement between the Sardinia Foundation and Sardinian Universities (University of Cagliari, 2017) and of the biennial research project «Maschile/Femminile nella letteratura di formazione dalle culture antiche all’età moderna: modelli, rappresentazioni, stereotipi», funded by RAS-Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Fondo di Sviluppo e Coesione 2014-2020 – Intervento di sostegno alla ricerca (annualità 2017; progetti di ricerca di base).
She has participated in various funded projects, including «Viaggio allegorico e psicomachia tra Francia e Italia: tradizioni formali e modelli culturali» (P.I. prof. P. Serra, START UP – Fund in support of basic research and start-up for young researchers (5%), University of Cagliari; 2011-2012) and as a senior member of the research team for the project «Disaster Texts. Literacy, Cultural Identity, Coping Strategies In Southern Italy Between The Late Medieval And Early Modern Period» (P.I. prof. C. De Caprio, University of Naples “Federico II”), funded within the STAR 2013 programme in preparation for the ERC Grant (Compagnia di San Paolo-University of Naples “Federico II”). She is a member of the international Advisory Board for the quinquennial research project «Disasters, Communication and Politics in Southwestern Europe. The Making of Emergency Response Policies in the Early Moern Age (DisComPoSE)», funded for ERC-Starting Grant 2017 (Programme STAR 2016; P. I. prof. D. Cecere, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”; 2018-2023).
She delivered papers on historical-linguistic topics at many national and international conferences, and she was invited to hold in-service and advanced training courses, seminars and conferences at various universities, organisations and institutions in Italy (University for Foreigners in Perugia, Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani, PLIDA Società Dante Alighieri) and abroad (Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland).
She collaborated at LEI (Lessico Etimologico Italiano), edited by Max Pfister (University of Saarland). She has contributed to several lexicographical projects led by Raffaele Simone with the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani (for example, the Dizionario dei Sinonimi e Contrari and the Enciclopedia dell’Italiano) and with the publisher Utet (for example, the Grande Dizionario Analogico della Lingua Italiana).
She has primarily worked on non-institutional writings from various chronological periods and of various typologies (letters, utilitarian and bureaucratic documents, autobiographies, chronicles and diaries) from the Tuscan, central-Italian, and the northernmost southern area, and on Italianization processes (particularly with reference to Rome and the Abruzzi). She has conducted research on the relationships between the diageneric variable (class of text) and linguistic phenomena (with specific in-depth studies in the spelling, syntactical-textual and lexical fields); on asymmetrical communication (especially in relation to the textual typology of the letter addressed to an authority); on women’s literacy and writing and on issues of gender in Italian linguistic history.
She has published numerous historic-linguistic studies, many of which have been included in Class-A journals and in international publications (see Publications), which cover the period from the 14th century to the present time. She is the author of several critical editions with linguistic analyzes and various monographs such as «Caro Peppe mio… tua Cicia». L’epistolario di Maria Conti Belli al marito e al figlio, edizione critica, commento linguistico e glossario, Roma, Aracne, 2006; La Cronaca teramana del canonico Angelo de Jacobis, L’Aquila, Colacchi, 2006; L’altra Roma. Percorsi di italianizzazione tra dame, sante, popolani nella storia della città (e della sua regione), Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2008; Lingua italiana del Novecento. Scritture private, nuovi linguaggi, gender, Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2008; with F. Sanguineti and A. Russo, Studi guacciani, Napoli, Filema, 2010; with D. Caocci, P. Serra, L. Tanzini, La parola utile. Saggi sul discorso morale nel Medioevo, Roma, Carocci, 2012.
In the monograph Tra specchi e manichini. La lingua fantastica di Massimo Bontempelli, Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2008 she focused on investigations aimed at identifying the linguistic output of the category of the “fantastic” through analysis of the narrative and theatrical production of Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960); on this topic she has also published Stefano Lazzarin, Felice Italo Beneduce, Eleonora Conti, Fabrizio Foni, Rita Fresu, Claudia Zudini, Il fantastico italiano. Bilancio critico e bibliografia commentata (dal 1980 a oggi), Firenze-Milano, Le Monnier Università-Mondadori Education, 2016.
She has also explored lexical and semantic aspects of chromonyms in the Italian language, the lexicon of card games, and the textual typology of information leaflets for pharmaceutical products with particular attention to their textual and pragmatic aspect (and in comparison with other languages). She has then launched a specific line of research devoted to the linguistic history of the tourist-art guide, with reference to some examples of the genre produced in the 17th century.
She has dealt with the language of contemporary women’s literature in Sardinia and in particular with the novels of Milena Agus and Michela Murgia.
On the occasion of the celebrations of the centenary of World War I, she has edited a collection of essays by various writers who deal with the relationship between the war and language through analysis of different textual typologies, with constant attention to the double perspective of writing produced “by the people” and intended “for the people” («questa guerra non è mica la guerra mia». Scritture, contesti, linguaggi durante la Grande guerra, a cura di R. Fresu, Roma, il Cubo, 2015), and has published, with Barbara Cappai, the monograph Donne e Grande guerra. La lingua e stile dei diari delle crocerossine. Il caso di Sita Camperio Meyer, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2018.
One of her main fields of research concerns the language of educational publishing and of women’s (para-)literature between the 19th and the 20th century, with reference to books of etiquette and manuals of conduct for unmarried women and young spouses, to women’s pedagogical theatre. On these iusses: L’infinito pulviscolo. Tipologia linguistica della (para)letteratura femminile in Italia tra Otto e Novecento, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2016; «Sposa amante ed amata». Galateo coniugale tra Otto e Novecento. Lingua e stile, con la riedizione di un testo raro di Anna Vertua Gentile, Milano, Biblion Edizioni, 2021; with Stefania Sotgiu, Editoria cattolica femminile tra Otto e Novecento. La lingua della produzione educativa di suor Maria Vincenti, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2021. She has edited two miscellaneous volumes: Trasmettere il sapere, orientare il comportamento. Tipologia linguistica, generi testuali, modelli culturali della prosa educativa, Firenze, Franco Cesati Editore, 2020 e Maschile/Femminile nella letteratura di formazione dalle culture antiche all’età contemporanea. Modelli, rappresentazioni, stereotipi, Perugia, Morlacchi Editore U.P., 2 voll., 2021. She has published, with Valeria Melis, Le amiche di Lisistrata. Lingua, genere, comicità nel tempo, Perugia, Morlacchi Editore U.P., 2021.