COURSES OFFERED

001-002. Elementary Italian
A practical knowledge of the language is acquired by studying grammar, listening, speaking, writing and reading. Course-work includes the use of the Language Learning Center. Credit will not be given for Italian 001 without completion of Italian 002. The course meets in intensive (eight hours a week at Bryn Mawr) and non-intensive (six hours a week at Bryn Mawr and Haverford) sections. (Caporale, Patruno, Striker, Troncelliti)

101, 102. Intermediate Course in the Italian Language
A review of grammar and readings from Italian authors with topics assigned for composition and discussion; conducted in Italian. The course meets in intensive (four hours a week) and non-intensive (three hours a week) sections. (Caporale, Ricci )

200. Advanced Conversation and Composition
The purpose of this course is to increase fluency in Italian and to facilitate the transition to literature courses. The focus is on spoken Italian and on the appropriate use of idiomatic and everyday expressions. Students will be expected to do intensive and extensive language drills, orally and in the form of written compositions as well as Web-related exercises. Literary material will be used; conducted in Italian. (Patruno)

201. Prose and Poetry of Contemporary Italy
A study of the artistic and cultural developments of pre-Fascist, Fascist and post-Fascist Italy seen through the works of poets such as Ungaretti, Montale and Quasimodo, and through the narratives of Pirandello, Moravia, P. Levi, Silone, Vittorini, Pavese, Ginzburg and others. (Patruno, Division III)

203. Italian Theater
A survey of Italian theater from the Renaissance to the present. Readings include plays by Ruzante, Goldoni, Alfieri, Verga, Pirandello, Dacia Mariani, Natalia Ginzburg and Dario Fo. (Division III)

205. The Short Story of Modern Italy
Examination of the best of Italian short stories from post-unification to today’s Italy. In addition to their artistic value, these works will be viewed within the context of related historical and political events. Among the authors to be read are Verga, D’Annunzio, Pirandello, Moravia, Calvino, Buzzati and Ginzburg. (Patruno, Division III)

207. Dante in Translation
An historical appraisal and critical appreciation of the Vita Nuova and the Divina Commedia. (Vickers, Division III)

209. Humanism and the Renaissance in Translation
(Ricci, Division III)

211. Primo Levi, the Holocaust and Its Aftermath
A consideration, through analysis and appreciation of his major works, of how the horrific experience of the Holocaust awakened in Primo Levi a growing awareness of his Jewish heritage and led him to become one of the dominant voices of that tragic historical event, as well as one of the most original new literary figures of post-World War II Italy. Always in relation to Levi and his works, attention will also be given to other Italian women writers whose works are also connected with the Holocaust. (Patruno, Division III; cross-listed as Comparative Literature 211)

212. Italia d'Oggi
This course, taught in Italian, will focus primarily on the works of the so-called "migrant writers" who, having adopted the Italian language, have become a significant part of the new voice of italy. In addition to the aesthetic appreciation of these works, this course will also take into consideration the social, cultural and political factors surrounding them. (Patruno, Division III)

225. Italian Cinema and Literary Adaptation
A survey, taught in English but also valid for Italian languages credit for those who qualify to do reading and writing in Italian, of Italian cinema with emphasis placed on its relation to literature. The course will discuss how cinema conditions literary imagination and how literature leaves its imprint on cinema. We will “read” films as “literary images” and “see” novels as “visual stories.” The reading of the literary sources will be followed by evaluation of the corresponding films (all subtitled) by well-known directors, such as Visconti, Rosi, Bellocchio, the Taviani brothers and Bertolucci. (Ricci, Division III)

230. Poetics of Desire in the Lyric Poetry of Renaissance Italy and Spain
A study of the evolution of the love lyric in Italy and Spain during the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. Topics include the representation of women as objects of desire and pre-texts for writing; the self-fashioning and subjectivity of the lyric voice; the conflation and conflict of eroticism and idealism; theories of imitation; parody; and the feminine appropriation of the Petrarchan tradition. Although concentrating on the poetry of Italy and Spain, readings include texts from France, England and Mexico. Students wishing major credit in Italian must do appropriate assignments in Italian. (Quintero, Division III; cross-listed as Comparative Literature 230 and Spanish 230)

301. Dante
Dante's Divine Comedy is a poetic summation of the Christian Middle Ages and forwards a hint of things to come. The main objective of the course will be to offer the remarkable panorama of the late Middle Ages through one man's poetic vision of the afterlife. The course will devote attention to historical, political, and theological perspectives, but focusing essentailly on the Inferno, it will deal primarily with literary and linguistic issues, for the Commedia was the first major poem written in the Italian (vernacular) language. (Patruno, Ricci, Vickers, Division III)

303. Petrarca and Boccaccio
(Patruno, Division III)

304. Il Rinascimento
This course will trace the development of Italian ideas of self, authorship, national/cultural identity, and gender in the prose and poetry of the period. Students will become familiar with the growing importance of women during the Renaissance as they expand their sphere of activity in literature (as authors of epics, lyrics, treatises, and letters), in the sixteenth century court, and in society where for the first time they articulate their own gender discourse. (Ricci, Division III)

399. Senior Conference
Under the direction of the instructor, each student prepares a paper on an author or a theme that the student has chosen. This course is open only to senior Italian majors. (Patruno, Ricci, Vickers)

403. Independent Project
Offered with approval of the department. (staff)