Fall 2002

(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)

Italian 080
Introduction to Italian Cinema
Prof. Kirkham
T 6:00-9:00; R 4:30-6:00

This course will introduce major directors, movements, and genres in Italian cinema from World War II to the present. Both classic "auteurs" (Blasetti, Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Visconti, Antonioni) and newer directors (Olmi, Scola, Amelio, Moretti) will illustrate trends over the last fifty years through screenings of a variety of film types, from the historical drama to commedia all’italiana. The distinct national identity of Italian cinema will be emphasized with reference to the Risorgimento (Unification), Mussolini’s Fascism, regional diversity, gender roles, and minority communities. Readings will be on Italian cinema, modern Italian history, and the vocabulary of film analysis.

Course conducted in English, no prerequisites. Satisifies the General Requirement in Arts and Letters. Cross listed as Comparative Literature 280 and with the Film Studies Minor. This course is also available through the College of General Studies.

Italian 110
Elementary Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)

A first semester elementary language course for students who have never studied Italian before or who have taken a placement test and received a score below 380. All students who have previously studied Italian are required to take the placement test. Classes are conducted in Italian and emphasize the development of listening comprehension and speaking, with training in reading and writing. The course is organized around oral/aural communicative activities such as role-plays and interactive grammar exercises. In Italian 110 your listening skills will be greatly developed for you will be exposed daily to authentic language spoken at normal speed by native Italians. Some of these are short conversations, songs, and poems. As the semester progresses the conversations will be longer. Your classwork will be supplemented with homework using a cassette with a workbook, to further enhance your listening skills. In class you will get ample opportunity to speak, as much of the class period will be spent working in pairs or small groups. You will also be exposed to simple Italian texts so that your reading skills will be developed. These texts will gradually become more complex as you acquire the vocabulary necessary to read at a higher level. You will also be challenged to work on your writing skills, starting with sentences and building up to paragraph-length essays.
 

Italian 112
Elementary Italian-Accelerated
Staff
MWF 9:00-10:00; TR 9:00-10:30

Italian 112 is an intensive elementary language course for students who have never studied Italian before but who have demonstrated a certain facility for learning languages and who have already fulfilled the language requirement. This course may not be taken to fulfill the language requirement or by students with previous knowledge of Italian. The course is designed to develop function proficiency in the four skills and gain familiarity with Italian culture. The primary emphasis is on the development of the oral/aural skills, speaking and listening. Readings from authentic material on topics in Italian culture as well as frequent writing practice are also included.

As in other Italian courses, class will be conducted entirely in Italian. Your listening skills will be well for you will be exposed to daily authentic language spoken at normal speed by native Italians. Among these are conversations, both brief and lengthy, songs, letters, and poems. You will be guided through a variety of communicative activities in class which lead you from structured practice to free expression. You will be given frequent opportunity to practice your newly acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures in a small group and pair work which simulates real-life situations. Your class work will be supplemented with homework using a cassette with a workbook, to further enhance your listening skills. You will also be exposed to authentic Italian texts so that your reading skills will be developed. These texts include articles from newspapers and magazines as well as literary pieces. They will become more complex as you acquire the vocabulary necessary to read at a higher level. You will also be challenged to work on your writing skills, for you will be given ample opportunity to write about diverse topics.

Italian 120
Elementary Italian
Staff
M-F 11:00-12:00

Prerequisite: Italian 110 or a score equivalent for placement in level 120 on the Italian placement exam (see Romance Languages Department). Italian 120 is the continuation of an elementary level sequence designed to develop functional proficiency in the four skills. The primary emphasis is on the development of the oral-aural skills, speaking and listening. Readings on topics in Italian culture as well as frequent writing practice are also included in the course.

Italian 130
Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)

Italian 130 is the first half of a two semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that should allow you to function comfortably in an Italian speaking environment. You are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and to be able to review these on your own. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material.

As in other Italian courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in Italian. In addition to structured oral practice, work in class will include frequent communicative activities such as role-plays, problem-solving tasks, discussions and debates often carried out in pairs and small groups. Through the study of authentic materials such as articles, poems, songs, films, videos and taped conversations between native speakers you will deepen your knowledge of the Italian-speaking world. Daily homework will require listening practice with audio and video cassettes, in addition to regular written exercises in the Libro degli eserci, and weekly composition practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Italophone world on the Internet.

Italian 134
Intermediate Italian-Accelerated
Staff
MWF 9:00-10:00; TR 9:00-10:30

Italian 140
Intermediate Italian
Staff
MWRF 11:00-12:00

Italian 140 is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that should allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. You are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and to be able to review these on your own. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material.

As in other Italian courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in Italian. In addition to structured oral practice, work in class will include frequent communicative activities such as role-plays, problem solving tasks, discussions and debates often carried out in pairs or small groups. Through the study of authentic materials such as articles, poems, songs, films, videos and conversations between native speakers you will deepen your knowledge of the Italian-speaking world. Daily homework will require listening practice with audio and video cassettes, in addition to regular written exercises in the Libro degli esercizi, and weekly composition practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Italophone world on the internet.

Italian 180
Italian Conversation in Residence
Staff
Must be resident of the Modern Language House

Italian 208
Business Italian I
Prof. Gentili
TR 1:30-3:00

The major purpose of the course, which is conducted entirely in Italian and therefore requires an intermediate/high to advanced level of the language, is to enable students to acquire language proficiency in the area of current Italian social-business culture. With "L'Italiano per gli Affari", business terminology will be placed within the framework of many different work's practices, such as: select a employment's offers, employment's application, curriculum vitae, references, job interview, presentation, business appointment, reservations, business meeting, products and proceedings description and business correspondence. The course will also emphasize business written and conversational skills through the text "Introduzione al Commercio Italiano" which will lead students to understand the specificity of the Italian social-business culture through the analysis of the cultural and social differences between Italians and Americans in everyday business practices, such as the attitude of the Italians towards money, work, and consumerism. The students will have two oral presentations during the semester in
adjunction to a midterm and a final exam.

TEXTS:
1. L'Italiano per gli Affari
by Nicoletta Cherubini
Bonacci Editore, Roma, 1992

2. Introduzione al Commercio Italiano
by Matilde M. Fava
Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York, 1995

Italian 210
Viva Voce: Contemporary Italian Culture and Beyond
Prof. Marini
TR 10:30-12:00

The main purpose of this advanced course, taught entirely in Italian, is to reinforce students' command of the language while guiding them to an extensive comprehension of the culture of contemporary Italy. Students will implement their linguistic competence in various communicative situations through an integrated approach: inputs coming from various sources (articles, short literary texts, songs, pictures, audio and video clip) will be the starting point for a thorough analysis of significant aspects of contemporary Italian culture. Politics, lifestyle, fashion, literature, music, art, cinema and material culture will be the subjects of structured activities, such as role-plays, debates, discussions, short oral presentations, forums developed on the Internet, and weekly projects. Students will also explore the Italophone world on the Internet in search of information and source material for class discussion and individual or group projects.

The cultural content of the course, the intense communicative practice and the revision of specific linguistic structures should bring students to communicate effectively in a broad range of situations. Differences between popular and standard, formal and colloquial speech will be emphasized as well. Some expository writing will be done with the goal of refining students' writing skills.

Italian 215
Introduction to Literature
Prof. Cracolici
MWF 11:00-12:00

Examining the history of an emotion and how it emerges in literature, music, and film, this course explores one of the most enduring facets of human experience: mad love. Characters possessed by love are often presented as irrational and anti-social agents breaking conventions such as marriage, family, and social obligations. But if we consider love more closely, we are inevitably confronted with a series of ambivalent questions. Is love an emotion we merely fall into? or is it merely a matter of being subject to fate? Does human happiness require that we find a way to control, or even extirpate this most volatile of human emotions? or does human happiness require the existential embrace of love? Is love the end of reason? or must we admit that love establishes its own rationality? These are some of the questions this course will address and discuss in reading or viewing works (in their entirety or in excerpts) by the following authors: Euripides, Virgil, Dante, Guinizelli, Cavalcanti, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Alberti, Poliziano, Boiardo, Bembo, Ariosto, Della Casa, Varchi, Giraldi Cinzio, Tasso, Verdi. See http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~cracolic/madlove

Italian 241
Painters and Poets: Language and Vision in Italian Renaissance Literature
Prof. Pellicone
MWF 2-3

Both literary and visual artists develop various techniques to bridge the gap between vision and reality. The relationship that develops between images and words, thus, often work together to create history, to share experiences, and to shape the future. Often, however, the different forms of expression conflict in their attempts to reconcile the rational with the irrational. The literature of the period between 1300 and 1600 in Italy readily demonstrates the complex association between these two forms of expression. Through selections from Dante's Comedy, Boccaccio's Decameron and his Genealogy of the Ancient Gods, Petrarch's Canzoniere, Michelangelo's poetry, Cellini's Autobiography, Castiglione's Courtier, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and Vasari's Lives of the Artist we will explore various ways that authors have depicted the relationship between painters and poets to impart their views on ethics, aesthetics, politics, fame, knowledge, and death. Additionally, we will look at works such as Alberti's On Paitning, Leonardo's notebooks, and works of philosophers of the period such as Valla and Pico to see how other intellectual forces engaged in the debate.