Italian in Translation (ITTR) Courses – Taught in English
ITTR 3559 – New Course: Italian in Translation “Narrating (Un-)sustainability: Ecocritical Explorations in Italy and the Mediterranean” with Enrico Cesaretti
TuTh 12:30-1:45PM in Nau Hall 242
This course focuses on the potential narratives have to convey messages that are relevant to our ethical and environmental awareness, and to stimulate critical strategies that encourage to imagine alternatives to existing systems of knowledge and distributions of power. As we shall expand the notion of ‘text’ to include all material formations (landscapes, bodies, matters), in the first half of this course, students will learn about the origins and general objectives of ecocriticism, and various approaches to the notion of sustainability. In the second section, taking the Italian/Mediterranean area as an interpretive, local key that may enlighten the situation of many other, global places, we shall travel up and down throughout the Italian peninsula, and encounter a selection of “material narratives” (i.e. the interlaced stories co-emerging simultaneously from places, literature, artworks, films and documentaries) which may contribute to shape our environmental consciousness, and affect our ethical attitude in the era of the Anthropocene.
ITTR 3559 (Cross-listed with WGS 3559) – New Course in Italian Translation “Italy on Screen: Sex, Gender and Racial Identities in the Global Context” with Francesca Calamita
MoWe 3:30-4:45PM in Nau Hall 142
This course considers representations of sex, gender and racial identities in Italian films, television, advertisements and other forms of visual culture. With a focus on the contemporary Italian context, students will explore issues of intersectionality from a global perspective. An intersectional feminist approach will frame class discussion, where, Italian society and its culture will be read through a perspective that emphasizes the interconnectedness between gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, social class and immigration status, among other layers of identity. Lectures will offer a close reading of both critically acclaimed and more mainstream works, trying to answer the following question: what can Italian cinema, television and advertising tell us about diversity and inclusion in the worldwide context?
ITTR 4820 – Italian Pop Culture from the 1960s to the Present with Enrico Cesaretti
TuTh 11:00-12:15PM in Nau Hall 242
This course examines, from a cultural/historical perspective, the social, economic, and political transformations that took place in Italy during its recent history, from the post WWII “miracle years” of the industrial boom in the late 50s and 60s, until today’s struggles with the multifaceted dynamics of globalization. By discussing different cultural artifacts and media (film, literature, music, advertisements, comic books) in the period under consideration, together with a selection of relevant critical essays, we shall investigate not only how the (popular) arts reflected, supported, resisted and, in general, commented upon such transformations, but also their frequent dialogues and exchanges with American culture.