Spring 2003

(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 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
(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 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
Intermediate Italian-Accelerated
Staff
(See timetables for times)

Italian 140
Intermediate Italian
Staff
(See timetables for times)

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 202-601
Advanced Grammar & Writing Skills: Moduli Culturali
Prof. Cracolici
TR 6:30-8:30

This is a multimedia course designed for intermediate students of Italian. It intends to instruct students in linguistic development and cultural awareness through the use of culturally authentic media. Students are invited to move through a series of lessons that require active participation in reading, listening and writing. The course is divided into ten sections (moduli) centered on a short text or fragments of a longer text that provide a variety of activities that incorporate literature, art, film and music.

Italian 214-301
Italian Play Production
Prof. Marini-Maio
W 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 required to attend all the rehearsals. The course will be conducted entirely in Italian.

Italian 216-301
Introduction to Literature II: Landscapes of the Moon
Prof. Cracolici
TR 1:30-3

Focusing on the moon and its nocturnal effects as represented in film, opera, literature and art, this course offers a survey of the last four centuries of Italian literature and culture. Man stepped on the Moon on July 20, 1969 and since then Armstrong's footprint has remained in the lunar dust. We know now that the Moon is a vast and deserted landscape where no life is possible. Now that we have succeeded in contaminating the Moon with our presence, is Science Fiction the only possible discourse on the Moon other than the one carried on by astronomers? What is left of the romantic lunar dream? Can those human footprints destroy the image of the kissing faces that romantic painters saw on the lunar disk? Can we still fly on the Moon looking for Orlando's common sense? or imagine our satellite populated by lurid, gesticulating goblins who cause the monstrous metamorphosis of werewolves? Have we finally succeeded in realizing the futuristic scream by Marinetti "Let's kill the moonlight?" These are some of the questions this course will address and discuss by reading or viewing works (in their entirety or in excerpts) by the following authors: Luciano, Ariosto, Tasso, Galileo, Goldoni, Pindemonte, Parini, Leopardi, Bellini, Donizzetti, Salgari, Capuana, D'Annunzio, Pirandello, Fellini, Calvino.

Italian 217-301
Survey of Italian Theater
Freshman Seminar
Prof. Pellicone
MWF 2-3

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 308-301
Advanced Business Italian
Prof. Gentili
TR 3-4:30

This course is the second semester of Business Italian and is held entirely in Italian. It continues the study of the contemporary Italian work environment in order to enable students to perfect language proficiency in business-related conversations. Students will emphasize the study of Italian business language and culture in terms of structural language knowledge and forms of cultural behavior. Through a communicative approach, the course intends to develop students' understanding in real situation by perfecting their linguistic and cultural competencies, in an interactive way by adapting the contexts with the aid of informative material (Italian Internet, magazines and newspapers) available in the United States. Classes will also include lectures on current political, economic, and labor developments in Italy as well as in the European Community.

Italian 310-401
The Medieval Reader
Prof. Kirkham
TR 12-1:30

Through a range of authors including Augustine, Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, and Umberto Eco, this course will explore the world of the book in the manuscript era. We shall consider 1) readers in fiction-male and female, good and bad; 2) books as material objects produced in monasteries and their subsequent role in the rise of the universities; 3) medieval women readers and writers; 4) medieval ideas of the book as a symbol (e.g., the notion of the world as God's book; 5) changes in book culture brought about by printing and electronic media. Lectures with discussion in English, to be supplemented by slide presentations and a visit to the Rare Book Room in Van Pelt Library. No prerequisites. Satisfies General Requirement in Arts and Letters.

Italian 333-401
Dante's Divine Comedy
Prof. Brownlee
TR 10:30-12

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. This course may be taken for graduate credit, but additional work and meetings with the instructor will be required.

Italian 370-301
The Language of Television
Prof. Finotti
MWF 11-12

A multimedia and interdisciplinary course, with the support of video, which offers a myriad of ways of understanding Italian television and its language. What communication strategies are used? How do they change with the genre of the program, and what rhetorical models do they pursue? What are the relations between the language of visual entertainment and its political and cultural orientation? In what measure does Italian television transform both language and society, even as it appears to mirror reality?