Italian in Translation (ITTR) Courses Fall 2019

MoWe 3:30-4:45PM in Nau Hall 338

This course focuses on representations of sex, gender and social issues in recent Italian TV and web series, including My Brilliant Friend (2018), based on the 2011 novel of the same title by the acclaimed writer Elena Ferrante, and the political-drama Berlusconi 1992 (2015). Students will also work on current series produced in other countries which have made an impact in Italy, such as The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), based on the 1985 feminist dystopian novel of the same title by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, and the Danish comedy-drama Rita (2012). Lectures and materials explore from a global perspective how TV and web series offer their viewers narratives that encourage them to follow or question different models of femininity, masculinity and sexuality. Class discussion will pay particular attention to issues of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, social class, migration and citizenship status, among other layers of identity.  What can contemporary Italian TV and web series tell us about current social issues from around the globe?

TuTh 3:30-4:45PM in New CAB 485

Dante is one of the greatest influencers of all time. He has shaped cultures across centuries and in different media. The Inferno has captivated the imagination of artists as diverse as Botticelli, Keats, David Fincher as well as that of artists and writers in Africa and Latin America. Creative artists often re-imagine Dante for their own purposes. Our investigations of adaptation and appropriation will be carried out in two directions: we will analyze re-workings of the poem not only to understand how they differ from the original but also how these changes prompt us to rethink the dynamics of innovation and creative reinvention.

TuTh 12:30-1:45PM in Nau Hall 141

This course focuses on the potential narratives have to convey messages that are relevant to our ethical and environmental awareness, and to help us imagine alternatives to existing systems of knowledge and distributions of power. As we shall expand the notion of text to include material formations (landscapes, bodies, matters) we shall learn about the origins and general objectives of ecocriticism, its relevant theories and methodologies, and various approaches to the notion of sustainability. Focusing on Italy as a geographical and narrative sensor that may enlighten the situation of other places globally, we shall travel up and down 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, affect our ethical attitude in the era of the Anthropocene, and help enact forms of ecological resistance and cultural liberation.

TuTh 11:00AM-12:15PM in Gibson Hall 142

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 World War II “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.