Teaching sociolinguistics through literature: a proposal to study Italian language varieties

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility of using literary texts as a non-normative approach to the study of language. Reflections on didactic matters are based on the sociolinguistic analysis of the novel Dove troverete un altro padre come il mio by Rossana Campo. Tha authors show that features of different registers, regional varieties and dialects systematically co-exist in the language of the characters and of the narrator.