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Fall 2005
(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)
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 the 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. Your listening skills will be developed by daily exposure to authentic language spoken at normal speed by native Italians, including short conversations, songs, and poems. As the semester progresses the conversations will be longer. Your class work 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 short compositions and building up to longer essays.
Italian 112
Elementary Italian-Accelerated
Staff
(See timetables for times)
Italian 112 is an intensive elementary language course covering the equivalent of Italian 110 and 120 in one semester. Students must have departmental permit to register. The course is open to students who have no previous knowledge of Italian, and who have already fulfilled the language requirement in another language. See course description of Italian 110 and 120.
Italian 120
Elementary Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)
Italian 120 is the second-semester continuation of the elementary level sequence designed to develop function competency in the four skills and gain familiarity with Italian culture. Students with a placement score of 380 - 440 should enroll in this level. 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 further developed by daily exposure to authentic language spoken at normal speed by native Italians, including 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 small group and pair work which simulate real-life situations. You will also be exposed to authentic Italian texts to develope your reading skills. 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. Your writing skills will also be improved through assignments on diverse topics.
Italian 130
Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)
Italian 130 is the first half of a two-semester intermediate sequence, which 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. 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 materials in the course bulk pack and the film Pane e tulipani will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world, thus building a bridge of cultural and linguistic awareness and strengthening your language skills. As in other Italian courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in Italian. Your attendance and participation is of the utmost importance, because you will work collaboratively with your classmates and your instructor towards increased linguistic competence and a more complex understanding of Italian culture. You will be expected to complete homework exercises in preparation for class. Written and oral assignments will provide structured practice of linguistic forms, while also challenging your creative skills.
Italian 134
Intermediate Italian-Accelerated
Staff
(See timetables for times)
Italian 134 is an intensive intermediate course, covering the equivalent of Italian 130 and 140 in one semester. It is primarily designed for students who have completed Italian 112, but students with an exceptionally strong performance in Italian 120 are allowed to enroll with a departmental permit. See course descriptions of Italian 130 and 140.
Italian 140
Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)
Italian 140 is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence, which 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. 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 materials in the course bulk pack and the novel Una storia semplice will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world, thus building a bridge of cultural and linguistic awareness and strengthening your language skills. As in other Italian courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in Italian. Your attendance and participation is of the utmost importance, because you will work collaboratively with your classmates and your instructor towards increased linguistic competence and a more complex understanding of Italian culture. You will be expected to complete homework exercises in preparation for class. Written and oral assignments will provide structured practice of linguistic forms, while also challenging your creative skills.
Italian 180
Italian Conversation in Residence
Staff
Must be resident of the Modern Language House
Italian 202
Advanced Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)
This course aims at developing and deepening the language abilities which students acquire in their first two years of study. Students will increase their vocabulary and speaking skills through the reading, analysis and discussion of the best-selling novel Io non ho paura by Niccolò Amanniti. Movies and other audiovisual material will be used to enrich the learning experience and open windows onto aspects of contemporary Italian culture and society. We will place special emphasis on a thorough review of advanced grammar. Short weekly compositions and a final project will develop writing skills.
This course is a prerequisite for other 200- level courses.
Italian 213
Contemporary Italy Through Film
Prof. Abbona-Sneider
TR 10:30-12
The great Italian film director Federico Fellini once declared that “ [a] different language is a different vision of life.” How has the Italian “vision of life” changed over the period from Mussolini’s dictatorship to the present government of media mogul Silvio Berlusconi? This question will carry us across the sweep of modern Italian history – from Fascism and the Second World War through the dopoguerra and the economic boom of the 1960s; from the terror-stricken “years of lead” through the corruption scandals of the 1980’s and the war against the Mafia in the 1990’s. We will proceed by following a number of important themes – family, religion, gender, sexuality, class conflict – through masterpieces of modern Italian Cinema. The emphasis in this course will be on discussion but short papers and a final project will hone students’ writing abilities. We will discuss one movie per week (screened outside class time).
The pre-requisite for this course is Ital202 or an equivalent course taken abroad.
Italian 215
Introduction to Italian Literature, Art and Culture
Prof. Abbona-Sneider
TR 1:30-3
This course will introduce students to Italy’s rich literary and artistic heritage through the reading, analysis and discussion of selected primary texts. We will move from Dante’s grand synthesis of Medieval civilization to Petrarch’s celebration of love, from the Renaissance chivalry of Ariosto’s poetry to its modern retelling by Italo Calvino. We will read with an eye to the relationship between texts and their various social, economic and political contexts.
The course will build students’ critical vocabulary and strengthen their powers of oral and written expression through discussions of texts, presentations, short papers and a final research project on a topic chosen by the individual. All readings and class discussion will be in Italian.
The pre-requisite for this course is Ital 202 or an equivalent course taken abroad. This course is a requirement for all majors and minors in Italian, as well as for all 300-level courses.
Italian 217
Survey of Italian Theater
Prof. Pellicone
MWF 1-2
Freshman Seminar
This course will look at the origins of theater in Italy from antiquity through modernity. Beginning with the early comedies of Plautus and ending with the works of Dario Fo, we will consider the ways playwrights have responded to social, political, cultural, and aesthetic changes throughout the Italian peninsula from antiquity through the Renaissance, Italian unification and into modernity. Other playwrights to be considered will also include: Machiavelli, Ariosto, Bruno, Goldoni, Alfieri, D'Annunzio, and Pirandello.
Italian 351
Mad Love
Prof. Cracolici
TR 4:30-6
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 Italian authors from the Middle Ages to the present time.
Italian 369
Woman's Image in Italian Poetry from the Sicilians to Montale
Prof. Finotti
TR 12:00-1:30
Italian poetry, from the origins, has its principle inspirational nucleus in the discourse of love and celebration of woman. Woman isn't present in her concrete reality, but in the image that she projects inside the man-poet's heart. This image varies, following the evolution of a culture that is not only litelrary, but medical, philosophical, and theological, and that influences in turn the artistic tradition on one hand, social relations on the other. Tracking the transformation of the "feminine fantasm" in poetry means then choosing a privileged point of view for understanding the history of Italian and European civilization. The course will be conducted in Italian.
Italian 376
Tales of Mistery and Horror
19th- and 20th-Century Literature
Prof. Cracolici
TR 3-4:30
Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries critics argued that literature was important and worthwhile to the extent that it accurately represented our shared reality. However, throughout history, literature has often incorporated fantasy elements drawn from myths, legends, fairy tales, superstitions, and dreams. In this course we will explore how these fantasy elements appear in Italian literature, including novels, stories, poems, and films. We will examine the extent to which these elements, which seem to contradict our shared reality, nevertheless reveal aspects of modern Italy and its culture, otherwise difficult to grasp. Special interest will be given to a variety of aesthetic phenomena involving negative or painful experiences, metaphorically or allegorically connected with landmark historical events such as fascism, terrorism, and the various forms of organized criminality (mafia, camorra, ’ndrangheta). Topics will include tragedy, the sublime, horror, and disgust, discussed from historical, psychoanalytic, and anthropological viewpoints. The course will emphasize close and careful reading, and the writing of persuasive, organized essays about the assigned texts. It will also encourage the development of effective communication skills through class participation and oral presentation.
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