Course Descriptions
IT 121-122 Continuing Italian
This class is for students who have completed IT 101-102 and wish to perfect their general conversational, grammatical, and literary skills. Selected poetry and essays from classical Italian literature and modern masters. We will also study Italy's rich cultural heritage; we will use Italian newspapers and magazines, films; we will consider daily events, tourism, commercial development, political parties, etc.
3 credits
IT 223 Composition and Oral Expression
This course aims to improve proficiency in both written and oral expression in Italian. Students will develop advanced writing and speaking skills, while concentrating not only on grammar, but also on style and appropriateness. Weekly compositions based primarily on the genres studied in class (short story, theater, memoir) allow students the opportunity to identify and correct grammar mistakes. Students will present speeches in class and conduct situational dramas (job interviews, television reporting, courtroom trials) in the target language. Various films and culture artifacts (comic strips, proverbs, and music) familiarize students with idiomatic Italian, with special attention given to building vocabulary. Prerequisite: Italian 121 or equivalent.
3 credits
IT 253 Contemporary Italian Culture
This course will examine aspects of contemporary Italian culture in the arts, film, music, media, and literature. We will analyze the debates that inform the political, social, and cultural dimensions of Italian society today. Readings include magazine and newspaper articles, print advertisements, novels, short stories, and comic books. We will view television news reports, soap operas commercials, and movies and listen to various types of contemporary Italian music. The prerequisite for this course, which is conducted in Italian, is Italian 121-122 or the equivalent.
3 credits
IT 271 Italian Cinema
This course is a survey of Italian films as textual, cultural, and historical artifacts. We will analyze movements such as neorealism, commedia all'italiana, the spaghetti western, and new Italian cinema through the works of selected directors. This course follows a chronology from the silent period to present day, with special emphasis on the "golden ages" of Italian cinema, neorealism of the post-war neorealist period, the comedy of manners of the 1960's, and the new Italian cinema of the 1980's and 1990's. We will analyze the works of Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Visconti, Germi, Antonioni, Wertmüller, Leone, Pasolini, Moretti, Benigni and others. This course will be conducted in English.
3 credits
IT 355 The Novella
A study of the most successful genre in Italian literature, the novella or short story, as it evolved from Medieval time through the Renaissance to present day. Selections from Boccaccio, Basile, Bandello, Verga, Pirandello, Deledda, Morante, Moravia, Calvino, and others. Conducted in Italian.
3 credits
IT 393 The Italian American Experience: An Interdisciplinary Perspective
This course will analyze the concept of nationality and national identity in literature, film, and critical essays by and about Italian-Americans. We will also discuss the concept of ethnicity together with the phenomenon of emigration, and the difference in roles for men and women in this subgroup of American society. The success of Italian-Americans in various sectors of society reveals the vitality and determination of this particular ethnic group in the face of prejudice and economic hardship. In addition to examining the contributions of Italians who left their native land for a new beginning, we will discuss the perception and reality of America as Promised Land in the Italian-American community. All readings and discussions are in English.
3 credits | 
