Italian Spring 2018

Italian (ITAL) Courses – Taught in Italian

ITAL 1020 – Elementary Italian II

Please check SIS for sections, dates, times, locations, and instructors.

Elementary Italian II is the second class in the four-course sequence that is necessary to complete the foreign language requirement. In this course, students will learn to narrate in all tenses of the indicative, express opinions, make hypotheses, and give orders. They will improve their writing skills by producing a number of original texts, including blog posts, essays, and articles. Students will also develop their ability to understand spoken Italian by listening to songs, commercials, and movie clips, and they will read and study song lyrics, newspaper headlines, poems, and some short stories. Students of Elementary Italian II will also have many occasions to learn more about life in contemporary Italy as they study the country’s language.

60% of this course will take place face to face during regularly scheduled class meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while 40% of the work must be completed online both through the Connect website and the students’ personal e-Portfolios.

ITAL 2020 – Intermediate Italian II

Please check SIS for sections, dates, times, locations, and instructors.

ITAL 2020 Intermediate Italian II is the fourth class in the four-course sequence which fulfills the language requirement. In this course, students will further develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as deepen their cultural literacy in Italian. You will accomplish these goals with the guidance of your instructor, through review of grammar, short readings, compositions, and listening and speaking activities. Students will also have the opportunity to listen to songs, comment on works of art, watch commercials and short films, read and write newspaper articles, analyze how the Italian language reflects the movement towards gender parity, and meet natives of Italy in your quest to become more confident and competent users of the Italian language.

Much like learning to play a sport or a musical instrument, studying a foreign language requires constant practice. Therefore, all course activities will be conducted in Italian.

ITAL 2030 – Intermediate Italian for Professionals with Sandro Puiatti

MoWeFr 1:00-1:50AM in New Cabell Hall 027

Intermediate Italian II for Professionals is the fourth class in the four-course sequence which fulfills the language requirement. In this course, students will further develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as deepen their cultural literacy in Italian. You will accomplish these goals with the guidance of your instructor, through review of grammar, short readings, compositions, and listening and speaking activities. Students will also have the opportunity to understand and appreciate Italian cultural practices in professional and commercial contexts, and to learn the specific listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that are necessary in a professional environment.

This is a flipped class, which means that students will learn grammar and vocabulary at home, and class time will be devoted to meaningful, authentic, and interactive practice relative to real-world scenarios. Much like learning to play a sport or a musical instrument, studying a foreign language requires constant practice. Therefore, all course activities will be conducted in Italian.

ITAL 3020 – Advanced Italian II with Enrico Cesaretti

MoWeFr 12:00-12:50PM in Nau Hall 242

Prerequisite: ITAL 2020

ITAL 3020 - This course focuses on a selective review of Italian grammar and especially aims at boosting students' language skills. Emphasis will be on conversation, composition and vocabulary enrichment. 

ITAL 3720 – Novella (Italian Short Narrative) with Enrico Cesaretti

MoWeFr 11:00-11:50AM in Nau Hall 242

The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the long-standing and flexible genre of the Italian "novella" (short story) and to assess its continuous efficacy as a medium able to synthetically address a wide range of aesthetic, ethical, political and social-environmental issues. The course also aims at boosting students’ language skills and, therefore, requires extensive reading, discussing and writing in Italian.

 

Italian in Translation (ITTR) Courses – Taught in English

ITTR 2260 – Dante in Translation with Deborah Parker

MoWe 2:00-3:15PM in New Cabell Hall 042

T.S. Eliot wrote that “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third.” We’ll pursue this bold statement through a close reading of the Inferno, the most intricate account of the afterlife ever written. This course will examine what makes this brilliant poem one of the acclaimed classics of western culture. We will explore the organization of Hell, its inhabitants, the nature of evil, Dante’s exile, and the rich tradition of visual material the poem has inspired from manuscript illustrations to Botticelli to more recent artists such as Gustave Doré and William Blake. Lectures will draw on The World of Dante (www.worldofdante.org) a multimedia site that offers a wide range of digital materials related to the Comedy.

ITTR 3680 (Cross-listed with WGS 3680) – Eve's Sinful Bite: Foodscapes in Women's Writing Culture and Society with Francesca Calamita

MoWeFr 11:00-11:50AM in Dell 2 101

This course explores how Italian women writers have represented food in their short stories, novels and autobiographies in dialogue with the culture and society from late nineteenth century to the present. Looking how cooking and serving meals to others, while denying themselves the pleasure of eating, are depicted in Italian women’s writing helps us understand the role food and food-related-activities have played, and still play, in women’s lives. These lectures will offer a close reading of the symbolic meaning of food in narrative and the way it intersects with Italian women’s socio-cultural history and the feminist movement, addressing issues of gender, identity and politics of the body.

ITTR 3960 – Mafiosi vs. Goodfellas: Organized Crime on Film in Italy & the USA with Sarah Annunziato

MoWeFr 1:00-1:50PM in Gibson Hall 141

Whether called “the mob,” “the Mafia,” “Camorra,” “’Ndrangheta,” or “Cosa Nostra,” organized crime has fascinated filmmakers in both Italy and the United States for decades.  But, how does each country’s cinematic tradition typically portray this phenomenon and its effects on law, politics, and the individual? Do the differing origins of organized crime in both nations influence the ways in which filmmakers depict it? How much do real-life law enforcement officials and mobsters influence films about organized crime in both countries?  How does audience reaction affect the portrayal? What effect do mob films have on the southern question in Italy, or on the perpetuation of stereotypes in the U.S.A.?

This course will examine these questions through a close-reading of films from both Italy and the United States. During the semester, students will become conversant with basic aspects of film theory and analysis, study the origins of organized crime in each nation, discuss the effects of this type of crime on Italy and the Italian diaspora in America, and examine the similarities and differences in the cinematic representations of this phenomenon in both countries.

 

Spring
2018
Undergraduate Courses
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