Courses

Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Italian language, this course provides an overview of basic Italian grammar with an emphasis on oral and written communication, listening comprehension, and reading. Five class hours weekly and laboratory practice.

Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Italian language, this course provides an overview of basic Italian grammar with an emphasis on oral and written communication, listening comprehension, and reading. Five class hours weekly and laboratory practice.

Students who have taken any higher level ITAL course may not register for this class. No previous knowledge of language.

This course focuses on emerging writers whose increasingly ¿ourishing literary production has been reshaping Italys contemporary literature, but whose voices have been often excluded by the dominant literary discourse. These writers narratives o¿er an original, multifaceted, and complex portrait of contemporary Italy while providing insights into the ways in which they express their feelings of belonging and/or alienation.

This course is designed for students who are interested in knowing about Italian migrations over time and how the phenomenon is depicted in films by Italian and non-Italian directors. The focus is on social and historical aspects with the goal of covering the 20th century and migrations involving Italy and Italians.

Provides a review of Italian grammar with an emphasis on oral and written communication. Students also read and discuss Italian literature and cultural material. Four class hours weekly and laboratory practice.

Provides a review of Italian grammar with an emphasis on oral and written communication. Students also read and discuss Italian literature and cultural material. Four class hours weekly and laboratory practice.

This course will focus on Dante's Inferno, guiding students through an exploration of its historical, narrative, and allegorical intricacies. It provides a platform for discussing enduring ethical dilemmas with modern relevance, encompassing topics such as the nature of evil, hubris, desire, gender portrayal, freedom of thought, punishment, redemption, church-state relations, economics and social justice. As students accompany Dante on his journey through the torment-filled realms of Hell, they will sharpen their abilities in analyzing and constructing persuasive arguments by closely examining both primary and secondary materials. The course will be conducted in English.

Offers students intensive oral and written practice in Italian language through an exploration of Italian culture. Authentic materials such as literary texts, newspaper and magazine articles, and video are utilized as a basis for class discussion and written compositions. Grammar is reviewed in context.

Explores the history and the culture of Italy from Fascism to contemporary Italy, passing through the economic boom, the ¿Leaden Years,¿ and the Mafia. Along with historical and cultural information, students will read newspaper articles, letters, excerpts from novels and short stories from authors such as Calvino, Levi, and others. They will also see films by directors like Scola, e Sica, and Giordana.

A study of selected Novellas from Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece, The Decameron. Students will learn about the culture, literary tradition, and language of 14th-century Italy. In addition to reading and analyzing the most important of Boccaccio's one hundred stories, they will explore themes, such as merchant culture, the condition of women, and the art of the practical joke, that recur throughout the work. Students will also view selected episodes from Pasolini's homonymous film. Conducted in Italian.

In this course we will review the long-term development of Western medicine in the pre-modern period, including its contact and exchange with other medical cultures. What makes a person healthy or unhealthy? What do health care practitioners and patients do to fight illness and promote health? How does society support and regulate the practice of medicine? The course will deal with these and other questions about health care during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a period of the of European history that included the widespread use of herbal remedies, the arrival of the Black Death, and the increasing importance of both anatomical observation and astrology.

This course explores the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of the African diaspora and its impact on Italy. The course delves into the experiences of people of African descent in Italy, examining topics such as migration, identity, racism, integration, and cultural exchanges. It also explores the contributions of Black Italians to various aspects of Italian society, including arts, literature, sports, and music. The aim is to foster a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between race, ethnicity, and nationality within the Italian context and to encourage critical thinking about issues of diversity and inclusion.

The course aims to provide students with the elementary background knowledge needed to appreciate the relevance of a few, selected Medieval/Renaissance authors, along with an adequate knowledge of their works in terms of form, structure, style, imagery, and themes. Students will become familiar with the writings of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Manetti, Bibbiena, Aretino, Machiavelli and other Renaissance authors. The course will also explore the history of the book throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with particular emphasis on its development in Western culture. The course will also focus on the physical aspects of texts, their production, manufacture, authorship, publication, distribution, and reception. The course is intended 1) to develop students' understanding of the creative context in which the texts originated, namely the world of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance and its varying social contexts; 2) to introduce the terminology associated with the period; 3) to help students to develop critical approaches to the texts; 4) to learn how the physical and material formats of books have evolved over the time and 5) to understand the practice of manuscript creation, production, dissemination and reception in the larger social, economic and political context of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Representative works of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries are studied in the context of Renaissance culture and history. Selected works by Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Leon Battista Alberti, Poliziano, and Castiglione will be studied. Conducted in Italian.

Introduces students to the celebrated literature of Sicily, the land of mythology and the Mafia, and home to many of Italy¿s most important writers. The course concentrates on modern Italian literature, tracing the evolution of Sicily¿s culture from the Unification in 1861 to today. Students will read works by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giovanni Verga, Maria Messina, Luigi Pirandello, Leonardo Sciascia, and Andrea Camilleri and see films based on their works.

A study of 20th-century Italian narrative that focuses on the experience of the war. Topics include Fascist policies, the partisan resistance, the Holocaust and Italian Jews. Authors studied include Ignazio Silone, Giorgio Bassani, Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, and Renata Viganò. Students will also view and discuss films adapted from several of the works in class. Conducted in Italian.

In this course you will learn about Italian womens writing through the study of diverse female authors and their autobiographical novels that span the 20th- and 21st centuries. The texts will be examined in the context of Italian womens history, the twentieth-century womens movement, and feminist theory. The question of gender, racial, and class identity will be addressed through an analysis of different characters and at least one novel by an Italian woman author of color. We will also pose and explore the larger questions suggested by the readings: How do the experiences of women living in another century and in another country relate to our own? Why are most women writers excluded from the literary canon? How does the woman artist/writer find her voice in a patriarchal society? Two overarching considerations of the course are whether womens rights are still considered a pressing concern by todays young women and men; and whether it is still necessary to teach a course such as this one, which focuses exclusively on literature written by (cisgender) women. Finally, in addition to offering a new perspective on Italian literature and society, the course will give you the opportunity to hone your writing and speaking skills in Italian.

The 1800s was the revolutionary period that led to Italys liberation from foreign rulers and unification under an Italian monarchy; as a consequence, its artistic production reflects revolutionary ideals as well as reactions to Italys new reality. This course will acquaint you with nineteenth-century Italian society and cultural life and introduce you to two of Italys most important writers, Alessandro Manzoni and Giovanni Verga, and the artistic movements they represent. Our discussion of literary texts will also consider gender difference in nineteenth-century Italy. As the newly unified nation codified its laws, issues such as family structure, womens education, and even feminism were very much in the forefront.

Eligible third-year students may elect one or both of these courses only with the permission of the department chair. For students who have previously taken all other advanced courses offered in a given semester.