L36 Ital 1015 Introductory Italian for Visual Arts

Students learn methods of effective communication, the rapid acquisition of spoken ability, and a working vocabulary for the visual arts: drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, the museum, and so on. Students will also learn beginning reading and writing skills.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 101D Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level I

This course stresses the rapid acquisition of spoken ability, with attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills through contextualized learning and engagement with culturally authentic materials. Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian or minimal experience in another Romance language.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 102D Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level II

Continuation of Ital 101D. This sequence stresses effective communication and the rapid acquisition of spoken ability with increased attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills. Prerequisite: Ital 101D or placement by examination.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 106D Accelerated Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level I

This course is designed especially for students with previous language study. It moves at an accelerated pace toward the acquisition of spoken ability, with attention to the development of reading, writing and listening skills through contextualized learning and engagement with culturally authentic materials.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 107D Accelerated Elementary Italian II

Continuation of Italian 106D. Designed for students whose previous study of French or Spanish enables them to grasp the principles and rules of Italian grammar more efficiently. Emphasis on all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing. Prerequisite: Italian 106D or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM

L36 Ital 201D Intermediate Italian in the Everyday World, Level III

This course aims for students to achieve intermediate proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Focus is placed on vocabulary building and increased facility with Italian grammar through interactive exercises and the use of authentic materials, such as readings and videos. Regular compositions and exams as well as a final exam. Prerequisite: Ital 102D or higher.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 215 Conversation/Culture

This course examines popular culture through a focus on what is said and performed. The course consists of thematic units focusing on everyday occurrences and themes that mark the Italian experience, such as conversation in the Italian bar; poignant views of life expressed in films and other media; daily experiences depicted in poems and songs; public and private politics; the role of the meal in real life, art and literature. As students advance through each thematic module, they develop a creative project in which they put into practice (by a skit/presentation/text/art work) what they have learned. Prerequisite: Ital 102D or the equivalent.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: HUM

L36 Ital 216 Conversation

A continuation of Ital 215, this course emphasizes the development of speaking skills in Italian through study of aspects of contemporary Italian culture in particular art, music, film and politics.

Credit 2 units. BU: HUM

L36 Ital 247 First-Year Seminar: Italy's Invention of the Modern Museum

This course traces the development in Italy of what we know as the modern museum. Unfolding chronologically from the Renaissance to the current day, the course will examine the origins and rise of art, natural history, science, and national museums across the peninsula from Rome to Venice, Florence to Naples. We will study the establishment of the early public art museums epitomized by the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Capitoline Museums. We will examine the impact on national and cultural identity of Fascist propaganda museums instituted under Mussolini's regime, and we will conclude with an examination of extraordinary new museums in Italy, such as the interactive MUSME (Museum of Medicine) in Padua, and the MEIS (National Italian Judaism and Shoah Museum) in Ferrara. Art Curators, and Museum directors will visit our course.

Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 248 First-Year Seminar: Italian Literary Culture: Identity, Subjectivity, Audience

In this course we'll sample eight centuries of Italian literary culture by reading some of its greatest works. While familiarizing ourselves with key Italian authors (and some outliers); we'll also work to clarify our thinking about three problems: (1) identity (How does each work express an idea of "italianness"? What other elements of identity, such as gender or religion, are in play? Why do authors sometimes conceal their true identities by using a nom de plume?); (2) subjectivity (How does the author or narrator establish their place in the world?); (3) audience (For whom does the author write? Is the author's audience the same as the narrator's? How do authors make their writings available to others?). Authors studied include Boccaccio, Petrarch, Vasari, Galilei, Collodi, Ginzburg, Ferrante. Three short papers. Class conducted in English with readings in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH EN: H

L36 Ital 249 Refracted Light: How Others View Italy

Throughout the centuries Italy has both enjoyed and suffered the fascinated gaze of foreigners, who have written about it, painted it, made music and films about it. Drawing principally on prose writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries, in such varied genres as the short story, the novel, the mystery novel, travel writing and the memoir, this course examines the images of Italy that non-Italians project. Beyond learning about Italy, students consider their own "idea" of Italy, examine their own frame of reference and cultural biases, interrogate a variety of stereotypes, and ponder how well one can truly understand a place as an outsider or reader. Authors studied include Stendhal, Dickens, James, Forster and Mann, as well as such contemporary writers as Michael Dibdin and Shirley Hazzard.

Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM

L36 Ital 280 Sex in Italian Culture and Media

From XIXth century hotbed of sexual tourism to XXist century idyllic scenario of Guadagnino'ssteamy romance "Call Me by Your Name," Italy has been cast globally as an imaginary site of sexual freedom. Throughout the 20th century, Italy's sexual culture and mores have been shaped more by a climate of discretion, secrecy, and scandals than by overt identity politics. However, between the early 70s and the first Rome Pride in 2000, an Italian movement of sexual activism featuring activists, writers, and artists have impacted globally the ways in which we experience and talk about bodies, desires, and sexual identities nowadays. How do we think, represent, and talk sex in Italian culture? What is queer about Italian culture and how does "queer" translate into Italian language? This course introduces students to the study of Italian cultural productions on sexuality between discretion and identity politics spanning early sexological work, accounts of homosexuality under Fascism, "transessualita" Italian-style, sexual manifestos, photographic archives, AIDS fiction, LGBTQI films and YouTube videos, transnational queer comedies, drag king performances, etc. The class is taught in English with no prerequisite necessary. No Final.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 2991 Undergraduate Independent Study

Prerequisite: Ital 201D and permission of the department. No more than 6 units may be earned by a student.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 301 Oral Communication I

Designed to offer students an opportunity to practice and refine their conversational skills while expanding their practical vocabulary. Wide variety of topics for discussion; brief oral reports. Regular homework assignments with emphasis on web-based research and learning. Prerequisite: Ital 201D.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 307D Advanced Italian in the Everyday World

This course aims at reinforcing and developing advanced grammar structures and writing abilities through the study of a variety of media centered around the theme of humor. Have you ever laughed . . . in Italian? Materials include literary excerpts, short stories, film, television clips, and songs. Our focus will be on grammar and syntax as the bases to understanding contemporary Italian humor. This course is essential for the further study of Italian language and literature; it must be taken before or concurrently with Ital 323C and Ital 324C. Prerequisite: Ital 201D or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 308D Grammar and Composition II

A continuation of Italian 307D, this course features advanced lessons in Italian syntax and vocabulary and an introduction to the analysis of poetry and theatrical texts, with the goal of improving both reading and writing in Italian. The basis of our work is a series of readings having a common theme, desire requited and unrequited. We think about what poets desire, how they give verbal expression to it, and how the success or failure of their pursuit informs their writing. Likewise we look at how playwrights exploit this theme as a plot device. Readings include poetry by Petrarch, Michelangelo, Tasso and Montale, as well as two comedies. Grammar exams and regular composition assignments; final exam. Essential for further study of Italian language and literature, this course must be taken concurrently with Italian 323C or 324C. Prerequisite: Ital 307D or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 309 Transmedia Italian Culture: Stories, Interpretation, Performance

This course examines contemporary Italian culture through a variety of genres and media, which may include short stories, graphic novels, blogs, zines, essays, news articles, podcasts, film, music, and so on. Strong emphasis will be placed on writing. Throughout the course, students will produce their own analyses of key questions defining Italian culture through the production of multimedia pieces that combine writing with such interpretive vehicles as film, music, and digital photography. This course is in Italian, and it aims to expand students' writing and analytical skills in Italian as well as their cultural competence. No final.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 310 Advanced Italian Grammar in Padua

This advanced Italian grammar course is taught every year in the Boston University program in Padua, Italy, with which Washington University is affiliated. The course allows students to further their mastery of Italian grammar and syntax, in order to achieve a level of full satisfaction of comprehension and active communication. Readings include newspaper articles and literary essays; students write brief compositions while taking weekly tests. Open only to Washington University students enrolled in the Padua, Italy, program with Boston University.

Credit 4 units. BU: HUM

L36 Ital 311 Introduction to Contemporary Italy

This course is taught every year in the Boston University program in Padua, Italy, with which Washington University is affiliated. The course focuses on refining students' ability to express themselves in Italian while presenting an overview of the history and society of contemporary Italy. Readings include works by authors who are particularly significant to Italian literature of the 20th century, as well as an array of other materials. Open only to Washington University students enrolled in the Padua, Italy, program with Boston University.

Credit 4 units.

L36 Ital 319 Advanced Conversational Italian

Designed to offer students with strong proficiency in Italian an opportunity to practice and refine their conversational skills through the study, rehearsal and performance of theatrical scenes or an Italian comedy from the repertoire of such chief literary figures as Machiavelli, Goldoni, Pirandello, Natalia Ginzburg and Dario Fo. Prerequisite: Ital 215 or placement by examination.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: HUM

L36 Ital 321 Independent Study

Credit variable, maximum 3 units.

L36 Ital 322 Topics

This course examines contemporary Italian culture through a variety of genres and media, which may include short stories, graphic novels, blogs, zines, essays, news articles, podcasts, film, music, and so on. Strong emphasis will be placed on writing. Throughout the course, students will produce their own analyses of key questions defining Italian culture through the production of multimedia pieces that combine writing with such interpretive vehicles as film, music, and digital photography. Essential for further study of Italian language and literature, this course may be taken concurrently with Italian 307D, 323C or 324C. Prerequisite: Ital 201D or permission of instructor. In Italian.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 3221 Topics: The Jewish Experience in Italy

This course will examine the social and political history of the Jews of Italy from the period of Italian unification through the end of World War II. We will look through two different prisms: first, the constant of Jews' minority status in a Catholic country at a time when Church doctrine was hostile to them, and second, their changing status during significant moments in the brief history of the Italian monarchy. Under the latter rubric, we will study the rehabilitation of the Jews under liberal political philosophies, their problematic relationship with Fascism, and finally the arrival of the Holocaust in Italy and efforts to defend Jews against Nazi genocide. We will approach these topics wherever possible through primary texts, including essays, memoirs and novels. Reading knowledge of Italian is not required. Readings in English; some readings in Italian for Italian majors. Discussion in English. Prerequisite for Italian majors: Ital 307D; no prerequisite for students in other majors. Three five-page papers. Please note: The Ital 5221 cross-listing course is for graduate students only.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM, IS EN: H

L36 Ital 3224 Topics: From Basilisks to Botticelli: The Birth, Development and Politics of Museums in Italy

This course investigates the rise and cultural authority of museums in Italy from the Renaissance to the 20th century. The course unfolds chronologically, beginning with the distant precursors and etymological roots of the museum in ancient Alexandria and Rome. We trace the origins of the museum in the art collection and patronage that surged during the Renaissance, including the 16th- and 17th-century Curiosity Cabinet with its fossils, mythical basilisks, gems and weapons and church displays of religious and classical art. We will study the establishment during the Enlightenment in Italy of the first public art museums epitomized by the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery and the Capitoline Museums. We will conclude by examining the impact on national and cultural identity of Fascist propaganda museums instituted under Mussolini's regime. No prerequisites.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H

L36 Ital 323C Italian Literature 1: Genre and Gender in Italy, 1200-1600

This course traces the evolution of narrative and lyric genres in Italy from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, with a particular focus on men as writing subjects and the women they constitute as objects. We will focus on such topics as how male poets formed lyric communities, the conflicting dynamics of love and misogyny, and the notions of the real and the ideal in the representation of women. We will also look at how women writers both adapted to and wrote back at the dominant discourses of their time. Authors studied include Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Castiglione, and Veronica Franco. Prerequisite: Ital 201D. Previous or concurrent enrollment in Ital 307D or Ital 308D recommended.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H

L36 Ital 323W Italian Literature I — Writing-Intensive Seminar

Introductory survey of Italian literature from its beginnings in the Middle Ages through the late Renaissance. Analysis of the predominant genres: lyric, religious narrative, novella, treatise, chivalric epic. This is a writing-intensive version of the previously offered course Ital 323C. Prerequisite: Ital 201D. Previous or concurrent enrollment in Ital 307D or 308D recommended.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, WI BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 324C Italian Literature II: The Making of Modern Italy, Texts and Contexts

This course examines key political, social, cultural, and religious aspects of Italian life, from Galileo's condemnation in 1633 through the Risorgimento, Fascism, and the birth of the modern Republic up to the increasingly multicultural Italy of today. The overarching theme of this course is the pervading question of Italian identity, or italianita. We will study a variety of male and female native born and immigrant authors, visual artists, and cultural critics. Prerequisite: Italian 201D. Previous or concurrent enrollment in Ital 307D or Ital 308D recommended.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 327 History of the Italian Language

In this course we trace the evolution of Italian from its very earliest written manifestations to its increasing internationalization in the 20th and 21st centuries. We study the natural evolution of Italian up until the 16th century; its codification as a literary language during the 16th century; the debates over the institution of a national language that coincided with the unification of Italy in the 19th century; the recovery of dialects as literary languages in the 20th century; and the more recent incorporation of words and phrases originating outside of Italy. Along the way we come to understand the reasons why we study a particular form of Italian in school, and we consider the implications of these choices not only for our own learning but for Italian literature and its sense of nationhood.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 332 Topics in Film Studies: Italian Cinema

This course studies the influence of film on Italian culture. We will consider the trajectory of Italian film from its origins to the present day. Specific areas of discussion may include cinema as a revolutionary aesthetic; mass culture versus high art; neorealism; literary adaptation; and cinema as political resistance and vehicle for social justice. The course will also work collaboratively with the Italian Film Fest of Saint Louis in the development of materials, class discussion, and student engagement. Two to three hours of film viewing plus three class hours are required per week. Taught in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H

L36 Ital 334 Topics in Italian Cinema

A companion to Ital 332, this course focuses on a select topic in the history of Italian cinema, such as the work of a single director or a significant cinematic movement. Course conducted in English. Italian majors read in Italian, others in English translation. Prerequisite for Italian majors: Ital 307D. Prerequisite for nonmajors: Ital 332, Film 220, or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. BU: IS

L36 Ital 350 Topics: Global Italy: Race, Gender, Migration and Citizenship

Traditionally represented as a land of emigrants and exiles from the south, 21st-century Italy has become the destination of many immigrants and a place of encounter of different cultures and races. In "Cara Italia" [Dear Italy], a rap hymn by the famous artist Ghali, Italy is both a dear and a contested space of belonging where many children of migrants feel both at home and out of place. Exploring the cultural and historical roots of this feeling, the course asks the following: What does it mean to culturally belong? Why are certain people denied the status of Italian citizens? What does it mean to be Black in Italy? How are interracial younger generations reshaping Italy and Italian-ness? This course is an introduction to cultural productions at the intersection of migration, race, gender, and citizenship in contemporary Italy. In the course, students will critically engage a variety of issues such as the relation between Italian colonialism and recent migration, border politics and civic mobilization, gender struggles and networking, xenophobia and racism, and social protests and activism. Although African migration and Italians of Afro-descent are at the core of the course, students will also explore representations by/of other migrant communities such as the Asian and the Albanian ones. The course will be conducted in English, and screenings will be in the original language with English subtitles.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H

L36 Ital 404 Senior Independent Study in Italian

Prerequisites: senior status; Ital 307D, 308D, 323C, 324C; and permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

L36 Ital 408 Disease, Madness, and Death Italian Style

Italian literary history teems with representations of illness, insanity, and death. From the ghastly 1348 plague that frames Boccaccio's "Decameron" to the midday madness of errant Renaissance knights and from 16th-century tales of poisoning and 19th-century Pirandellian madmen to the contemporary scourge of mafia killings, disease, madness, and death are dominant facts of reality, points of view, symbols, and cultural characteristics of Italian poetry and prose. This course undertakes a pathology of these tropes in Italian literary history and seeks to understand their meaning for the changing Italian cultural identity across time and the Italian peninsula. Students will read primary literary texts and view excerpts from films alongside the study of articles focused on the cultural history of medicine, religion, and criminal justice. Taught in English. No final.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H

L36 Ital 428 The New Sicilian School

The unification of Italy in the mid-19th century led to the creation of a new "Sicilian School," the first since that of the court poets associated with Frederick II in the 13th century. These new Sicilian writers have given us many narrative masterpieces, focusing on common concerns such as the island's identity over two millenia and the impact of Italian nationalism; the rise of bourgeois culture and the decline of indigenous patriarchal structures; the rule of law and the role of the Mafia; and the politics of language. Authors studied include Verga, Pirandello, Vittorini, Brancati, Tomasi di Lampedusa and Sciascia. Course taught in Italian or English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 430 Divergent Voices: Italian Women Writers

This course engages the fictional and political works of Italian women writers from the 17th century to the present day. We will read one of the acclaimed Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante, who is considered by many to be the most important Italian fiction writer of her generation. We will examine a cloistered Venetian nun's defiant 1654 indictment of the misogynist society that forced her into the convent. We will confront the reality of a woman writer who in 1901 was compelled to choose between her child and her literary career. Among other contemporary writers, we will study the humorous and radical feminist one-acts of playwright Franca Rame. Taught in English. No final.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, SD EN: H

L36 Ital 432 Divergent Voices: Italian Women Writers

This course examines select novels, poetry and political writings by such noted authors as Sibilla Aleramo, Dacia Maraini, Luisa Muraro and Anna Banti. Special attention is paid to the historical, political and cultural contexts that influenced authors and their work. Textual and critical analysis focuses on such issues as historical revisionism in women's writing, female subjectivity and the origins and development of contemporary Italian feminist thought and practice. Taught in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD Art: HUM

L36 Ital 433 Literature of the Italian Enlightenment

This course aims to explore the spectrum of intellectual and literary discourse of the Italian Enlightenment by examining a wide array of texts and genres. Readings include selections from Enlightenment and popular periodicals, scientific tracts on human anatomy, women's fashion magazines, the reformed theater of Carlo Goldoni, as well as Arcadian poetry, and literary criticism. We study the rise and characteristics of "coffee culture" during this age. We pay special attention to the "woman question," which stood at the center of 18th-century Italian intellectual discourse, and which was critical to the contemporary drive to define the enlightened nation-state. The class is conducted as a workshop in which students and instructor collaborate in the realization of course goals. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English. Prerequisite: Ital 323C or Ital 324C.

Credit 3 units. Art: HUM

L36 Ital 437 Caffe, Cadavers, Comedy and Castrati: Italy in the Age of the Grand Tour

Taught in English. With French libertine philosopher the Marquis de Sade, German novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Romantic poet Lord Byron and other illustrious travelers of high birth and good fortune who sought finishing enrichment by making their Grand Tour to Italy from the mid-18th through the early 19th centuries, we explore the richness and variety of Italian life and culture as depicted by both Grand Tourists as well as their Italian interlocutors. Chief among our destinations are Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome. Attractions typical of the early modern Tour circumscribe our journey. Coffee houses first appeared in the 18th century and, in ways strikingly similar to their function today, became the real and symbolic centers of social, intellectual and civil exchange. We explore 18th-century coffee culture through comedies and Enlightenment and popular journals that took them as their theme, as well as through a study of the coffee houses themselves, a number of which are still in existence. Theaters, concert halls, gaming houses, literary and scientific academies, galleries, churches and universities are part of the standardized itinerary we follow. During the period, anatomy and physiology attained new legitimacy as crucial scientific disciplines and we visit both the anatomical theater at the University of Bologna, where the annual Carnival dissection took place, as well as the first museum of anatomy and obstetrics founded in the Bolognese Institute of Sciences in 1742 by Pope Benedict XIV. We visit archeological excavation sites, in particular Pompeii, first unearthed in 1748. Fashion, an obsessive preoccupation of the day, also is a point of interest in our travels. Through primary and recently published secondary sources we also encounter the remarkable authority of Italian women unmatched anywhere else in Europe at the time. Prerequisite: at least one 300-level literature course. Readings in Italian or English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 456 Romance Philology

Study of the evolution of the major Romance languages from their common Latin origins. Knowledge of classical Latin not required, but acquaintance with phonetics of at least one Romance language extremely helpful. Conducted in English. Prerequisites: French 325 and French 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent Washington University transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Same as L34 French 456

Credit 3 units.

L36 Ital 462 Prose Writers of the 16th Century

With the triumph of the vernacular in 16th-century Italy, the peninsula bore witness not just to an outpouring of poetic works but to the arrival of some of the most important prose works in the Italian canon prior to the advent of the novel. In this course we'll conduct close readings of two treatises, Machiavelli's Prince and Castiglione's Book of the Courtier. We'll study these works for their linguistic and rhetorical features as well as their historical context and ideological content. We'll also consult some secondary readings to help us understand the place of each in the political and cultural landscape of Renaissance Italy. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.

Credit 3 units.

L36 Ital 473 Machiavelli and Guicciardini

The development of modern political science in 16th-century Italy. We address questions of both theory and methodology in Machiavelli's and Guicciardini's political visions. We also pay close attention to the Florentine context of their work, as well as to the influence of historical examples, both classical and contemporary, in the development of their analyses. Finally, we ask how the examples they set, and the theories they promulgate, can have resonance in addressing political questions in our own age. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H

L36 Ital 481 Dante

This course features an in-depth approach to Dante's "Inferno," the first, and in many ways the most famous, of the three parts of the "Divina Commedia." We'll study the structure of the poem as well as the structure of Dante's Hell, his verse form and use of the vernacular, his notion of sin and punishment and its relation to the theological traditions of which he is an heir. Because so much of the poem is rooted in and extends Dante's autobiography — literary, sentimental, and political — we'll also read two other important texts by him, his early "Vita nuova" (New Life) and his political treatise, "Monarchy." Reading knowledge of Italian helpful but not required. Course conducted in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 483 Boccaccio: Decameron

The unrivaled master of late medieval Italian prose, Boccaccio is also a strikingly modern author whose works address such questions as the relationship between literature and history; God and man; storyteller and audience; gender, language and power; literature and truth. With these and other concerns in mind, we read his masterpiece, the Decameron, a collection of 100 tales set in the Black Plague of 1348. We then contrast it to his late Corbaccio, ostensibly a misogynist novel but a text that finally resists such a flattening judgment. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English. Prerequisite: 3 units of literature.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM EN: H

L36 Ital 485 Ariosto: Orlando Furioso

A close reading of this Renaissance masterpiece with attention to questions of structure and sources, the themes of love and madness, the representation of court life. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS

L36 Ital 491 Postmodernism

This course explores the complex significance of Italian Postmodernism through an examination of the theoretical arguments and literary works that have shaped the cultural and political debate of the past 50 years. Students study, among others, the critical theories of "open work" (Umberto Eco), "literature as lie" (Manganelli), and "weak thought" (Gianni Vattimo) that developed from the neo–avant-garde movement of the 1960s. Analysis focuses on the novels of four authors who have had a defining influence on Italian postmodern thought and narrative forms: Carlo Emilio Gadda, Italo Calvino, Luigi Malerba and Umberto Eco. Course conducted in English; Italian majors read in Italian, others in English translation. Prerequisite for Italian majors: Ital 307D or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

L36 Ital 492 The Italian Detective Novel

The detective novel has an unusual and exceptionally brief history in Italy. Only within the past 35 years has an Italian version or, more precisely, subversion of the genre emerged and come to dominate the Italian literary scene. Prominent Italian writers such as Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Leonardo Sciascia and Luigi Malerba have deconstructed the conventions of the detective novel in order to portray the disorder and arbitrary meaning of the postmodern world. This course explores the history of the "anti-detective" novel in Italy and the philosophical and political questions the genre evokes. Readings in Italian and English. Conducted in English.

Credit 3 units. Art: HUM

L36 Ital 495 Senior Honors

Prerequisites: senior standing, at least one course at the 400 level, and acceptance into the Honors program.

Credit 3 units.

L36 Ital 4951 Honors

Prerequisites: senior standing, at least one course at the 400 level, and acceptance into the Honors program. Pass/fail.

Credit 3 units. EN: H