French Linguistics and Literary Studies
Subject librarian
In order not to feel the horrible burden of time breaking your shoulders and bending you towards the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
Charles Baudelaire
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But get drunk.
Curated list of the last months (from 20.08.2025)
Here you will find curated lists of subject-specific databases and journals from the holdings of Basel University Library. The lists are not exhaustive and are continuously maintained.
Subject-specific training courses (in German)
The subject librarian is happy to assist you with individual questions regarding information research for projects in French linguistics and literary studies (developing a search strategy, searching in the library catalogue and subject databases, etc.). Please contact the subject librarian directly.
All training opportunities
An overview of all training opportunities available at the University Library (guided tours, reference managment, etc.) can be found here.
Internet resources
CLARIN-CH digital language ressources
Access to corpora in various languages
Romanistik.de
Most important Internet resource for Romanists in the German-speaking countries (in German)
FID Romanistik: Forschungsdaten
Valuable information from the German Fachinformationsdienst Romanistik related to research data (in German)
Library catalogues
Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
Catalogue of the National Library of France (BnF)
Le Catalogue Collectif de France (CCFr)
Access to the French library network union catalogue comprising BnF, Sudoc (système universtaire de documentation) and Base Patrimoine (catalogue des fonds anciens et spéciaux)
Bibliothèque de l'Université Laval
Access to the French-Canadian library network
Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale (Réro)
Catalogue of the library network in Western Switzerland
Freely accessible online databases
Gallica
Digital library of the National Library of France. Extensive full-text database predominantly from BnF holdings (primary and secondary literature, image and audio files about French culture)
ABU: La Bibliothèque Universelle
Access to selected works by modern French-speaking authors (16th to early 20th century) in full text
Athena: textes français
Numerous full texts in French
University Library holdings
Primary literature:
- critical editions of canonical French-speaking authors in the original language
- selected French fiction in the original language
- a few selected titles of canonical authors and modern fiction also in German translation
Secondary literature:
- important lexicons, dictionaries, bibliographies, etc.
- comprehensive works of the French language and French-language literature (such as literature and language histories, grammars, etc.)
- a wide provision of basic monographic literature on topics relevant to teaching and research, mainly in French, German and English
- important literary, linguistic and cultural journals
Historical collections:
- significant holdings of primary and secondary literature
No holdings:
- language teaching material, textbooks for French as a foreign language
- works on literature and language didactics
- children's and young adult literature
Libraries with additional holdings
- Bibliothek Maiengasse. Library of the Department of French Linguistics and Literary Studies Basel
in additional to basic resources, selected research literature on key topics of research and teaching in this subject area - Pädagogisches Zentrum PZ.BS
Language teaching materials and works on literary and linguistic didactics - GGG Stadtbibliothek
Fiction (also translations), language teaching materials, literature on topics of interest for the general public, children's and young adult literature