UGRD > ITAL
Italian Courses
ITAL 100 Intensive Elementary Italian +
Description:
An intensive language course that covers the entire elementary level in one semester, emphasizing listening and speaking skills. Accelerated work in conversation, grammar, and vocabulary. Open to all students with no previous academic training in Italian. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 101 Elementary Italian I +
Description:
For students who have no creditable training in Italian; intensive practice in the four language skills, with an audio-lingual approach. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 102 Elementary Italian II +
ITAL 201 Intermediate Italian Language Through Film and Television +
Description:
This course seeks to help students attain the level of intermediate fluency(i.e., ability to communicate with ease in everyday situations) in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Main texts will be the authentic materials of Italian film and television. Activities will include not only work on vocabulary and grammar, but also exploration of Italian culture. This is the third semester in the language sequence, which brings students to the level of everyday communication. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 202 Intermediate Italian II +
ITAL 220L Underworld Journeys +
Description:
Storytellers have always spun tales of mortals who managed to visit the beyond. Often these journeys are of critical importance to those left alive, instrumental steps to founding empire or earning salvation. This interdisciplinary course explores depictions of heaven and hell in European literature, film, and the arts. Because the desire to understand the afterlife cuts across geography and time, this topic affords us the opportunity to conduct comparative explorations of a range of national traditions, as well as various time periods: the ancient world, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and modernity. Our focus is how these infernal and paradisal spaces reflect, critique, and animate the real world. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 267 The Renaissance View of Man: Princes, Prostitutes, Poets, and Painters +
Description:
A study of Renaissance man's ideals concerning culture, education, artistic creativity, civic values, societal roles, and love, through a critical reading of pertinent texts. Readings and discussions in English. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 268L The Italian-American Experience +
Description:
This course examines the cultural history of Italian-American communities from the early Twentieth century to present. The course will explore representations of Italian-Americans in literature, film and popular culture. Taught in English, no previous knowledge of Italian is required. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 270 Dante's Divine Comedy +
ITAL 276L Italian Cinema +
Description:
An in-depth look into the thematic and technical development of the Italian cinema from the period of Neorealism to the present day, seen through the lens of the cultural and political transformations in Italian society since the end of World War II. Weekly screenings by Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, and Pasolini. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 301 Italian Composition and Conversation +
Description:
An intensive review of grammar, exercises in free composition, and advanced conversational practice. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 305 Language of Modern Italy +
Description:
An advanced course in contemporary Italian usage. Analysis of diverse linguistic models, translation and comparative study of English and Italian. Discussion of regional differences in speech, development of idiomatic and specialized vocabulary, and an exploration of genre and style. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 308L Feminist Histories: Renaissance France, Italy and Beyond +
Description:
Students will study one important branch of the history of global feminism: women's writing in medieval and Renaissance France and Italy. In addition to literature, we will also consider the social history of these women. We will also trace the impact of their feminist thinking on the rest of Europe and beyond, through to our contemporary world. Course taught in English; readings available in the original French or Italian, as well as in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 311 Introduction to Italian Literature I +
Description:
A survey of Italian literature as a reflection of Italian civilization from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 313L The Art of Early Modern Venice: Myths and Realities of a Floating City +
Description:
This course examines the history of Venice and its art within a broad Mediterranean and European context. It demonstrates the artificiality of the geographic boundaries still often placed upon the study of culture and identity formation. Venice, with its long history of multicultural interaction and exchange, as well as its penchant for self-celebratory mythmaking, is an ideal forum in which to challenge preconceived notions of nationhood, ethnic identity, and cultural unity. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 337L Disney's European Fairy Tales +
Description:
It is difficult to think of any American who has had greater influence on narrative and visual culture around the world than Walt Disney. Yet the quality of Disney's creations has given rise to much debate, famously leading one critic to ask: ''It's Disney, but is it art?'' This course traces the first 65 years of the Walt Disney Animation Studios in an attempt to answer that question. A major focus will be the company's heavy reliance in these years on 'high art' from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. From illuminated manuscripts to palatial architecture, European art ''especially French, Italian, and German'' is pervasive in Walt Disney Studios storytelling. Beyond questions of adaptation, class discussion will also center issues of social commentary, analyzing how gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability were presented onscreen, and how they were treated in Studio culture. Through formalist, narrative, and sociohistorical analysis, students will achieve a better understanding of how European art shaped Disney, and how that art has engaged (or failed to engage) with societal change.Assignments are built around Disney's feature films, to be supplemented by the premodern texts and visual arts that inspired them, as well as relevant critical studies. Course taught in English; readings available in English and in original languages, where relevant. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 340L Moving Across Borders: Migration and Diversity +
Description:
Focusing on questions of identity and migratory experiences across the globe, this comparative class introduces students to key works of world media and culture. It examines the discursive construction of diversity in today's de-centered, globalized world and discusses the analytic benefits of `transculturality' for literary and cultural studies. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 345L Dreams and Visions +
Description:
This comparative literature course focuses on dreams and visions as a cultural phenomenon and introduces students to key authors, genres, and movements in world media history. Adopting a comparative approach, students are led to explore exemplary works from French, German, Italian, and other European literature as cultural practices that shape our understanding of society, history, and culture. Students will investigate the concept of dreams from antiquity to modern psychoanalysis, discuss prophetic dreams and nightmares, and reflect on the connection between dreams and society, exploring French, Italian, German, and other global media cultures. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 355L European Crime Fiction +
Description:
This course examines suspects, felons, and detectives in European crime fiction between the 18th century and today (in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia). It introduces students to the historical development of crime literature focusing on key authors, genres and movements. Beginning with the popularization of crime narratives in the era of Enlightenment, the course examines the development of genre conventions in subsequent centuries until the post-modern disintegration of narrative patterns. Particular emphasis is placed on the construction of gender roles, social class, national and regional identity through literature as a cultural practice. Taught in English; readings in the original language are available upon request. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 374L Love Stories: A Historical Handbook to Happily Ever After +
Description:
What is love? Or rather, what do we think love is? From the Beatles' ''all you need is love'' to Shakespeare's ''whoever loved that loved not at first sight?'' we are bombarded in our culture with preconceived notions about the nature of amorous affection. This course takes a transhistorical view of Western civilization, from the Middle Ages to the present, in order to trace and interrogate societal constructs about love. Our goal is to figure out how love stories work, so that we understand better how they work on us. As part of this work, we will explore how people have historically disrupted heteronormative and patriarchal narratives of love, forming alternative models of domestic bliss. We will consider society and history through literature, so texts like sonnets, love letters, and excerpts from novels will make up the bulk of our reading. However, assignments will be drawn from multiple disciplines, as well as popular culture, including song lyrics, reality television, and film.FRENCH 374L and ITAL 374L and GERMAN 374L and MLLC 374L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 377L Rebellion! On Being Young in European Fiction +
Description:
This comparative literature course examines youth cultures, intergenerational relationships and conflicts, coming-of-age stories, narratives of filial rebellion, and the quest for one's own identity in French, German, and Italian fiction. Through this thematic lens, the class introduces students to key authors, genres, and movements in European literary history between the 18th century and today, while also focusing on the interconnectedness between literature and culture. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 378 Independent Study +
ITAL 379 Independent Study +
Description:
Study of a particular area of this subject under the supervision of a faculty member. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 476 Cinema e Letteratura +
Description:
An in-depth look into the thematic and technical development of the Italian cinema in the context of the literary, social and cultural history from Neo-Realism to the present. Films by Rossellini, Visconti, DeSica, Fellini, Antonioni, and Pasolini. Discussions in Italian. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 479 Readings & Research +
Description:
Primarily for seniors with a GPA of at least 3.0 in their major who wish to pursue a research topic in depth, one ordinarily not available in standard course offerings. A written prospectus detailing the plan of study must be submitted to supervising instructor and department. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 480 Special Topics +
Description:
In-depth study of a particular author, work, theme, or historical period. Course content varies each time the course is offered. Students are invited to suggest topics of special interest to them. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ITAL 498 Honors Research Project +
Description:
Independent and original investigation of a specific aspect of Italian literature of special interest to the student, under the supervision of a departmental advisor. Students read primary and secondary texts and determine a critical methodology in preparation for the writing of the thesis. More Info
Offered in:ITAL 499 Senior Honors Thesis +
Description:
Closely supervised individual research resulting in the completion of a senior honors thesis to be accepted by the thesis advisor and a second reader approved by the department. More Info
Offered in: