Course Offerings

ITAL 1009: Italian for Spanish and Romance Language Speakers (6. cr)

ITAL 2010: Advanced Italian for Spanish and Romance Language Speakers (6 cr.)

ITAL 1011: Italian Language and Culture: Beginner (6 cr.)

ITAL 1511: Italian Language and Culture: Intermediate (6 cr.)

ITAL 1042: Gateway to Italian Culture (3 cr.)

ITAL 2011: Adv I Italian: Contemporary Culture and Society (5 cr.)

ITAL 2012: Adv 2 Italian: Italian Traditions, History and Art (5 cr.)

ITAL 1020: Italian Society and Popular Culture (1 cr., taught in English)

ITAL 2031: Contemporary Italy: Topics for Oral Proficiency (3 cr.)

ITAL 1032: Italian Through Italian Renaissance Art and Language (1. cr., taught in English)

ITAL 2033: Italian Writing and Culture (3 cr.)

ITAL 2037: Business Italian (3 cr.)

ITAL 2034: Italian Translation (3 cr.)

ITAL 4337: Italian Cinema (3 cr.)

ITAL 4338: Medici, Patrons of the Renaissance: A Dynasty (3 cr.)

ITAL 4355: Bella Ciao! Women’s Identity Through the Ages (3 cr.)

ITAL 4361: Monsters and Monstrosity in Medieval Italy (3 cr.)

ITAL 4372: Dante and the Medieval Mind (3 cr.)

ITAL 4375: Boccaccio: The Invention of Storytelling (3 cr.)

ITAL 4382: Italy on Stage (3 cr.)

ITAL 4383: Dante’s Afterlife in Popular Culture (3 cr.)

ITAL 4384: Theater and Opera (3 cr.)

ITAL 4385: Madness in Italian Literature and Theater (3 cr.)

ITAL 4386: Made in Italy: Fashion and Food (3 cr.)

ITAL 4387: Love and Friendship in the Global Middle Ages (3 cr.)

ITAL 4388: Italian Songs, Cantautori to Rap (3 cr.)

ITAL 4389: Mysteries: Dante to Terrorism (3 cr.)

ITAL 4390: Mafia: Reality and Fiction (3 cr.)

ITAL 4393: Contemporary Italian and its Regional Varieties (3 cr.)

ITAL 4394: Italian Americans: Language, Literature, Film (3 cr.)

ITAL 4395: The Dark Prince (3 cr.)

ITAL 4408: Italian Conversation Practicum (1 cr.)

ITAL 4409: Italian Practicum (1 cr.)

ITAL 4420: Language and Migration (3 cr.)

ITAL 4421: Italian Language Varieties (3 cr.)

ITAL 4426: Encounters with the Other (3 cr.)

ITAL 4444: Discourse, Identity, and Narratives (3 cr.)

ITAL 4445: Betrayals of Translation (3 cr.)

ITAL 4460: Dante (3 cr.)

ITAL 4473: Farewell to Realism: Decadence, Avant-Garde, Modernism (3 cr.)

ITAL 4480: Discourse Analysis: Narrative (3 cr.)

ITAL 4989: Senior Seminar: Texts in Contexts: Approaches to Critical Analysis (3 cr.)

ITAL 5520: 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 5530: Monsters in Italian Culture (3 cr.)

ITAL 5531: 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 5551: 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 7990: Thesis Writing Seminar (3 cr.)