Fall 2022 Graduate Courses

ITAL-GA 2389 Studies in Italian Culture: Orlando Furioso
(September 1-October 25, 2pts.)
12:30-3:15 Tuesdays
Global Distinguished Professor Lina Bolzoni
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 306) 

Amori e magia nella letteratura del Rinascimento.

Il tema dell’amore, nelle sue diverse manifestazioni, è centrale nella letteratura del Rinascimento. Si intreccia con il tema della magia, dell’inganno, della follia.

Si vedrà come le diverse esperienze dell’amore vengono rappresentate nei diversi generi letterari della letteratura del Rinascimento: nella lirica, a cominciare da Petrarca, nelle poesie delle donne; nel teatro (nella Mandragola di Machiavelli), negli epistolari d’amore, nei poemi cavallereschi (in particolare nell’Orlando Furioso).

Particolare attenzione sarà rivolta al rapporto della letteratura con le arti figurative. Il seminario sarà tenuto in italiano, ma si leggeranno via via anche le traduzioni in inglese dei testi presi in esame.

ITAL-GA 1981 Re-Voice-Over: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Reception (4 points; NEW COURSE!)
3:30-6:15 Mondays
Professor Eugenio Refini
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

Over the past few decades, the notion of reception has gained significant momentum across the humanities. Deep-rooted in theoretical approaches such as those of Gadamer, Iser, Jauss and Fish, which stressed the active role of the reader in the construction of textual meaning, the field of reception studies has been powerfully nourished by concurrent developments in the cognate area of classical reception. In particular, the gradual transition from the framework known as “classical tradition” to that of “classical reception” has allowed for more dynamic explorations of the ways in which ancient texts live through time and space via various forms of reading, rewriting, remaking, re-enactment. Alongside offering a theoretical introduction to reception studies (including reception theory and its roots in ancient rhetoric and poetics), this seminar concentrates on the place of performance and performativity in the workings of reception itself. Adopting a broad notion of textuality, the seminar considers reception across media giving special attention to the interdisciplinary potential of the field. The theoretical introduction is followed by a major case study, which changes every year. Towards the end of the semester, students will hold seminar-style presentations preparatory to their final papers. Topics will be assigned so as to meet the students’ specific interests and disciplinary background. If possible, seminar work will be implemented by attendance at live performances.

ITAL-GA 2310 Dante's Inferno

3:30-6:15 Tuesdays
Professor Maria Luisa Ardizzone
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)
crosslisted sections:  COLIT-GA 2192; MEDI-GA 2300

Inferno is the first cantica of the Divine Comedy, a very long poem traditionally judged to be one of the most important in Western culture. At the center of the poem is the human being, his condition in the afterlife and his punishment or reward. Taken literally, the theme is the state of the souls after the death. But allegorically, the true subject is moral life and thus the torments of the sins themselves or the enjoyment of a happy and saintly life. In the Inferno Dante represents the passions and vices of the human beings and the punishment that God’s justice inflicts upon the sinners. Hell is the place of eternal damnation. The course will provide a fresh approach to the Inferno with a focus on the problem of evil as represented in the Poem. We will investigate Dante’s dramatization of the ontology of human beings and their inclination to materiality and materialism, which the poet considers the source of evil. The course includes an introduction to Dante’s first work, the Vita Nuova, and a reading of sections of his treatises: On Vernacular Speech, Convivio, and Monarchia. The requirements of the course are as follows: active class participation, 3 response papers (3 pages), a mid-semester and final oral presentation, and a final paper 20 to 25 pages in length.  All readings will be available as photocopies. French or Latin texts will be translated. The course will be conducted in English. 

*Course is open to qualified undergraduates.  Submit your request here or contact the department for more information.*

ITAL-GA 2165 Topics in Italian-American Culture: Missionaries, societies, and religious conflicts in Little Italy
3:30-6:10 Thursdays
Tiro a Segno Visiting Professor Massimo Di Gioacchino
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 201)

When the troops of the Kingdom of Italy put an end to the existence of the Papal States by entering the city of Rome on September 20, 1870, American Protestant denominations triumphantly welcomed the event as one of the most promising developments in modern history. As a consequence, they thought that the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church would collapse, and Italy would eventually become fertile land for the Reformation.

As Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians alike started to form their plans and strategies to convert Italians, Italians started to emigrate to the United States during the 1870s in order to gain a better standard of living. While that monumental project of conversion encountered many obstacles in Italy - which the course will discuss - the presence of Italian immigrants in the United States came to be considered a unique and historical chance to realize it. Catholic hierarchies in Rome, aware of the risks and threats that Protestant missions posed to the Italians, tried to do anything they could in order to preserve their ancestral faith.

The course, which covers the period from 1848 to 1948, employs methods and perspectives of numerous social sciences in order to examine the US Little Italies as a place of interactions and conflicts among global religious players. Students will learn how to decipher primary sources and connect historical archives across the globe in order to map such projects of conversion and the migration of individuals and groups that tried to realize them. The result will be an inner, unknown, and global history of the religious life of Italian immigrants in our country.

The course will be delivered in a seminar mode and host contributions from notable external scholars. Students will be invited to give presentations, comment on the readings, and be actively engaged all the time. Attention will be paid to the original Italian documents or their translation. Knowledge of Italian language is not required but desirable.

*Course is open to qualified undergraduates.  Submit your request here or contact the department for more information.*

ITAL-GA 2891 Guided Individual Reading
Italian Studies Faculty

This is an opportunity for a student to explore a topic in further depth, a topic not offered by our course schedule, or to work with a faculty member who is a specialist on a particular topic. This is for Italian Studies graduate students only and you must contact the department administrator for permission to register for the course. 

*Requires Department Consent to register. Contact Anne Wolff (al4845@nyu.edu) to register.*