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Spring 2006
(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)
Italian 110
Elementary Italian
(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
(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
(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
(See timetables for times)
Italian 130 is the first half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of competency that should allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. 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. 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 textbook Ponti and other material (readings, films, songs) will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics, develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world, thus building a bridge (ponte) of cultural and linguistic awareness.
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 an increased linguistic competence and a more complex understanding of Italian culture. You will be expected to read and to complete language exercises in preparation for class. Written and oral assignments will provide structured practice of the linguistic forms necessary for negotiating the concepts and questions presented through the course, while also challenging and improving your linguistic and creative skills.
By the end of the course, you will have refined and improved your ability to communicate in Italian while also acquiring a more subtle understanding of Italian culture. You will be given the tools to express your opinions, and to challenge and debate those of others, both in writing and in conversation. Writing assignments will develop your abilities to communicate creatively, practically, and persuasively. Listening to and reading the perspectives of Italians through authentic documents will help to enrich vocabulary and strengthen language skills. Also, by means of communicative activities, role-plays and sketches you will be able to achieve a greater fluency in the language.
Italian 134
Intermediate Italian-Accelerated
Staff
MW 2:00-3:30, TR 3:00-4:30
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 a particularly strong performance in Italian 120 are allowed to enroll with a departmental permit. Italian 134 covers the materials explored in 130 and in 140: see descriptions of Italian 130 (above) and Italian 140 (below).
Italian 140
Intermediate Italian
(See timetables for times)
Italian 140 is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of competency that should allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. 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.
The textbook Ponti and other material (readings, films, songs) will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics, develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world, thus building a bridge (ponte) of cultural and linguistic awareness. The detective story Una storia semplice, will strengthen your linguistic abilities and introduce you to the fascinating world of Italian literature.
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 an increased linguistic competence and a more complex understanding of Italian culture. You will be expected to read and to complete language exercises in preparation for class. Written and oral assignments will provide structured practice of the linguistic forms necessary for negotiating the concepts and questions presented through the course, while also challenging and improving your linguistic and creative skills.
By the end of the course, you will have refined and improved your ability to communicate in Italian while also acquiring a more subtle understanding of Italian culture. You will be given the tools to express your opinions, and to challenge and debate those of others, both in writing and in conversation. Writing assignments will develop your abilities to communicate creatively, practically, and persuasively. Listening to and reading the perspectives of Italians through authentic documents will help to enrich vocabulary and strengthen language skills. Also, by means of communicative activities, role-plays and sketches you will be able to achieve a greater fluency in the language.
Italian 180
Italian Conversation in Residence
Prof. Dileo
Must be resident of the Modern Language House
Italian 200
Italian History
Prof. Steinberg
M 2:00-5:00
Italian 202
Advanced Italian
Prof. Corradi
MTWR 12:00-1:00
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 208
Business Italian
Prof. Gentili
MW 5:00-7:00
This course wishes to enable students to acquire language proficiency in the area of current Italian and European Community business-related culture. Students are expected to perfect the study of business language and culture in terms of structural language knowledge and form of cultural behavior. Through a communicative approach, the course intends to develop students' understanding in real situation by perfecting those two competencies, linguistic and cultural, in an interactive way by adapting the contexts with the aid of textbooks and other related literature available to them. Classes will also include lectures on current political, economic, and labor developments in Italy as well as in the European Community. The students will have two oral presentations during the semester, a midterm, and a final exam. Because the course is conducted entirely in Italian, it requires an intermediate/high level knowledge of the language. The pre-requisite for this course is ITAL 202 or an equivalent course taken abroad.
Italian 213
Contemporary Italy Through Film
Prof. Abbona Sneider
TR 10:30-12:00
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 ITAL 202 or an equivalent course taken abroad.
Italian 215
Introduction to Literature
Prof. Corradi
MWF 10:00-11:00
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 300
Voices from the South
Prof. Abbona Sneider
TR 1:30-3:00
The history of Italy is a history of regionalism. Linguistic, cultural, political and socio-economic differences lie at the roots of a modern nation which is richly diverse and difficult to grasp. Since long before the unification of the peninsula Italians have been conscious of one particularly dramatic regional divide—that between Northern and Southern Italy. For generations of politicians and intellectuals, artists and directors, the meridione has been synonymous with everything from authenticity and religious purity to backwardness and crisis. In this course we will examine the origins of the “Southern Question” and its representation in literature and film. We will look at representations of the south by writers (Verga, Pirandello, Sciascia, Brancati) and directors (Rosi, Torre, Crialese) who hale from the region; we will also examine how northern directors (Visconti, Germi) interpret and stage a south of their own devising.
The themes treated in this course will include: the construction of national identity; superstitions and popular culture; magic and religion; the origins and consequences of organized crime; the construction of gender and sexuality in a patriarchal society; immigrant assimilation and immigrant resistance; the construction of an Italian-American identity. Short papers, presentations and a long final paper. All readings materials and discussions will be entirely in Italian.
The pre-requisite for this course is ITAL 215 or equivalent course taken abroad.
Italian 328
Italian Creative Writing
Prof. Cracolici
TR 3:00-4:30
Based on the analysis of carefully selected short texts by different contemporary Italian authors, this course intends to map out the current status of “creative writing” in Italy. Far from being considered anymore a solitary enterprise, writing—and writing fiction in particular—has become nowadays a shared activity, which involves people from different backgrounds and with different goals. A set of interviews with prominent contemporary writers will complement our readings and help us to decipher and better understand this new phenomenon. Part of the course is devoted to practice: we will try to write a short story according to the same guidelines those writers suggest to the aspirant Italian writer. The goal to keep in mind is that writing in Italian should not be understood as a mere exercise in translation, but rather as a way to appreciate and explore the expressive potentiality of a foreign language and a foreign culture.
Italian 385
Italian Play Production
Prof. Cracolici
TR 4:30-6:00
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.
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