ITAL UA 173: 20th Century Italian Poetry
(Cross-listed with English & MARC)
During the course the great themes of 20th century intellectual-artistic debate will be confronted and much attention will be devoted to Montale’s theoretical and critical writings. The seminar will be conducted in Italian.
Mon 3:30 – 6:10; Professor Maria Luisa Ardizzone
Casa Library
ITAL UA 161/ITAL GA 2311 Divine Comedy: Part II Purgatorio (Canti 17-33) & Paradiso
(Cross-listed with English & MARC)
We will investigate Dante’s text focusing on theories of poetics and rhetoric, philosophy, law, art, and theology. The course will be conducted in English.
Wed 3:30 – 6:10; Professor Maria Luisa Ardizzone
Casa Library
Freshman Seminar: Italian Fascism
We address the relationship between culture and politics, public and private; Fascist biopolitics; anti-Fascism; fascist colonialism and racism; the cult of Mussolini; and Fascist-era feminities and masculinities.
Tues 2:00 – 4:45; Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat
ITAL UA 285: Narrating the Mediterranean
(Cross-listed with European Studies, English & Comp. Lit)
The Mediterranean has become a place of death and violence, in short an open cemetery. We will explore different narratives of the Mediterranean by using movies, documentaries, novels and articles.
Mon/ Wed 12:30 – 1:45; Professor Amara Lakhous
Casa Room 306
ITAL CORE UA 400: Texts and Ideas, Topics: Sex and the City
Our notions of romance originated in the medieval phenomenon sometimes called “courtly love,” a usually illicit and often fatal passion between unequals, such as a queen and a knight, at a feudal court. This course will follow the thread of sex and the city from ancient texts (Plato’s Symposium, Aristotle’s Politics, Terence’s Andria, Ovid’s Art of Love, and Augustine’s Confessions and City of God) to the noble Parisian prostitute of Verdi’s Traviata, an urban sex-worker with a Platonic idea of self-sacrificing love.
Tues/Thurs 12:30 – 1:45; Professor Alison Cornish
Casa Auditorium
ITAL UA 147: Machiavelli
(Cross-listed with European Studies, History & MARC)
In this course, Machiavelli's political, historical, and theatrical works are read in the context in which they were conceived.
Tues/Thurs 2:00 – 3:15; Professor Stefano Albertini
Casa Library
ITAL UA 121 : The Renaissance
(Cross-listed with English)
The course will concentrate on developments in Italy, especially on the political and family structures of the city-states, the culture of the princely courts, the ambitions of the Roman popes, the social and intellectual basis for artistic creativity, and new forms of political, religious, and scientific thought.
Tues/ Wed 12:30 – 1:45; Professor Clement Godbarge
Casa Room 306
ITAL UA 260: Language, Culture & Identity in Italy
What we call the Italian language today—the Italian of newspapers and television, of Italian language tuition, of street signs, of the Italian parliament—is only one variant among many languages spoken within the Italian peninsula throughout its history. Local dialects and regional variants of Italian continue to have a significant cultural role in literature, music and cinema. The rich linguistic map of Italy is not an exceptional case, and the same interplay between one standard literary language and several non-standard dialects is found in many other countries around the world, including, to an extent, English-speaking countries. In this course students will be encouraged to provide examples from their linguistic background, and to become aware of the socio-linguistic norms of their own community. This course is taught in English.
(2 credit course)
Thurs 3:30-4:45; Professor Nicola Cipani
Casa Library
ITAL UA 172: Sounds of Italy
This course will acquaint students with a variety of sound artifacts and sound related texts, grouped around topics significant for Italy’s auditory culture between WWI and the 70s — between the early noise machines of the Futurists and the experiments of maverick singer Demetrio Stratos. The course will touch upon issues such as the relationship between music and other arts; the development of Italian media; the voice of Mussolini and Fascist sound politics; the discussion on technology for sound production/ consumption in Italian cultural circles; the survival of (largely non-textual) oral-aural art forms. One of the larger goals of this course is to show how sound as a common sensory framework can impact the construction of shared social experiences.
Note: No Italian is required for this course. English transcripts will be provided for sound files in Italian. Each lesson will include a listening part with sound samples and a class discussion based on required listenings/readings.
Mon 12:30 - 3:10; Professor Nicola Cipani
Casa Library
CORE UA 554: Cultures & Contexts: Italy
We examine how movements of people, both out of and into Italy, have involved a remaking of collective identities. Finally, we turn to international relations and changing perceptions of Italy on the world stage as a result of foreign policies, wars, and entry into the European Union
Tues/ Thurs, 2:00 – 3:15; Professor David Forgacs
Casa Auditorium
ITAL UA 999: Senior Honors Seminar
(Cross-listed with Hellenic Studies, MARC, German & Middle Eastern Studies)
This collective, interdepartmental course lends practical, methodological, and strategic support to the writing of the Senior Honors Thesis. We will read theoretical works on the process of research and the craft of academic writing, as well as short scholarly texts, upon which we will exercise our own critical readings and analyses.
Wed 9:30 - 12:15; Professor Ara Merjian
Casa Library