Courses for Fall 2021

Interested in adding an Italian course to your schedule this Fall? Check out our course offerings for Fall 2021 below:

Department of Italian, Fall 2021

LANGUAGE COURSES

N.B.: All language courses in the Department of Italian are intensive, meaning that they meet 4 days a week (MTWR) with asynchronous learning on Fridays. This allows students with no prior knowledge of Italian to satisfy their language requirement in 2 semesters with ITAL 011 and ITAL 032, to make fast progress towards a minor in Italian, and to be ready to study in Italy through direct matriculation at some of the best universities in Europe in 4 semesters upon completion of ITAL 112. Students in the School of Foreign Service also receive thorough language training that prepares them for their required oral proficiency exam.

  • ITAL-009 Italian for Spanish and Romance Language Speakers (MTWR 11:00-12:00) – 6 credits

This intensive Italian language course, designed for native or proficient speakers of Spanish, covers in one semester materials usually taught in two semesters in Basic and Intermediate Italian. The course provides an accelerated introduction to Italian, allowing students to enroll in ITAL 111 upon successful completion of ITAL 009. 

 

  • ITAL-010 Advanced Italian for Spanish and Romance Language Speakers (MTWR 12:30-1:30) – 6 credits

This is a second semester intensive course that continues and builds on the work done during the Italian for Spanish Speakers course (ITAL 009). It provides a review of Italian grammar already learned in the previous semester, along with the opportunities to further develop the four skills of speaking, understanding, reading, and writing at an advanced level. This course will also put a special emphasis on intercultural reflection on and exchange between the Italian, the Latin/Iberian America, and the USA culture and lifestyle.

 

  • ITAL-011 Italian Language and Culture: Beginner (3 sections: MTWR 10:00-11:00 or 12:30-1:30 or 2:00-3:00) – 6 credits

This intensive course meets 4 days a week with asynchronous learning on Fridays and provides a first approach to the Italian language for absolute beginners. Attention is devoted to the four skills of speaking, understanding, reading, and writing with a progression from greater emphasis on listening and speaking to a balance of all skills as the semester progresses.

 

  • ITAL-032 Italian Language and Culture: Intermediate (MTWR 11:00- 12:00) – 6 credits

This intensive course meets 4 days a week with asynchronous learning on Fridays and is designed to further develop language ability and knowledge of the Italian culture for students who have completed ITAL 011 or have already had some exposure to the language. As in the case of ITAL 011, the four skills of speaking, understanding, reading and writing are developed in a balanced way.

 

  • ITAL-111 Adv I Italian: Contemporary Culture and Society (2 sections: MTWR 11:00-11:50 or 2:00-2:50) – 5 credits

ITAL 111 continues and builds on the work done in ITAL 011 and ITAL 032, providing a thorough grounding in the essentials of Italian grammar. The course develops the four skills of speaking, understanding, reading, and writing but increases attention to grammatical correctness and the development of literacy with respect to Basic and Intermediate.

 

  • ITAL-112 Adv 2 Italian: Italian Traditions, History, and Art (MTWR 10:00-11:00) – 5 credits

ITAL 112 continues and builds on the work done in ITAL 011, ITAL 032 and ITAL 111 providing a review of Italian grammar learned in the previous years and opportunities to develop the four skills of speaking, understanding, reading, and writing at an advanced level.

 

CONTENT COURSES

  • ITAL-042 Gateway to Italian Culture (MW 12:30 – 1:45) – 3 credits

This course is designed to guide students through a close study of major Italian works. It aims to provide a critical overview of literary and cultural movements that have shaped the discipline of Italian Studies. Students’ critical thinking will be developed through frequent writing assignments. This course, offered in English, is required for all Italian majors and it satisfies one of the two College Humanities and Writing requirements. Italian majors should register for the course during the second semester of their first year. The course is also open to non-majors.

HALC Hum, Art, Lit, Cul

 

  • ITAL-120 Italian Society and Pop Culture (meets asynchronously) – 1 credit

Italian society and pop-culture is a 1-credit course designed mostly for freshmen students. Topics will include Italian lifestyle, news & tabloids, Italian customs and traditions, the role of cuisine, fashion and sports, and cultural items linked to social phenomenon.  The course is asynchronous and taught in English.

 

  • ITAL-231 Contemporary Italy: Topics for Proficiency (TR 11:00-12:15) – 3 credits

This course is designed to integrate language proficiency and area studies by focusing on topics on Contemporary Italy, from demography, geography, history, economics, politics, society, and media to the arts and literature. Students participate in Teletandem sessions with peers at an Italian university during the course of the semester. Conducted in Italian. Note: SFS students may count their final oral examination as their required oral proficiency test.

SFS/RCST Western Europe

 

  • ITAL-232 Italian through Art – 1 credit

Italian Through Art: Sexuality, Gender, and Art in Early Italian Renaissance (1350-1550) The Renaissance is often described as the Golden Age, but for whom? We will be posing a challenge to this narrative by investigating how the visual arts shaped gender identities and notions of sexuality in early Italian Renaissance art. Focusing on major centers such as Florence, Milan, Rome, Napoli, Padua, and Venice, as well as smaller courts such as Urbino and Mantua, the course considers the works of some of the most important artists of the Renaissance, among them Giotto, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Masaccio, Donatello, Mantegna, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

The course will meet on the first eight consecutive Tuesdays of the Fall semester, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm. P/F option.

 

  • ITAL-319 Italian Translation (TR 12:30-1:45) – 3 credits

This course is designed to introduce advanced students of Italian to the theory and practice of translation Students learn to translate texts (Italian to English and English to Italian) from a variety of topics and genres. By learning fundamental theoretical concepts and techniques of translation, in this course students also gain practical experience in reading, paraphrasing, summarizing, editing and proofreading. They also learn the criteria for evaluating translations. The texts used in Italian Translation come from authentic sources and cover a variety of genres, including newspapers, commercials, cartoons, songs, movie subtitles and literature sources. Prerequisites: ITAL-112 and ITAL-233

 

  • ITAL-387 Love & Friendship in Medieval Italy (MW 3:00-4:15) – 3 credits

This course traces the evolving meaning of the term “amistà” (“Friendship) in the Italian literature of 13th and 14th centuries. The notion of friendship allowed a certain degree of ambiguity since Classical Antiquity, signifying in Latin poetry alternatively an erotic relationship and a non-erotic, same-sex relationship. Christian poets such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch dramatize the notion of friendship in a way that exploits poetically the term’s ambiguity in an attempt to reconcile between divine love (Agape, or charity) and human love (Eros).  Course conducted in Italian.

HALC – Hum, Art, Lit, Cul

 

  • ITAL-395 The Dark Prince (MW 2:00-3:15) – 3 credits

Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence 1469-1527) stands as the controversial political genius of the Italian Renaissance. The Borgia, the Medici, the Church of Rome, the ruling European and Italian dynasties, along with emperors, kings, leaders and tyrants of the past are the characters on the political “stage” set for The Prince (De Principatibus), Machiavelli’s masterpiece. The course will present Machiavelli’s major works in translation, including his texts for theater, in order to reflect on the nature of power, on Machiavelli’s legacy, and on Italian and European Renaissance. The course will also present the anti-Machiavellian treatise par excellence, The Reason of State by the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero (c. 1544 – 1617). Course conducted in English.

College/SFS/European Stud Cert, HALC – Hum, Art, Lit, Cul 

 

  • ITAL-397 Elena Ferrante: Neapolitan Quartet (TR 12:30-1:45) – 3 credits

Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet: Gender, Class, and Identity in Contemporary Italy In the Neapolitan Quartet, Elena Ferrante sketches a genealogical cycle that extends from the 1950s to the first decade of the new millennium while following the friendship between two women from working class Naples. In this course, we will focus on the main themes of the novels, such as the tension between standard Italian and dialect, the elusive notion of progress, women’s solidarity and rivalry, and changes in Italian society and culture from the aftermath of World War II to the present. Course conducted in Italian.

HALC – Hum, Art, Lit, Cul

  • ITAL-408 Italian Practicum – 1 credit

ITAL 408 is a one-credit course that offers you the opportunity to interact with a native speaker of Italian at an Italian university. You will meet your Italian collaborator at least 8 times during the semester for one hour and twenty minutes – you are encouraged to meet once per week. During each session, you will speak for 30 minutes in Italian and 30 minutes in English, and the session will end with 20 minutes of language feedback. To enroll in this course, you must have completed ITAL 011 Intensive Basic Italian. Meets 3 times over the course of the semester.

 

  • ITAL-489 Senior Seminar: Texts in Contexts (T 2:00-4:30) – 3 credits

The senior seminar is a capstone course designed to familiarize students with the most significant theories and practices of critical analysis. It discusses the principles of the major approaches (such as Marxist, semiotic, and gender criticism), while testing their validity through applications to specific texts. Students will learn to recognize the different perspectives, select the most appropriate approach for a given context, and develop their own critical discourse. Course conducted in Italian.

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