Course Offerings

Courses are listed by course number and title. Credit amounts are included in parentheses. Courses are taught in Italian, unless noted otherwise.

NB: Course offerings vary by semester. Please see the site of the University Registrar for the current Schedule of Classes.

ITAL 520: Italy Today: Socio. and Applied Linguistics (3 cr.)

ITAL 527: Research Methodology (3 cr.)

Starting from the notion of culture as a total phenomenon and adopting an interdisciplinary methodology, this course has two main objectives: to make M.A. students from both tracks familiar with major trends in critical and cultural theory; and to train students to apply theoretical concepts and approaches to selected expressions of Italian culture.

A combination of Italian and foreign theoretical texts will be taken from such diverse areas as literary theory, semiotics, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and aesthetics, and will help students analyze Italian cultural phenomena in connection with issues of ideology, social class, politics, gender and race. Representative case studies will be carefully selected with particular attention to the main fields of investigation pertaining to the M.A.’s objectives (such as literature, history, sociology, linguistics, politics, media and the arts).

The course will be a combination of lectures, class discussions and individual presentations. By the end of the semester each student will have to submit a long research paper on a topic, methodology and disciplinary area reflecting the student’s field of specialization chosen for the M.A.

ITAL 530: Monsters in Italian Culture (3 cr.)

ITAL 531: Issues and Perspectives in Italian Studies (3 cr.)

Using a variety of materials –from literary texts to critical essays, newspaper articles and films–the course explores several issues that have shaped Italian culture throughout the centuries and continue to play a crucial role in the contemporary debate. These include the North-South divide, the relationship between Church and State, the role of literature in the formation of the national identity, and the transformation of Italy from a country of emigrants into a country of immigrants.

ITAL 551: Italy Between Europe and the Mediterranean (3 cr.)

This course concentrates on pivotal representative moments of the intellectual history of Europe seen through the modern and contemporary Italian literary and cultural production. It explores the evolution of the idea of Europe and the development of a European consciousness as reflected in the writings of key literary, historical, and philosophical Italian figures, from the heroes of Risorgimento – Mazzini and Garibaldi—to the antifascist thinker Carlo Rosselli and the federalist politician Altiero Spinelli, down to protagonists of contemporary Italian culture like philosopher Gianni Vattimo, the controversial Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, and the internationally renowned Mitteleuropean writer Claudio Magris. This comparative and interdisciplinary investigation will allow students to appreciate the complexity of the European question in a nation trying to come to terms with regional localisms, Mediterraneanization, and globalization, and to familiarize themselves with the pivotal contribution of Italian literature to the European ideal.

ITAL 750: Thesis Writing Seminar (3 cr.)