Placement Exams

If you have previously studied Italian, we recommend you take the CAS Placement Exam prior to beginning your Italian language studies at NYU. Please see here to learn more about our language courses and language sequence. After taking the placement exam, foward your test results to italian.dept@nyu.edu so someone can assist you with registration. If you have general questions, contact italian.dept@nyu.edu for assistance.

Scheduling

Language courses have 3 meeting patterns:

• Mondays/Tuesdays/Wednesdays
• Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays

Advanced Language Courses

ITAL-UA 30 Advanced Review of Modern Italian
Section 001: MTW 12:30-1:45

ITAL-UA 107 Italian Through Cinema

Section 001: MTW 9:30-10:45

ITAL-UA 110 Translation

Section 001: MWF 12:30-1:45 

Most courses can count toward the "Culture & Society" or "Literature" component of the Italian Studies major/minor, Romance Languages major, and Italian and Linguistic major. Contact italian.undergraduate@nyu.edu if you are unsure what requirements a course fulfills.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ITAL-UA 116 Readings in Modern Italian Lit

11:00-12:15 Mondays & Wednesdays; Professor Joseph Perna

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

Introductory-level literature course that, through a close reading of authors such as Alfieri, Foscolo, Leopardi, Manzoni, Verga, D'Annunzio, Moravia, and Calvino, focuses on how to understand a literary text in Italian. Covers Italian literature from the 17th century to the contemporary period.

Conducted in Italian

ITAL-UA 152 Visual Poetry

12:30-3:15 Thursdays; Professor Nicola Cipani
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Room 306

Same as COLIT-UA 550.001 and ENGL-UA 252.001

This course examines objects with a dual nature:  literary artifacts that are also visual compositions — texts that function simultaneously as pictures. While a primary focus will be on Italian 20th century experimental  literary forms (parole in libertà, poesia visiva, concrete poetry), students will also explore a wider historical range of such textual-visual hybrids, from the classical world through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque period.  In order to trace the transnational circulation of visual models, comparative examples and references from English and other languages will be offered. Specific readings and discussions will address theoretical issues raised by iconic texts — how do we read visual poetry? What does it mean to be a reader and a viewer at the same time?

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 173.001 Opera & Politics: Conflict, Change, and the Art of Adaptation

9:30-10:45 Mondays & Wednesdays; Professor Eugenio Refini
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

Same as DRLIT-UA 185.003

The decades around 1800 marked an unprecedented turning point in the political and cultural history of Europe: the French Revolution, Napoleon’s rise, his fall, and the ensuing Restoration triggered dynamics of change, conflict, and reaction that contributed to the shaping of modern Europe. This course explores these dynamics through the lens of drama and musical theater, focusing in particular on the operatic adaptations of the highly controversial “Figaro trilogy” by French playwright Beaumarchais. By exploring Giovanni Paisiello’s The Barber of Seville (1782), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786), and Gioachino Rossini’s own version of The Barber of Seville (1816) – which opened in Saint Petersburg, Vienna, and Rome, respectively – we will look at the ways in which Italian opera across Europe staged conflicts of class and gender, challenging the assumptions of the aristocracy as well as the ludicrous pretensions of the rising bourgeoisie. The same themes inform the post-modern portrayal of the past in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (1991), which completes the musical afterlife of the Figaro trilogy, providing us with retrospective insight into the working of reception and adaptation. Students will have the possibility to attend a live performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. The course will also include film screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) and Milos Forman’s Amadeus (1984).

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 269 Dante's Divine Comedy in Context

2:00-3:15 Mondays & Wednesdays; Professor Maria Luisa Ardizzone

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

Same as MEDI-UA 26 and COLIT-UA 866.001 and ENGL-UA 142.001

The Divine Comedy, is 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 after life 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. Since the beginning of its circulation the Divine Comedy has been seen as a text to be read in context, that is in light of the cultural tradition Dante was channelling and interpreting.  This course proposes a reading of Dante’s Commedia, considered in light of the ancient and medieval idea of learning. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with one of the most important author of Western culture. Through Dante’s texts, students will gain a perspective on the Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as well as on the historical, literary, philosophical context of medieval Europe.

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 285 New Trends in 21st Century Italian Literature: From Beppe Fenoglio to Igiaba Scego

3:30-4:45 Mondays & Wednesdays; Professor Chiara Marchelli

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Room 306

Same as EURO-UA 200.002 and ENGL-UA 59.004

This course will explore the contemporary Italian literary scene and its voices, movements, inspirations and internal diversity. From the “regional” literature to the literature of the new diaspora, from today’s women’s voices to the delineation of new literary trends outside the borders of Italy, this class will focus on the various, rich, complex and often contradictory scene of the 21st century Italian literature and its developing identities. We will read, compare and analyze works by contemporary and modern authors such as Michela Murgia, Amara Lakhous, Dacia Maraini, Paolo Cognetti, Melania Mazzucco, with an eye for thematic convergences, influences, personal voices and narrative styles. The selection of readings is representative of the emergence of a new literary scene that cuts across traditional categories, is strongly influenced by new trends and processes, and represents the changing intellectual, cultural and social landscape of Italy.

All discussions and readings are in English, but supplementary readings in Italian will be provided for Italian majors and minors, or students who wish to complete the readings in Italian.

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 300 Passions of Elena Ferrante

12:30-1:45 Mondays & Wednesdays; Professor Rebecca Falkoff
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Room 306

Same as COLIT-UA 852.001, ENGL-UA 252.002, and EURO-UA 292

The success of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels is astounding, not only because of the record-breaking sales, but also because of the strong emotions they thematize and arouse. In this course we will read novels, interviews, and essays by Ferrante, asking how her work compels passionate reading. We will consider the political and aesthetic implications of ugly and opaque emotions like irritation, envy, disgust, and shame. We will also study major influences—including writers Ferrante cites frequently in interviews: Adriana Cavarero, Carla Lonzi, the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective, Elsa Morante; as well as those she tends to refrain from naming: Christa Wolf and Ingeborg Bachmann. 

Class discussion will be conducted in English; texts will be available in English and Italian. 

Students who wish to complete the readings in Italian are invited to enroll in an additional two-credit course, “Il filo giusto di un racconto,” which will be dedicated to a reading and discussion of Ferrante’s latest novel, published Italian on November 7, 2019. 

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 301 Il filo giusto di un racconto: Lettura del nuovo romanzo di Elena Ferrante

11:00-12:15 Thursdays; Professor Rebecca Falkoff
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Room 306

*2 credits*

Questo corso è dedicato ad una lettura attenta del nuovo romanzo di Elena Ferrante. Edizioni e/o, che ha pubblicato tutti i romanzi della scrittrice enigmatica napoletana ha annunciato la prossima uscita due mesi prima della pubblicazione, offrendo ai curiosi lettori solo l’incipit, che conclude:

Io invece sono scivolata via e continuo a scivolare anche adesso, dentro queste righe che vogliono darmi una storia mentre in effetti non sono niente, niente di mio, niente che sia davvero cominciato o sia davvero arrivato a compimento: solo un garbuglio che nessuno, nemmeno chi in questo momento sta scrivendo, sa se contiene il filo giusto di un racconto o è soltanto un dolore arruffato, senza redenzione…”

Chiederemo come vengono contrapposto “Il filo giusto di un racconto” e “il dolore arruffato, senza redenzione” sia nel nuovo romanzo che nell’opera e nella critica di Ferrante. Leggeremo anche le eventuali polemiche suscitate dal testo e le recensioni più notevoli. 

*Conducted in Italian; will be in Albert soon*

ITAL-UA 400 From Polenta to Marinara: History of Italian Food

2:00-3:15 Tuesdays; Professor Scarcella-Perino
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Room 306

Same as FOOD-UE 1052

*2 credits*

In this course we will cover the Italian varieties of food in their past and present forms. First, we will explore the history of food from past civilizations, leading up to World War I, just after the great immigration to the New World. Time periods examined will be ancient Rome, Medieval, Renaissance, Risorgimento, leading to the modern era. This course includes topics ranging from Pellegrino Artusi’s famous cookbook in the contest of Italian unification, the relationship between Italian Futurism and food.  The second part of the course will introduce students to the regional varieties of Italian food. We will examine the ways in which food shapes contemporary Italian society, from the more intimate family kitchen to the most elegant Italian restaurant in New York City. 

Conducted in English. Italian majors/minors, Romance Language majors, and Italian & Linguistics majors will be given registration priority. Remaining seats will open to all other NYU students on Saturday 11/16.

ITAL-UA 401 La bella figura: Self & National Identity in Italian Fashion

9:30-10:45 Tuesdays; Professor Laura Bresciani
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

*2 credits*

If in the collective imaginary fashion is linked to glamour, style, and aesthetics, no country more actively evokes and embodies these concepts than Italy.  Italian identity, culture, and economy remain deeply connected to fashion as both an institution and industry. Well before Italy’s belated unification in 1861, fashion long played a key role in the construction of national style and courtly life from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the twentieth-century design houses which reshaped not only commercial and aesthetic trends, but solidified Italy’s association with post-war design culture more broadly.  This course explores the development of Italian fashion from its roots in Medieval Communes to the dynamics of the modernity and the post-modernity of the 19th and 20th centuries, concluding with a close look at contemporary fashion as a creative force of socio-cultural change.

Conducted in English. 2 Credits. 7 seats will be reserved for Italian majors/minors, Romance Language majors, and Italian & Linguistics majors until Saturday 11/16. Any remaining seats will be open to all NYU seats on Saturday, 11/16.

ITAL-UA 700 Italian Pop Music from 1968 to Present 

11:00-1:45 Mondays; Professor Luciano Chessa
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Auditorium

This course is designed to expose students to some of the main trends of the last 50 years of Italian Pop music. The class will investigate the tension between a national identity as expressed by “melodia italiana” and a local identity as expressed by the main regional songwriting schools (Naples, Genoa, Bologna, etc), and will analyze how both notions have been challenged by Anglo-American mainstream and indie markets, and by North-African immigration. By looking at examples ranging from the emancipation of women as full-throatedly proclaimed by such singers as Mina, Patti Pravo, Raffaella Carrà, and Loredana Bertè, to the role of the transgender community in the foundation of Italian Hip Hop, and up to the overtly racial quarrel triggered by the victory of Mahmood over Ultimo at the 2019 Sanremo Festival, this class will also show how artists sometimes reflected changes in the Italian societal norms, sometimes instigated them.

Conducted in English

ITAL-UA 724 Italian American Life in Literature

11:00-12:15 Tuesdays & Thursdays; Josephine Hendin

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Library (Room 203)

Same as ENGL-UA 724

A study of the fiction and poetry through which Italian American writers have expressed their heritage, identity, and engagement in American life. From narratives of immigration to current work by “assimilated” writers, explores changing family relationships, sexual mores, and political and social concerns.

Conducted in English

CORE-UA 400, Sec. 010 Visible and Invisible Cities

11:00-12:15 Tuesdays & Thursdays; Professor Virginia Cox

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Auditorium

The experience of living in a city is one vital thread that connects us with our ancient, medieval, and early modern ancestors, and that continues to provide a unifying element in millions of our contemporaries’ disparate lives across the globe. Urban life is a constant environment and stimulus, whether you find yourself in New York, Florence, Accra, or Shanghai. Our aim is to supply conceptual frameworks and historical contexts for this experience by exploring the ways human communities have been theorized and imagined within the Western tradition from classical antiquity through to the Renaissance, particularly the city, conceived since Aristotle as the proper habitat of humankind, and the relationship between the family or household and the state. The primary texts encompass utopian writings and works of political theory, but also texts describing and analyzing real-world communities and visual and cartographic representations of cities and urban space. Readings include the canonical—from Plato, Aristotle, Vergil, Dante, Boccaccio, More, Shakespeare—to texts from Christine de Pizan and Moderata Fontelong, marginalized from the canon and only now becoming visible.

Conducted in English. 

This course can count towards the "culture & society" track of the Italian Studies major/minor, Romance Languages major, and Italian and Linguistics major. Contact italian.dept@nyu.edu for details.

FYSEM-UA 744 Venice, A Tourist History

Monday, 11:00-1:45; Professor Karl Appuhn

Location: TBA

In 2018 an estimated thirty million people visited Venice. While New York City gets about twice as many annual visitors, Venice has a stable population of only 55,000 inhabitants and occupies an area smaller than Central Park. Venice is also, famously, a city built on water in the middle of a tidal lagoon. Its small size and unusual site render Venice exceptionally vulnerable to the more pernicious effects of modern mass tourism, including over-crowding, pollution, and an economy increasingly reliant on a single source of revenue. Indeed, for Venetians it has become commonplace to describe the situation as both a social and environmental crisis. Venice, locals often say, is drowning in tourists and under rising sea levels. But in many ways this situation is not new. Venice has always been overrun with outsiders, whether medieval pilgrims, crusaders, and merchants; eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cosmopolitan elites on the so-called Grand Tour; or twentieth- and twenty-first century mass tourists arriving by train, plane, and cruise ship. This seminar will explore the longer history of Venice as a travel destination through documents, literature, and film. In so doing we will consider how Venice has been shaped by its history as a travel destination; how representations of the city affect people’s desire to visit it and their perceptions of the challenges it faces; and how the city’s current tourism-driven economy, when combined with rising sea levels, threatens the city’s very existence.

Conducted in English

Graduate Courses

Qualified undergraduate students who are interested in enrolling in a graduate level Italian Studies course complete the HERE. NOT ALL GRADUATE COURSES ARE OPEN TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS. Visit our Graduate Course page here for the applicable semester to see which courses are open to  qualified undergraduate students. The Director of Undergraduate Studies, Director of Graduate Studies, and instructor of the course will review the submitted form and decide if enrollment is appropriate. Completion of the below form is NOT confirmation of your acceptance into the course. Please allow approximately 2 weeks for review.

Qualifications

• GPA of 3.5 or higher
• For courses taught in Italian, demonstrated proficiency in the language

*Note:

• Any credits taken above the undergraduate maximum of 18 credits will be subject to applicable fees.

 Questions? Contact italian.graduate@nyu.edu.