| ITAL 101 |
| Elementary Italian I |
| Designed to develop a basic ability to read, write, understand, and speak Italian. Since all linguistic skills cannot be fully developed in 101 alone, stress will be placed on the acquisition of basic structures, which it will the function of 102 to develop and reinforce. Students who wish to acquire significant proficiency should therefore plan to take 101 and 102 in sequence. Other than beginning students must have permission of instructor to enroll. (HUM) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 102 |
| Elementary Italian II |
Continuation of 101, emphasizing oral practice, consolidation of basic grammar skills, compositions and reading comprehension. (HUM)
Prerequisite: C- or better in Italian 101 or equivalent. |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 201 |
| Intermediate Italian I: Conversation and Composition |
A review of basic grammar learned in the first-year intensive Italian courses (101 and 102) is integrated with oral and writing practice on topics intended to introduce students to contemporary Italian culture. There will be readings of short stories, newspaper, and magazine articles, viewings of film and video presentations, and weekly compositions and other writing assignments. In order to achieve competence in Italian, students should plan to take 201 and 202 in sequence. (HUM)
Prerequisite: C- or better in Italian 102 or equivalent. |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 202 |
| Intermediate Italian II: Composition and Literature |
The review of grammar begun in Italian 201 will be completed in this course. Students’ oral and writing skills will be enhanced by further exploration of aspects of Italian culture, through a variety of texts and media. While emphasizing students’ communication skills, this course aims to provide them with the basis for linguistic competence in Italian. (GLB2)
Prerequisite: C- or better in Italian 201 or equivalent. |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 203 |
| Italian Design and Culture in a Global Perspective |
| This course examines the development of Italian design from antiquity to the present in a global and transnational perspective. From Roman aqueducts to the FIAT Cinquecento, from Renaissance gardens and the Italian countryside to the Bialetti coffee maker and other popular products of Italian industrial design, Italy has had an indelible impact on modern and contemporary design cultures throughout the world. Design involves more than 'form' and 'function' and aesthetics. Design also reflects how we engage with our social and physical environment. By studying the history and culture of Italian design in a global perspective moreover, we will also learn more about our own design preferences and sensibility, and how these help shape our identity. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 228 |
| Italian Language and Society |
This course will examine the relationship between language and society in contemporary Italy and in countries with high levels of Italian migration, while also developing students’ linguistic skills. Topics include: geographical, class, and generational differences in language, the effects of mass media on language, and the Italian of immigrants to the United States. As part of their coursework, students will conduct interviews with Italian Americans in the Hartford area. (GLB2)
Prerequisite: C- or better in Italian 202 or equivalent. |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 247 |
| Otherness in Italian Cinema |
| From its beginnings in the early 20th C to the present, Italian Cinema has represented the social and cultural identity of the 'other' and 'otherness', that is, racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity. This course will study the representation of the different kinds of diversity in Italian film, from Neorealism to recent Italian cinema. We will examine films that deal with immigration and the current refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, but also with LGBT culture and other human rights, as well as with Italians' attitudes toward diverse groups and cultures. How does Italian film historically reflect the 'other' in Italian culture and how is film being shaped by diversity? Films include: "Paisà" (Rossellini, 1946), "Una giornata particolare" (Scola, 1977), "Mine vaganti" (Ozpetek, 2010), "Terraferma" (Crialese, 2011). (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 271 |
| Reading the Italian Landscape |
| All cultures are rooted in geography. Using literary works, images, cartography, and digital mapping technology we will ask how the relationship between culture and geography in Italy has changed over time. Italians have adapted to living in a fragile landscape, prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods. Two world wars and industrialization have also left their mark. How, for example, have extreme weather and the climate change crisis in the Mediterranean region impacted the country? Analogous to how we will interpret the Italian landscape students will be encouraged to interpret the challenges and opportunities of their own landscapes that are like open books that tell complex tales. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 272 |
| Mafia |
| In contemporary societies there is an intimate contest between two kinds of social order: The rule of law and criminal organization. A remarkable instance may be found in the workings and metamorphoses of the Mafia. From its origins in Sicily, an agrarian society on the periphery of Europe, the Mafia has acquired intercontinental dimensions and a grip on high politics and finance capital. This shadowy phenomenon has been approached and explained in very different ways by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and political scientists. It has also been the subject of literature and film. We shall discuss outstanding examples of each approach and treatment. The purposes of the course are to make sense of the Mafia, to explore a basic problem of social order and to compare the different styles of reasoning and representation that characterize the various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Course requirements: seminar reports, several short papers, and full attendance and participation. (Listed as both LACS 272 and ITAL 272.) (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 274 |
| Food in Italian History, Society, and Art |
| The saying, “A tavola non s’invecchia” (“One does not age at the supper table”), expresses the importance of food and eating for Italians. In this course, we will examine the relationship between food and culture in Italy, from the Romans to the present, through a variety of readings and tasting experiences. Topics include: the importing and exporting of different foods in antiquity as an instance of cultural and economic exchange; medieval beliefs about intellectual and physical aptitudes associated with diet; the representation of food in art, literature, and cinema; regional cuisines and cultural identities; and the language of food. We will also discuss Italian and Italian-American cuisine as the reflection of related, yet very different, cultures. (Listed as both LACS 274 and ITAL 274.) (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 275 |
| Italian Fascism and Antifascism |
| In this course we will consider the dominant literary, cinematic, and cultural movements of the Fascist Ventennio, such as the poets of the avant-garde, futurism, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Alessandro Blasetti, and others. We will also consider the resistance to the Fascist project through the works of antifascist writers, poets, and filmmakers. Our approach will be necessarily interdisciplinary. While our focus will be on literary, cinematic, and cultural movements, texts will include those by prominent historians as well. This course will be taught in English, and all texts will be in English. Films will be offered with English subtitles. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 277 |
| Women, Italy, and the Mediterranean |
| This course examines the cultural, political, and social identity of women in contemporary Italy as represented in literature and in film. Italy is also a country of mass migration and, therefore, many recent migrant women from the Mediterranean region are also writing about their experience and about life in Italy. Topics include: Women writers as active agents of social and political change in patriarchal Italy, the clash of cultural identities and roles, and the impact of post-colonial theory and practice on gender in Italy. Authors and filmmakers include Ribka Sibhatu, Randa Ghazy, Gabriella Ghermandi and Cristina Ali Farah (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 279 |
| Italian Theater As A Way Of Life |
| The Nobel prize dramatist, Luigi Pirandello, argued paradoxically that art was more real than life. From Medieval sacred representations and Renaissance comedies of manner to Modernist and contemporary drama, Italian writers and performers have used theater as a vehicle of entertainment, education, and social change. This course examines the influence of Italian theater on the nation's culture, identity, and society. Besides analyzing several 'classics' (Machiavelli's Mandragola, Goldoni's La Locandiera, Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of An Author), 'theater', 'drama', and the 'theatrical' in a wider sense will be explored. Why does Carnival continue to be a ritualistic event for Italians? What role do dramatic religious and secular processions still play? How has theater influenced visual media? How are gender and diversity reflected in Italian drama? (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 290 |
| Italian Cinema: Fiction and Film |
| A study and discussion of Italian cinema from neorealism to the present. The course will cover both formal and thematic trends in the films of the noted postwar Italian directors Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti. The course will also consider the trend away from reliance on literary texts toward the development of personal expressions by such author/directors as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Lina Wertmüller, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Maurizio Nichetti, and others. Film screenings will be in Italian with English subtitles. Lectures and coursework will be in English. Students wishing to apply this course toward the major in Italian must secure permission of the instructor. They will complete their assignments in Italian and meet with the instructor in supplementary sessions. Faithful attendance is required. (Listed as both LACS 290 and ITAL 290.) (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 314 |
| Contemporary Italian Literature |
| A critical reading of selected novels, short stories, poetry, and plays from the turn of the 20th century to the present. Authors include: Pirandello, Svevo, Aleramo, Montale, Ungaretti, Morante, Calvino, Petrignani, Fo, and other contemporary authors. Emphasis is on the historical and cultural context of the works and on recent trends in Italian literature. Topics include: literature during both world wars and under Fascism, modernism and postmodernism in literature, contemporary women writers, and the role of Italian intellectuals in society. All work is done in Italian. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 335 |
| Dante: The Divine Comedy |
| An intensive study of the Divine Comedy (in translation) with particular emphasis on the historical and aesthetic significance of this 'summa.' Students wishing to count this course toward a major in Italian should receive permission of the instructor. (Listed as both LACS 335 and ITAL 335.) (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Lecture
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| ITAL 336 |
| Empires of the Senses in World Literature |
| Great literature stimulates the imagination and creates the illusion of transporting us to faraway places and to events that happened long ago. Different cultures throughout history have represented sensory experience differently from one another. In this course, we will discuss works of literature that raise such questions as: "Can we hear 17th C music like people did then?", "How has taste changed over time and in different cultures?", "We preserve visual artifacts of the past in museums, but how and why might we preserve past sounds and smells?" "Do race and ethnicity impact the senses and, if so, how?" Writers include: Epicurus, Lucretius, Giovanni Boccaccio, Marcel Proust, Patrick Süskind, and Toni Morrison. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 375 |
| Mythmaking the Italian Nation |
| This course will be dedicated to a study of the role that 19th century literary and cultural movements played in creating the myths necessary for defining an Italian nation, as well as later "revisionists" of the process of Italian state formation. Texts will include those by the pillars of Italian Romanticism: Foscolo, Manzoni, and Leopardi, as well as later "revisionist" writers like De Roberto, di Lampedusa, Sciascia, and Consolo. Our approach will be necessarily interdisciplinary. While our focus will be on literary and cultural movements, texts will include those by prominent historians as well. This course will be taught in English, and all texts will be in English. Films will be offered with English subtitles. (GLB2) |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 399 |
| Independent Study |
| Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and chairperson are required for enrollment. (HUM) |
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1.00 units min / 2.00 units max, Independent Study
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| ITAL 401 |
| Senior Seminar: Topics in Italian Studies |
This seminar is required of all seniors majoring in Italian: Plan A, Plan B (Italian as primary language.) An interdisciplinary seminar devoted to guided, individual research. Each student may work on any aspect of the history, society, or culture of Italy or of Italians in other lands. Coursework is conducted in Italian. The grade is based on seminar participation and a research project. Prerequisites: At least one 300-level course in Italian literature or equivalent and permission of the instructor. (WEB)
Prerequisite: C- or better in Italian 228 or equivalent. |
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1.00 units, Seminar
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| ITAL 466 |
| Teaching Assistantship |
| Submission of the special registration form, available online, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. Guidelines are available in the College Bulletin.
(0.5 - 1 course credit) |
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0.50 units min / 1.00 units max, Independent Study
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