Fall 2006

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

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

This course 1) introduces Italian cinema through the work of twelve major directors, proceeding chronologically from 1912 to the present, focussing on major movements and genres, while exploring the close connections between film and national culture in Italy; 2) introduces cinema as a medium, teaching vocabulary of film analysis, criticism, and theory; 3) provides a cultural background on Italian history and society since the Risorgimento (unification movement in the 19th century), considering the struggle for independence, Fascism, World War II, nationalism identity vs. regionalism, gender roles, and contemporary problems of government corruption and the Mafia. Tuesday evening sessions will review and discuss material from previous sessions as the semester progresses, introduce the week's new film; and screen the new film. Thursday afternoon class will be for lecture and class discussion, organized around clips. No prerequisites; Italian majors may arrange to do readings and final paper in Italian.

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
(See timetables for times)

Italian 112 is an intensive elementary language course for students who have never studied Italian before and who have already fulfilled the language requirement in another modern language. Students who have fulfilled the language requirement in a language other than a romance language, will be considered on an individual basis.

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
(See timetables for times)

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, 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 language abilities acquired in the first two years of study; it also prepares students for upper-level courses in literature, culture or cinema. Students will increase their vocabulary and speaking skills through the reading, analysis, and discussion of Niccolò Amanniti’s best-selling novel Io non ho paura. Other reading materials will 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
Italian Cinema and the Sacred
Prof. Benini
MWF 12:00-1:00, W 5:00-7:00

This course will focus on the way Italian cinema related to the dimension of the sacred. The word “sacer” in Latin means both "sacred" and "accursed, defiled": thus, the experience of the sacred encompasses both sanctity and religion as well as abjection, excess, defilement and violence. From The Gospel According to St. Matthew to Salò, we will follow the trajectory of these double aspects of the sacred in Italian cinema, exploring a range of directors (from Rossellini to Pasolini, from Visconti to Fellini), and genres (from religious films to spaghetti western) through the lens of the different visions of the sacred of thinkers such as Eliade, Caillois, Bataille, Girard and others.

The course will be conducted in English. Films will be in Italian with English subtitles. Italian majors may arrange to do readings and final paper in Italian.

Italian 215
Italian Literature
Prof. Benini
MWF 10:00-11:00

This is an introductory course aimed to offer students the opportunity to discover the Italian cultural history through the readings and reflections upon significant texts of the Italian literary and artistic tradition. From the underworld of Dante to the love poetry of Petrarch, from the political vision of Machiavelli to the scientific revolution of Galileo, from the the modernist fragmentation of Pirandello to the postmodern creations of Calvino, the course will explore ten centuries of the Italian civilization, anayzing texts within their social, economic and political contexts. The course will help students to widen their vocabulary and to reinforce their written and oral competences through a variety of activities such as discussions, presentations, short papers and research projects.

All readings and class discussion will be in Italian. The pre-requisite for this course is Italian 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 260
Worldviews in Collision: The Scientific Revolution and the Counter Reformation
Freshman Seminar
Prof. Kirkham
TR 12:00-1:30

This course explores the radical conflicts that developed in 16th- and 17th-century Europe when Protestant reformers, scientific discoveries, and geographical explorations challenged a long-held Medieval worldview and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. These historical developments will be studied in comparison with parallel modern issues, such as Darwinism, separation of church and state, multicultural religious conflicts. Historical readings: Machiavelli's comic play Mandragola, the vitriolic polemic involving Martin Luther, Thomas More, and King Henry VIII; Tommaso Campanella's Utopian dialogue The City of the Sun, selections from the scientists Copernicus and Galileo, and from The History of the Council of Trent by the enetian Paolo Sarpi. Modern texts: Osborne's Luther, Brecht's Galileo, and a classic Hollywood film Utopia, Frank Capra's Lost Horizon. In a final unit, we shall consider how 16th- and 17 th-c. poetry and visual arts mirrored their turbulent times, with attention to the Petrarchan tradition (Vittoria Colonna, Marino) and stylistic changes in Italian painting, sculpture, and architecture from Renaissance to Mannerist to Baroque (e.g., Michelangelo, Leonardo, Tintoretto, Bernini).

Requirements: midterm, final oral class report, final paper on class report topic, final exam.

Italian 333
Dante's Divine Comedy
Prof. Brownlee
TR 10:30-12:00

In this course we will read the "Inferno", the "Purgatorio" and the "Paradiso", focusing on a series of interrelated problems raised by the poem: authority, fiction, history, politics and language. Particular attention will be given to how the Commedia presents itself as Dante's autobiography, and to how the autobiographical narrative serves as a unifying thread for this supremely rich literary text. Supplementary readings will include Virgil's "Aeneid" and selections from Ovid's "Metamorphoses."

All readings and written work will be in English. Italian or Italian Studies credit will require reading Italian texts in their original language and writing about their themes in Italian.

Italian 360
Modern Theories of Semiotics and Rhetoric
Prof. Finotti
TR 1:30-3:00

What is semiotics? Where is semiotics? Ferdinand de Saussure, a founder of linguistics and also of what is usually referred to as semiotics, wrote: "It is ... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life ... It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws governing them." As it is the study of signs, semiotics, therefore, may be everywhere. Baudelaire wrote, "Man passes ... through forests of symbols." We could say: "Man lives through forests of signs."

The course will offer a s urvey of major currents in the modern theory of signs and languages, ranging from linguistics through the perspectives of semiotics, rhetoric and hermeneutics. The course readings will include modern works on semiotical and rhetorical theory (Saussurre, Jakobson, Hjelmslev, Lotman, Weinrich, Barthes, Genette, Dubois, Riffaterre, Eco, Segre, De Mauro). Classes will propose close analysis of primary texts in italian literature (Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna, Tesauro, Manzoni, Pirandello, Svevo), as well as other forms of communication including advertising, journalism, film, and television. All readings will be in translation.

Course requirements: three short papers (7 pages), and one oral report (accompanied by bibliography) as a final project. The course will be conducted in English.

Italian 380
Man and God in Italian Contemporary Narrative
Prof. Finotti
TR 3:30-5:00

The death and ressurrection of Christ, death and ressurrection of man, Cristianity and Judaism: How do these terms interact in the nineteenth and twentieth century? Contemporary narrators propose new relationships between Christ and man, as well as Cristianity and Judaism. Our readings and discussions, therefore, will connect Italian tradition with the circumstances of a broader cultural landscape. We will read novels and short stories by Fogazzaro, D'Annunzio, Papini, Primo and Carlo Levi, Pasolini, Testori, but also by some great non-Italian authors (from Dostoevsky to Bellow). We will watch some films as well, including the Gospel According to St. Matthew (by Pasolini) , Il Ladrone (The Thief by Pasquale Festa Campanile), Last Temptation of Christ (by Scorsese), Passion of the Christ (by Gibson). The course will be in Italian (most of the texts and movies will also be available in translation).