Spring 2002

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

Italian 080
Introduction to Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Nineties
Prof. Kirkham
M 6:30-9:00; W 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 this will involve 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
Accelerated Elementary Italian
Staff
MWF 9-10; TR 9-10:30
Permission Needed from Department

Italian 120
Elementary Italian
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

Prerequisite: Italian 110 or a score equivalent to placement in level 120 on the Italian Placement Exam (see Department of Romance Languages). 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)

Prerequisite: Completion of Italian 120 at Penn or a score between 450 and 540 on the Placement Exam (Multiple Choice Exam).
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 esercizi, and weekly composition practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Italophone world on the Internet.

Italian 134
Accelerated Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See Timetables for times)
Permission Needed from Department

Italian 140
Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

Prerequisite: Completion of Italian 130 at Penn or a placement score between 550 and 640 on the Placement Exam (Multiple Choice Exam).
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
Must be resident of the Modern Language College House.

Italian 202
Advanced Grammar & Writing Skills
Prof. Narducci
MWF 10-11

Italian 214
Italian Play Production
Prof. Marini
R 2-5

The purpose of this course is to reinforce students' command of Italian language and to improve their knowledge and understanding of Italian culture through a play production, which will be performed at the end of the semester.  Class meetings will analyze a play of a 20th-century Italian writer in lectures, discussions, and demonstrations as well as provide lab time for extended workshops in acting, directing, design, and production problems.  Students will be asked to attend all the rehearsals.  The course will be conducted entirely in Italian.

Italian 216
Introduction to Italian Literature II
Prof. Narducci
MWF 11-12

This course will offer a panoramic view of Italian literature from Dante to the Futurists. Students will read passages culled from the works of Dante, Petrarca, Boccacio, Goldoni, Foscolo, Leopardi, Manzoni, D'Annunzio, Ungaretti, Montale and Saba.  The goal is to acquaint students with the works of major Italian authors in order to have a general understanding of how Italian literature developed through the centuries.  The course is offered in Italian.  Prerequisite: Ital. 202.

Italian 300 (History 322)
Italian History/Italian Film
Distribution II: History & Tradition
Profs. Marcus and Steinberg
MW 3-4:30; T 4:30-7

Modern Italy has added to the traditional belle arti of painting, sculpture, and architecture new fields like fashion, industrial design, and film. "Made in Italy" has come to stand all over the world for quality workmanship and fine design. Yet this same country has been involved in dictatorship, violence both political and criminal, and a flood of emigration. In this course we will review that history, its triumphs and disasters, by combining film and written texts. Both media are equally important and ought to enrich each other. The weekly film is part of that work and you will be expected to do the assigned reading as well. The course will be open to seniors, juniors, and sophomores (with special permission). Italian is not required.

Italian 330
Dante and Boccaccio
Distribution III: Arts & Letters
Prof. Marcus
TR 10:30-12

This course will involve close study of the two major narrative works to emerge from the medieval Florentine world. The classes will be dedicated to in-depth interpretation of Dante's Divine Comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron and the relationship between their vastly different, yet kindred, views of the human condition. We will undertake a double journey in this course, through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise with Dante's pilgrim in 1300, and through the Tuscan countryside with Boccaccio's ten storytelling youths seeking to escape the Black Plague of 1348. Our study will attempt to embrace the encyclopedic range of both works and to explore their multifaceted approaches to love, justice, authority, gender, selfhood, artistic creation, and the redemptive power of the word. Where possible, visual material will be brought in to supplement our textual analysis. The course will be conducted as a seminar with great emphasis on student participation. There will be two short critical essays and a longer term paper, as well as a comprehensive final exam.

Texts: Dante, Inferno, Italian with facing English trans. Durling and Martinez (Oxford); Dante, Purgatory, Italian with facing English trans. Mandelbaum; Dante, Paradiso, Italian with facing English trans. Mandelbaum; Boccaccio, Decameron, trans. McWilliam (Penguin).