Italian Undergraduate Spring 2019
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.
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 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 Francesca Calamita
MoWeFr 1:00-1:50AM in New Cabell Hall 383
Italian society is changing and Italian language dynamically reflects these fluctuations and vice versa. This is the fourth class in the four-course sequence that fulfills the language requirement with special modules on issues of diversity and inclusion applicable to the work context. Especially designed for students interested in Italian Studies and Communication, Politics, International Relationships, Women, Gender and Sexuality as well as Psychology, but not limited to these disciplines, this class offers the opportunity to learn how to use Italian language in work environments where interculturalism, crossculturalism and multiculturalism are required. Present-day films, TV series episodes and articles from Italian newspapers will help students to learn more about the Italian society of the new millennium and strengthen their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills at upper intermediate level.
ITAL 3020 – Advanced Italian II with Enrico Cesaretti
MoWeFr 12:00-12:50PM in Wilson Hall 238
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 309
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 3:30-4:45PM in New Cabell Hall 485
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 3559 New Course: Italian in Translation
- Section 001 Italian-American Cinema with Sarah Annunziato
MoWeFr 12:00-12:50PM in New Cabell Hall 485
Following the unification of Italy in 1861, immigrants from that nation began coming to the USA in record numbers. While they arrived in search of better lives, they often faced discrimination, disenfranchisement, and the challenges of assimilation. Through it all, their experiences have been documented on film by screenwriters and directors. In this course we will explore how cinema depicts the Italian-American experience from the end of the 19th-century to the present-day.
Students of this course will learn about immigration patterns from Italy to the United States, the main reasons that prompted many Italians to resettle in the USA, the response that these immigrants received in their new home, the rise of the mafia and the gangster stereotype, Italian Americans during World War II, Italian-Americans and race, the cinematic representation of the Italian American family, gender roles, controversy over “guido culture,” and the relationship between Italians and Italian Americans.
Films to include: Bitter Bread, Big Night, The Godfather Parts I and II, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, From Here to Eternity, Two Family House, Marty, Moonstruck, Household Saints, and Saturday Night Fever. Novel, Christ in Concrete, by Pietro di Donato.
- Section 002 (Cross-listed with ARTH 3559) – Michelangelo: The Artist, The Man, and His World with Deborah Parker
MoWe 2:00-3:15PM in New Cabell Hall 485
Michelangelo’s name conjures genius and a nearly superhuman achievement in the arts. Contemporaries elevated him as the supreme sculptor, painter and architect of the age. His work offers a window on a deeply personal vision and rich artistic culture. Michelangelo’s creativity extends to many media—sculpture, painting, architecture, and writing in poetry and prose. This course focuses on all these pursuits. The course is not only about the extraordinary achievements of this Renaissance luminary but the ways in which we can analyze and compare visual and written works. To this end we will examine closely the artist’s poems and letters, contemporary assessments of his artistic achievements, and critical articles on his work. This course is intended to enhance students’ skills in analyzing visual and literary artefacts. This skill is crucial in our media age which relies increasingly on visual messages and the interplay of text and image.
Throughout the course, we shall address topics such as how to represent the human figure, how to convey a story, how to show emotion, and how to represent space—still topics of contemporary interest and relevance. Additional subjects include the social and cultural worlds of Renaissance Florence and Rome, the effects of patronage on artistic production, Michelangelo’s use of classical models, and his relationships with fellow artists, friends, and rivals.