Italian

ITAL UN1101 ELEMENTARY ITALIAN I. 4.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

Elementary level of Italian

ITAL UN1102 ELEMENTARY ITALIAN II. 4.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN1101 or the equivalent.
Prerequisites: ITAL V1101 or the equivalent. Introduction to Italian grammar, with emphasis on reading, writing, listening and speaking skills

ITAL UN1121 INTENSIVE ELEMENTARY ITALIAN. 6.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

An intensive course that covers two semesters of elementary Italian in one, and prepares students to move into Intermediate Italian. Students will develop their Italian communicative competence through listening, (interactive) speaking, reading and (interactive) writing. The Italian language will be used for real-world purposes and in meaningful contexts to promote intercultural understanding. This course is especially recommended for students who already know another Romance language. May be used toward fulfillment of the language requirement

ITAL UN2101 INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN I. 4.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN1102 or the equivalent. If you did not take Elementary Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester.
Prerequisites: ITAL V1102 or W1102, or the equivalent. If you did not take Elementary Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester

ITAL UN2102 INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN II. 4.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN1201 or the equivalent. If you did not take Elementary Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester.
Prerequisites: ITAL V1201 or W1201, or the equivalent. If you did not take Elementary Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester. A review of grammar, intensive reading, composition, and practice in conversation. Exploration of literary and cultural material. Lab: hours to be arranged. ITAL V1202 fulfils the basic foreign language requirement and prepares students for advanced study in Italian language and literature

ITAL UN2121 INTENSIVE INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN. 6.00 points.

Limited enrollment.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN1102 or the equivalent, with a grade of B+ or higher.
Prerequisites: ITAL UN1102 or the equivalent, with a grade of B or higher. An intensive course that covers two semesters of intermediate Italian in one, and prepares students for advanced language and literature study. Grammar, reading, writing, and conversation. Exploration of literary and cultural materials. This course may be used to fulfill the language requirement

ITAL UN2221 Intermediate Conversation. 2 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL W1112 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor.
Corequisites: Recommended: ITAL V1201-V/W1202 or ITAL W1201-W1202.

Conversation courses may not be used to satisfy the language requirement or fulfill major or concentration requirements. Intensive practice in the spoken language, assigned topics for class discussions, and oral reports.

ITAL UN1222 INTERMEDIATE CONVERSTN ITAL II. 2.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL W1221 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor.
Corequisites: Recommended: ITAL V1201-V/W1202 or ITAL W1201-W1202.
Prerequisites: ITAL W1221 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor. Corequisites: Recommended: ITAL V1201-V/W1202 or ITAL W1201-W1202. Conversation courses may not be used to satisfy the language requirement or fulfill major or concentration requirements. Intensive practice in the spoken language, assigned topics for class discussions, and oral reports

ITAL UN3311 Advanced Conversation. 2 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN2222 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor.
Corequisites: Recommended: ITAL V3335x-V3336y.

Conversation courses may not be used to satisfy the language requirement or fulfill major or concentration requirements. Practice in the spoken language through assigned topics on contemporary Italian culture.

ITAL UN1312 ADVANCED CONVERSATION ITALIAN. 2.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN2102 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor.
Prerequisites: ITAL UN2102 or sufficient fluency to satisfy the instructor. Conversation courses may not be used to satisfy the language requirement or fulfill major or concentration requirements. This course is designed for students who have attended four semesters of Italian language, mastered the grammatical structure of the language and are ready to expand and enlarge their language skills. A particular emphasis will be put on oral production, on listening and on reading: in class and at home the students will analyze various kinds of text and genres. In-class time is dedicated to speaking and practicing Italian through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use of varied materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material and short film clips. We will focus also on grammatical structures, language functions and activities to expand the vocabulary

ITAL UN3333 INTRO TO ITALIAN LITERATURE I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Intermediate Italian II ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent.
Prerequisites: Intermediate Italian II ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent. UN3334x-UN3333y is the basic course in Italian literature. UN3333: This course, entirely taught in Italian, introduces you to Medieval and early modern Italian literature. It will give you the opportunity to test your ability as a close-reader and discover unusual and fascinating texts that tell us about the polycentric richness of the Italian peninsula. We will read poems, tales, letters, fiction and non-fiction, travel writings and political pamphlets. The great “Three Crowns” - Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio - as well as renowned Renaissance authors such as Ludovico Ariosto and Niccolò Machiavelli, will show us the main path to discover Italian masterpieces and understand the European Renaissance. But we will also explore China with Marco Polo and the secrets of the Medieval soul diving into the mystical poems by Jacopone da Todi. We will study parody and laughter through the “poesia giocosa” (parodic poetry) by Cecco Angiolieri and the legacy of Humanism through the letters of Poggio Bracciolini. This first overview will allow you to explore Italian literature from its complex and multicultural beginnings to its diffusion across Europe during the Renaissance

ITAL UN3334 INTRO TO ITALIAN LITERATURE II. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent.
Prerequisites: ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent. UN3334-UN3333 is the basic course in Italian literature. UN3334: Authors and works from the Cinquecento to the present. Taught in Italian

ITAL UN3335 ADVANCED ITALIAN I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITALUN2102 or the equivalent. If you did not take Intermediate Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester.
Prerequisites: ITALUN2102 or the equivalent. If you did not take Intermediate Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester. Written and oral self-expression in compositions and oral reports on a variety of topics; grammar review. Required for majors and concentrators

ITAL UN3336 ADVANCED ITALIAN II. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL V3335
Prerequisites: ITAL V3335 Advanced reading, writing, speaking with emphasis on authentic cultural materials. Topic and semester theme varies

ITAL UN3337 ITALIAN THROUGH CINEMA. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ITAL UN3335
Prerequisites: ITAL V3335. Students will develop advanced language competence while analyzing and discussing Italian film comedies and their reflection of changing Italian culture and society. Films by Monicelli, Germi, Moretti, Wertmuller, Soldini and others

ITAL UN3339 Learning Italian in Class and Online: A Telecollaboration with Italy. . 3 points.

Prerequisites: (ITAL UN2102) ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent. If you did not take Intermediate Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester.

The aim of the course is the intensive practice in the spoken and written language, through topics on current cultural issues assigned for in class and online discussions. Students will learn about current events through a varied selection of written and visual texts such as newspaper articles, authentic videos and in-person interviews. There will be an extensive work on vocabulary and grammar review. The course will be integrated by an online section, which will allow students to engage with the language and the topics selected, also outside of class. In particular, during the second half of the semester, we will partner with the students of a Master’s program in “Teaching Italian to foreigners” at an Italian University, for an unique online exchange program.

At the end of the course, students will have acquired a deeper knowledge of Italian contemporary life and culture, and improved both their written and oral communication skills, within specific socio-pragmatic areas.

Italian is the language of instruction and the use of English is not permitted in class nor during the online lessons.

ITAL UN3341 Art Itineraries: Italian through Art. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: (ITAL UN2102) or (ITAL UN2121) Students must have completed Intermediate level Italian language proficiency.
Prerequisites: (ITAL UN2102) or (ITAL UN2121) Students must have completed Intermediate level Italian language proficiency. The course, designed for students who have mastered the grammatical structure of the language, will give the students the opportunity to improve their language skills and discover Italian art from Middle Ages to the second half of twentieth century. The works of the artists will be studied and discussed with the intent of developing knowledge of the main features of artistic and cultural movements and of the appropriate vocabulary and terminology to describe and talk about them. A particular emphasis will be put to oral and written productions: various kinds of texts and genres will be practiced (description, narration, critical analysis). Students will learn how to describe and interpret a work of art, examine the main characteristics and the techniques used by the artists and will be able to look for themes recurring in the artistic productions. The artists covered during the course will be introduced along the lines of their unique artistic, historical and socio-cultural relevance through different sources: images, scholarly essays, literature, video and music. Two visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to CIMA (Center for Modern Italian Art) will be organized. In Italian

ITAL UN3342 Business Italian and the Made in Italy Excellence: Learning Italian for trade and industry. 3.00 points.

Everywhere in the world, the expression ‘Made in Italy’ evokes the idea of quality, elegance and unique taste. From food to wine, from artisanal craftmanship to fashion, from the automobile industry to the design, ‘Made in Italy’ means creativity, durability, and a guarantee of excellence. Today, Italy is the fourth largest economic power in Europe and many countries like the USA have long established economic relationships and partnership with it. While the English language has been increasingly used during these economic exchanges, a basic knowledge of Italian terminology within a context of commerce and trade is an important asset and a useful resource. Developing a strong understanding of the Italian business environment and its culture offers useful advantages for all those who want to create ties with or plan to work in the Italian business world in the future. The course is open to all students who have completed the Italian intermediate level and would like to have an introduction to Italian language used for work and business. The course will be conducted as an intensive practice in the spoken and written language through assigned topics focusing on Italian business and related cultural themes. It will provide an overview of the job market world and the business environment in Italy, giving students the main tools to explore and interact appropriately in a professional environment. During the second half of the semester, the course will introduce students to the Made in Italy excellence and the history responsible for Italian Style’s world-renowned fame and high-demand. Students will learn how the concept of Made in Italy originated, look at the history of Italian style and its international value. The lessons in the second half of the semester will be integrated with interviews of people in Italy and in New York City working in businesses that sell or advertise Italian products. The interviews (one per week) will provide a direct look into the areas that are being discussed in class, so that students will have the opportunity to learn firsthand what it means to work in a business in Italy or with Italy, and with Italian products

ITAL UN3642 ROAD TRIPS:TRAVEL IN ITAL CIN. 3.00 points.

Explores the representation of national identity in Italian cinema from the Facist era to the present. Examines how both geography and history are used to construct an image of Italy and the Italians. Special focus on the cinematic representation of travel and journeys between North and South. Films by major neo-realist directors (Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti) as well as by leading contemporaries (Moretti, Amelio).

ITAL UN3643 History of Italian Cinema. 3 points.

This course explores the evolution of Italian Cinema from the pre-Fascist era to the millenium, and examines how films construct an image of Italy and the Italians. Special focus will be on the cinematic representations of gender. Films by major directors (Fellini, De Sica, Visconti) as well as by leading contemporaries (Moretti, Garrone, Rohrwacher) will be discussed.

ITAL UN3645 Grand Tour in Italy. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Note: Italian is the language of instruction.

Course Description

            This course proposes a virtual tour of the country’s most famous sites, looking at the ways in which what is local and peculiar, diverse and marginal, contributes its distinctive style and character to the overall unity and uniqueness of Italy.  Each week we consider a different aspect of Italy’s richness and variety: from the evolution of its language/s and dialects to its humor; its art and landscapes; the music from ancient times to current pop songs; its cinema and web serials, its cuisine, the contributions of migrants, and much more.

            The course is highly interdisciplinary and will assist students in the development of their linguistic and cultural skills, while tracing the origins of most mainstream Italian cultural phenomena, and imparting an awareness of modern Italy's multiculturalism. 



CLIA GU3660 MAFIA MOVIES. 3.00 points.

Examines representations of the mafia in American and Italian film and literature. Special attention to questions of ethnic identity and immigration. Comparison of the different histories and myths of the mafia in the U.S. and Italy. Readings includes novels, historical studies, and film criticism. Limit 35

ITAL UN3661 New Perspectives on Machiavelli ＆ Renaissance Florence. 3.00 points.

What do we envision when we think about Renaissance Florence? A long-standing and influential narrative placing Florence at the heart of the Renaissance prompts us to imagine a civilization defined by the esthetic ideals of beauty, grace, harmony, and balance. On the other hand, there are counter arguments that emphasize darker elements and suggest that the Italian Renaissance was a period marked by violence, immorality, and a cynicism famously attributed to the Florentine Niccolò Machiavelli. Since neither of these contrasting perspectives provides an exhaustive, accurate picture, it is useful––indeed, necessary––to explore the phenomenon that we call Renaissance with an openness to its full range of dimensions. In this process, our very present may both contribute to and complicate our endeavor to shape new paths of inquiry. This course will focus on Renaissance Florence from a variety of viewpoints. In the introductory section, we will use a diverse set of sources (including theoretical readings and examples from pop culture) to lay the foundations of our work. Then, building on recent trends in Renaissance scholarship, our exploration will foreground three perspectives in particular: (I) we will look at Renaissance Florence through the lens of queer and gender studies; (II) we will consider the role of orality and performance; and (III) we will focus on cultural and religious diversity. Special attention will be devoted to the figure and works of Niccolò Machiavelli. By looking at Machiavelli from the three perspectives mentioned above, we will be able to investigate neglected sides of his intellectual personality as well as to reappraise some aspects of his political thinking. Throughout the semester, we will interrogate a wide variety of primary sources, including literary texts, letters, paintings, and musical pieces. Moreover, we will read selected secondary sources that will facilitate our dialogue with the primary materials and enable us to take into account additional queries. In order to reach the learning objectives set for the course, students will have the possibility to engage in an array of oral, written, and multimodal assignments. There are no prerequisites for this course. Students are welcome to read sources in the original language if they wish to do so; however, no knowledge of Italian is required

ITAL UN3865 Introduction to Fashion Studies. 3.00 points.

This seminar examines the many meanings of fashion, design, and style; how values underlying fashion are selected, preserved, denied, reinvented or rethought; how the symbolic meanings and ideological interpretations are connected to creation, production and consumption of fashion goods. Based on an anthropological perspective and framework, this interdisciplinary course will analyze ways in which we can understand fashion through the intersections of many different levels: political, economic, aesthetic, symbolic, religious, etc. The course will study how fashion can help us understand the ways in which tradition and innovation, creativity and technology, localism and globalization, identity and diversity, power and body, are elaborated and interpreted in contemporary society, and in relation to a globalized world. Short videos that can be watched on the computer will be assigned. There are no pre-requisites for this course. In English

ITAL UN3993 SENIOR THESIS/TUTORIAL. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: the faculty adviser's permission.
Prerequisites: the faculty advisers permission. Senior thesis or tutorial project consisting of independent scholarly work in an area of study of the student’s choosing, under the supervision of a member of the faculty

ITAL GU4005 RAPID READ＆TRANSLATION IN ITAL. 3.00 points.

Restricted to graduate students.

For graduate students and others who need to develop their reading knowledge of Italian. Open to undergraduate students as well, who want a compact survey/review of Italian structures and an approach to translation. Grammar, syntax, and vocabulary review; practice in reading and translating Italian texts of increasing complexity from a variety of fields, depending on the needs of the students. No previous knowledge of Italian is required. Note: this course may not be used to satisfy the language requirement or to fulfill major or concentration requirements

ITAL GU4015 ITALIAN FOOD/GLOBALIZED WORLD. 3.00 points.

This seminar examines the many meanings of food in Italian culture and tradition; how values and peculiarities are transmitted, preserved, reinvented and rethought through a lens that is internationally known as ;Made in Italy;; how the symbolic meanings and ideological interpretations are connected to creation, production, presentation, distribution, and consumption of food. Based on an anthropological perspective and framework, this interdisciplinary course will analyze ways in which we can understand the Italian taste through the intersections of many different levels: political, economic, aesthetic, symbolic, religious, etc. The course will study how food can help us understand the ways in which tradition and innovation, creativity and technology, localism and globalization, identity and diversity, power and body, are elaborated and interpreted in contemporary Italian society, in relation to the European context and a globalized world. Short videos that can be watched on the computer and alternative readings for those fluent in Italian will be assigned. In English

ITAL GU4019 TOPICS in MICROHISTORY. 3 points.

In the 1970s and 1980s a group of young Italian historians transformed the methods of historical inquiry and narrative. This class explores the origins, the diffusion, as well as the debate around Italian Microhistory across Europe and the United States. In particular, we will focus on “cultural” and “social” Microhistory and its evolution in Italy, France, and the US. We will read masterpieces such as Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms, as well as Nathalie Zemon Davis’s The Return of Martin Guerrre. Also, we will analyze the current application of microhistorical methods to contemporary global history and the genre of biography. Topics include pre-modern popular culture and literacy, minority and marginality, the Inquisition, individual and collective identities, and the relation between the pre-modern Mediterranean, Europe and the world. In Italian.

CLIA GU4021 The Age of Romanticism Across the Adriatic. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of Italian desirable but not necessary

This interdisciplinary seminar will study Romanticism as a literary trend, as much as a historical phenomenon and a life attitude. Romanticism is viewed here as the sum of the different answers to the sense of insecurity, social alienation and loneliness, provoked by the changing and frail world of the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. We will investigate the Romantic ideology in relation to the trans-Adriatic world of Italy and Greece, an area that entered modernity with the particular lure and burden of antiquity, as well as through revolutionary upheaval. Students will be invited to read authors like Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, Silvio Pellico, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Massimo d’Azeglio, and to reflect on themes such as Nostalgia and Nationalism, the Discovery of the Middle Ages, the Historical Novel, the Invention of Popular Tradition, the Fragmented Self, Autobiographical and Travel Writing, the Brigand Cult, Hellenism, Philhellenism, Orientalism and Balkanism, and others.

CLIA GU4022 Diasporas in Italian and Transnational History. 3 points.

Some years ago the word Diaspora referred to Jews and was spelled with a capital D. Today, almost every ethnic group, country, or separatist movement has its diaspora. Usually, these diasporas are presented as pieces of national life scattered here and there, in places far away from the national core. In this seminar, however, we will treat diasporas not as an emblem of national unity but as an expression of diversity, of a multiplicity of loyalties and belongings. By combining history, literature, film, and cultural studies, and by approaching the topic through the lens of transnationalism, we will study topics such as Mobility and Nationalism, Diasporas in Intellectual History, The Mediterranean in Motion, Italian Migration, Mobile Italy and its Colonies, Displacements in the Eastern Mediterranean, Lost Cosmopolitanisms in the Middle East, Emigration from Eastern Europe, and Mediterranean Refugees and Memory. The aim is to turn our gaze away from the territorially defined countries, towards a view of the world in which countries are ship-like territories.

ITAL GU4022 THE QUR'AN IN EUROPE. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Is the Qur’an translatable? Was the Qur’an translated? Are non Arabic-speaking Muslims allowed to translate the Qur’an? And what about non-Muslims? Did Muslims and non-Muslims collaborate in translating the text of the Qur’an into Latin and European vernaculars? This course focuses on the long history of the diffusion of the Qur’an, the Scripture of the Muslims, and one of the most important texts in the history of humanity. We will focus on reading and translation practices of the Qur’an in Europe and the Mediterranean, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary world. We will explore how European Muslims, such as Iberian moriscos, European Jews, as well as Orthodox, Protestants and Catholics read, copied, collected, translated and printed the Qur’an. We will also explore why the Qur’an was confuted, forbidden, burned and even eaten, drunk and worn along eight centuries of the history of Europe. This long excursus, based on a close reading of the Qur’an and on the discussion of the major themes this close reading proposes, will help us to understand the role of Islam and its revelation in the formation of European societies and cultures.  

CLIA GU4023 Travel Literature in and from the Mediterranean, 18th-19th centuries. 3 points.

This course will study various forms of travel writing within, from, and to the Mediterranean in the long nineteenth century. Throughout the semester, you will read a number of travel accounts to develop your understanding of these particular sources and reflect on the theoretical discussions and the themes framing them, namely orientalism, postcolonial studies, imaginative geographies, literature between fiction and reality, Romantic and autobiographical writing, gender, sexuality and the body, the rise of archeology, adventurism, mass migration and tourism. We will focus on Italian travel writers visiting the Ottoman Empire and the Americas (Cristina di Belgioioso, Gaetano Osculati, Edmondo de Amicis) and others visiting the Italian peninsula (Grand Tourists, Madame De Staël), and we will study the real or imaginary travels of French, British and American writers to the Eastern Mediterranean and to antique and holy lands (Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, Count Marcellus, Austen Henry Layard, Lord Byron, Mark Twain), as well as Arabic travel writers to the West (Rifāʻah Rāfiʻ al-Ṭahṭāwī).

CLIA GU4024 Nationalism in Theory and History. 3.00 points.

Were nations always there? Are they real or imagined? Do they come before or after nationalism and the state? How did we pass from a world of empires, duchies, and city-states to a world of nation-states? Where does legitimacy reside if not in God and his endowed kings? Is the modern world really ‘disenchanted’? How did we come to understand time, space, language, religion, gender, race, and even our very selves in the era of nations? Are we done with this era, living already in postnational times? This course will combine older theories of nationalism (Gellner, Anderson, Hobsbawm, Smith) with recent approaches of the phenomenon after the ‘Imperial/Global/Transnational Turn’ (Bayly, Conrad, Innes, Isabella, Reill, Stein etc.) and late studies in Gender, Race, Culture and Nationalism, in order to offer new answers to old questions. We will talk about many places around the world, but the main stage where we will try out our questions is Italy and the Mediterranean

CLIA GU4025 Italian Migrations. 3.00 points.

This course will offer an account of the multiple migrations out, in and through Italy since 1800. By combining history, literature, and film, and by approaching the topic through the lens of transnationalism, we will study different topics of Italian mobility, such as Exile and the Risorgimento, The Mediterranean in Motion, Migrants’ Experiences at Sea, The Great Italian “Exodus” to the Americas, Mobile Italy and its Colonies, The Lost Italian “Cosmopolitanisms” of the Middle East, Postwar Italian “National Refugees”, and Contemporary Migration to Italy. We will read masterpieces of Italian literature both by Italian-American authors and by contemporary migrants to Italy. We will watch some of the most important films and documentaries on these topics. And we will think about how such phenomena as Italian mass emigration in the long nineteenth century, Fascist colonialism and resettlement of populations in the twentieth century, postwar refugees, and contemporary immigrants to Italy are all intrinsically interconnected and make part of the same story. Overall, the aim of this course is to turn our gaze away from the territorially defined Italy, towards a view of Italy as a space on the move

ITAL GU4043 Italian Renaissance Literature and Culture. 3 points.

This course on Italian Renaissance literature and culture will pay special attention to the crossing of boundaries, whether socio-cultural, religious, linguistic, gendered, ethnic, or strictly geographical, in a range of fourteenth- to early seventeenth-century texts in a variety of genres, including travelogue, chivalric epic poetry, comedy, dialogues, and the novella, as well as political, philosophical, and scientific writing. Authors covered include Marco Polo, Leonardo Bruni, Pico della Mirandola, Boiardo, Ariosto, Machiavelli Castiglione, Beolco, Giraldi Cinzio, Tasso, Moderata Fonte, Tarabotti, and Galileo.  In English.

ITAL GU4055 ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONTEMP ITALY. 3.00 points.

This seminar examines ways in which Italy is understood and represented by Italians and non-Italians. It will analyze the formation of multiple discourses on Italy, how Italian culture and society are imagined, represented and/or distorted. Based on an anthropological perspective, this course will examine ways in which we can understand Italy through the intersections of pluralism, ethnicity, gender, and religion. The course will study how Italy strives for political and economic unity, while there is a concurrent push toward inequality, exclusion, and marginalization. Moreover, the course will analyze the revitalization of nationalism on one hand of regionalism on the other, and will focus on the concepts of territory, identity, and tradition. Short videos that can be watched on computer and alternative readings for those fluent in Italian will be assigned. There are no pre-requisites for this course

ITAL GU4057 ANTHROPOLOGY OF ITALIAN FOOD, FASHION, & DESIGN. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

This colloquium examines the many meanings of food, fashion, designs, trends, and style, especially in Italian culture and tradition; how values and peculiarities are transmitted, preserved, reinvented, and rethought through a lens that is internationally known as "Made in Italy' ; how the symbolic meanings and ideological interpretations are connected to creation, production, and consumption of goods.  Based on an anthropological perspective and framework, this interdisciplinary course will analyze ways in which we can understand the 'Italian style' through the intersections of many different levels: political, economic, aesthetic, symbolic, religious, etc.  The course will study how fashion, food, and design can help us understand the ways in which tradition and innovation, creativity and technology, localism and globalization, identity and diversity, power and body, are elaborated and interpreted in contemporary Italian society, in relation to the European context and a globalized world.

Short videos that can be watched on the computer and alternative readings for those fluent in Italian will be assigned.

ITAL GU4086 Castiglione and the Italian Renaissance Court. 3 points.

Focus on Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier as educational treatise, philosophical meditation, sociopolitical document, and book of courtly manners; other courtly writings of the period, from Della Casa’s Galateo to Ariosto’s Satires to Bembo’s Asolani. Lectures in English; text in Italian, although comparative literature students who can follow with the help of translations are welcome.

ITAL GU4089 Petrarch's Canzoniere. 3 points.

This course presents a reading of Petrach's Canzoniere and a theory of the lyric sequence as a genre. In this course we examine Petrarch as he fashions himself authorially, especially in the context of Ovid, Dante, and previous lyric poets. We bring to bear ideas on time and narrative from authors such as Augustine and Ricoeur in order to reconstruct the metaphysical significance of collecting fragments in what was effectively a new genre. We will consider Petrarch's lyric sequence in detail as well as read Petrarch's Secretum and Trionfi. Lectures in English; text in Italian, although students from other departments who can follow with the help of translations are welcome.

ITAL GU4091 DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA 1. 4.00 points.

ITALIAN MAJORS AND ITALIAN DEPT GRADUATE STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR SECTION 001.

Prerequisites: SECTION 001: reading knowledge of Italian. SECTION 002: none.

A year-long course in which the "Commedia" is read over two consecutive semesters; students can register for the first, the second, or both semesters. This course offers a thorough grounding in the entire text and an introduction to the complexities of its exegetical history. Attention not only to historical and theological issues, but also to Dante's mimesis, his construction of an authorial voice that generations of readers have perceived as "true," and the critical problems that emerge when the virtual reality created in language has religious and theological pretensions. SECTION 001: Lectures in English, text in Italian; examinations require the ability to translate Italian. SECTION 002: Lectures in English, examinations in English; students who can follow lectures with the help of translations but who cannot manage the Italian should register for this section.

ITAL GU4092 DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA 2. 4.00 points.

ITAL GU4100 Narratives of Modernity. 3 points.

In revisiting two major authors of the Italian modern novel, the course investigates the relation between fiction and the "conditions of modernity" (personal risk, anxiety and lack of control on reality, secularization, to name a few). Special attention will be paid to the response of the novelistic discourse to modernity, and to Italy's peculiarly peripheral position in the modern world. Primary texts will be read in Italian, while theoretical references will be in English.

ITAL GU4109 ITAL AUTOBIOGRPHY 19-20TH CENT. 3.00 points.

Against the backdrop of the heated critical debate on the boundaries and limitations of the autobiographical genre, this course addresses the modern and contemporary tradition of autobiographical writings, focusing in particular (but not exclusively) on exploring and positing the potential difference between male and female autobiographers. More specifically, we will question the adequacy of the traditional model of autobiographical selfhood based on the assumption of unified, universal, exemplary and transcendent self to arrive at an understanding of women's autobiography. Topics to be addressed include: the crisis of the subject, je est un autre, the man with a movie camera, strategies of concealment and disclosures. Authors to be studied include: D'Annunzio, Pirandello, Svevo, Fellini, Moretti, Ortese, Ginzburg, Manzini, Cialente, Ramondino. In Italian

ITAL GU4140 ITAL FASCISM ＆ ITS REPRESENTATION IN FILM. 3.00 points.

ITAL GU4185 The Making of Italy: The Risorgimento in Global Context. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of Italian is necessary for this course.

This course will examine the history of the Italian Risorgimento by following the major historiographical trends of the recent decades. First, it will approach the Risorgimento through the prism of cultural and intellectual history by investigating a series of topics, such as the discursive  patterns of the ‘Risorgimento canon’, the gendered tropes of nationalism, the creation of a new public sphere through operas, festivals and  plebiscites, the connection of nationalism with religion, and the relation of empire to nation and liberalism. Second, it will look at the  Risorgimento through the eyes of local and regional history by examining local patriotisms, revolutions and civil wars and the division between North and South. Finally, it will offer a new topography of Italian history by placing the Risorgimento in its Mediterranean and global context and by exploring its international aspects: the global icons that it produced (i.e. Garibaldi, Mazzini); the networks of exiles in other Mediterranean and European countries; the war volunteers; and the connection of Italian patriots with the wave of liberalism and revolution that swept the globe from India to Latin America.

ITAL GU4220 INTRO-HIST ＆ THEORY-LIT INTERP. 3.00 points.

CLIA GU4300 Renaissance Orientalism. 3.00 points.

This course offers an overview of the scholarly debate about the Renaissance during the last twenty years (2001-2021), with a particular focus on the relationship between early modern Italy, Europe, and Muslim Eurasia. This class intends to give students insight into and philological tools to engage the current debate about the revision of the concept—and the period—of the Renaissance (broadly 1350-1570). We will read both primary (Petrarch, Pico della Mirandola, Galateo, Leonardo Bruni, Leo Africanus) and secondary sources in order to understand the main trends of philological and historical research about early modern Eurasia in the last twenty years. We will read about how Petrarch’s anti-Arabism has been analyzed and used by twentieth-century Medievalists. We will explore how Said’s Return to Philology influenced the study of the transmission of texts in the Early Modern World. Also, we will try to understand the role of Islam, Muhammad, and the Ottoman Empire in the evolution of European political thought. Similarly, we will dive into Early Modern European representations of the Muslim Other, as well as into Arabic travel writing about Early Modern Europe. The main goal of this class is to discuss with the students about what happened in the field of Renaissance studies in the last two decades, roughly between September 11, 2001 and our current “post”-pandemic world, with a particular attention to the study of literary texts, intellectual and cultural history, the history and theory of translation. In English

ITAL GU4395 Fifty Years of Impatience: The Italian Novel between 1950-2000. 3 points.

The course examines some of the most important novels that belong to Italy's period of major social and economic transformations. Only after WWII Italy finally becomes a modern nation, i.e. a republic based on truly universal suffrage, and an industrialized country. Such accelerated progress, though,causes deep social instability and mobility which obviously results in heavy psychological pressures on the people: adaptation becomes crucial and inevitable. Fiction therefore resumes the task to represent such awkwardness of integration into a modern bourgeois society that, contrarily to its European and American counterpart, is extremely tentative and insecure per se, since it's political identity has extremely precarious grounds. Among other authors, primary readings include Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard and Italo Calvinos's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. Primary Readings in Italian.

ITAL GU4420 The Window On the World: Reassessing Italian Neorealism. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti and other Italian filmmakers challenged modes of film production in vogue in the 1940s and 1950s, both in theoretical and practical terms. This course will analyze both the feature films and the theoretical writings of such directors as those mentioned and others, in order to investigate the modes of representation of reality in the immediate postwar years, their relation to the identity of the newborn Italian Republic, and their significance in post-WWII filmmaking. All readings and lectures in English; Films in Italian or French, with English subtitles.

CLIA GU4499 Mediterranean Humanities I. 3.00 points.

Mediterranean Humanities I explores the literatures of the Mediterranean from the late Middle Ages to the Early Nineteenth Century. We will read Boccaccio, and Cervantes, as well as Ottoman poetry, Iberian Muslim apocalyptic literature, and the Eurasian connected versions of the One Thousand and One Nights. We will dive into the travel of texts and people, stories and storytellers across the shores of the Middle Sea. Based on the reading of literary texts (love poetry, short stories, theater, and travel literature), as well as letters, biographies, memoirs, and other ego-documents produced and consumed in the Early Modern Mediterranean, we will discuss big themes as Orientalism, estrangement, forced mobility, connectivity, multiculturalism and the clash of civilizations. Also, following in the footsteps of Fernand Braudel and Erich Auerbach, we will reflect on the Mediterranean in the age of the first globalization as a laboratory of the modern global world and world literature

CLIA GU4500 Mediterranean Humanities II. 3.00 points.

What is the Mediterranean and how was it constructed and canonized as a space of civilization? A highly multicultural, multilingual area whose people represent a broad array of religious, ethnic, social and political difference, the Mediterranean has been seen as the cradle of western civilization, but also as a dividing border and a unifying confluence zone, as a sea of pleasure and a sea of death. The course aims to enhance students’ understanding of the multiple ways this body of water has been imagined by the people who lived or traveled across its shores. By exploring major works of theory, literature and cinema since 1800, it encourages students to engage critically with a number of questions (nationalism vs cosmopolitanism, South/North and East/West divides, tourism, exile and migration, colonialism and orientalism, borders and divided societies) and to ‘read’ the sea through different viewpoints: through the eyes of a German Romantic thinker, a Sephardic Ottoman family, an Algerian feminist, a French historian, a Syrian refugee, an Italian anti-fascist, a Moroccan writer, an Egyptian exile, a Bosnian-Croat scholar, a Lebanese-French author, a Cypriot filmmaker, an Algerian-Italian journalist, and others. In the final analysis, Med Hum II is meant to arouse the question of what it means to stand on watery grounds and to view the world through a constantly shifting lens

ITAL GU4502 ITALIAN CULTURAL STUDIES I. 3.00 points.

An interdisciplinary investigation into Italian culture and society in the years between Unification in 1860 and the outbreak of World War I. Drawing on novels, historical analyses, and other sources including film and political cartoons, the course examines some of the key problems and trends in the cultural and political history of the period. Lectures, discussion and required readings will be in English. Students with a knowledge of Italian are encouraged to read the primary literature in Italian

ITAL GU4503 ITL CULTRL ST II:WWI-PRESENT. 3.00 points.

An interdisciplinary investigation into Italian culture and society in the years between World War I and the present. Drawing on historical analyses, literary texts, letters, film, cartoons, popular music, etc., the course examines some of the key problems and trends in the cultural and political history of the period. Lectures, discussion and required readings will be in English. Students with a knowledge of Italian are encouraged to read the primary literature in Italian.

ITAL GU4510 Italian Cinema: From Dolce Vita to the Immigration Crisis. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

CLIA GU4700 The Mediterranean in History and Anthropology. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Corequisite Colloquium "The Italian and Mediterranean Colloquium",Knowledge of French and/or Italian Preferable

This course will offer an overview of historical and anthropological writing on the Mediterranean from the birth of the field through the pages of Fernard Braudel’s celebrated book in the 1940s to the present day. It will trace the shifts in the ways we understand the Mediterranean by examining the sea as a malleable geographical space, which changes over time. It will explore topics such as the macro- and micro-histories of the Sea; the ‘history in’ and the ‘history of’ the Mediterranean; ‘anti-Meditterraneanism’; the revolutionary Mediterraneans; the colonial Mediterranean; the Grand Tour; the migrants in the Mediterranean; Italy in the Mediterranean, and others. Looking at the sea can tell us a lot about human life on land and can change our perspective on how we view this and other parts of the world.

ITAL GU4725 Pirandello and Modern Drama. 3 points.

The course will examine the foundations of modern drama and stage representation by analysing Luigi Pirandello's plays and theoretical works in close comparison with the major authors and drama theorists of the XIX century, including Bertolt Brecht, August Strinberg, and Jean Genet.

CLIA GU4725 PIRANDELLO ＆ MOD ITALIAN DRAMA. 3.00 points.

HNGR UN1101 ELEMENTARY HUNGARIAN I. 4.00 points.

Introduction to the basic structures of the Hungarian language. Students with a schedule conflict should consult the instructor about the possibility of adjusting hours

HNGR UN1102 ELEMENTARY HUNGARIAN II. 4.00 points.

Introduction to the basic structures of the Hungarian language. With the instructors permission the second term of this course may be taken without the first. Students with a schedule conflict should consult the instructor about the possibility of adjusting hours

HNGR UN2101 INTERMEDIATE HUNGARIAN I. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: HNGR UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent.
Prerequisites: HNGR UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent. Further develops a student's knowledge of the Hungarian language. With the instructor's permission the second term of this course may be taken without the first. Students with a schedule conflict should consult the instructor about the possibility of adjusting hours

HNGR UN2102 INTERMEDIATE COURSE II. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: HNGR UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent.
Prerequisites: HNGR UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent. Further develops a students knowledge of the Hungarian language. With the instructors permission the second term of this course may be taken without the first. Students with a schedule conflict should consult the instructor about the possibility of adjusting hours

HNGR UN3340 Advanced Hungarian Grammar. 3 points.

Prerequisites: HNGR UN2101 or the equivalent.

Advanced Hungarian Grammar focuses on the more complex syntactic/semantic constructions of Hungarian in addition to vocabulary enrichment. Readings in literature, oral presentations, translations, and essays serve to enhance the grammatical material.

HNGR UN3341 ADVANCED READINGS IN HUNGARIAN. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: HNGR UN2101 - HNGR UN2102 and HNGR UN3340, or the equivalent.

This course has an emphasis on rapid and comprehensive reading of academic materials. In addition to weekly readings, oral presentations and written essays serve to improve fluency in all aspects of Hungarian.

HNGR UN3343 DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR-HUNGARIAN. 3.00 points.

This course is designed for those curious about the structure of Hungarian - an unusual language with a complex grammar quite different from English, or, indeed, any Indo -European language. The study of Hungarian, a language of the Finno-Ugric family, offers the opportunity to learn about the phonology of vowel harmony, the syntax of topic-comment discourse, verb agreement with subjects and objects, highly developed case systems and possessive nominal paradigms. In addition to its inflectional profile, Hungarian derivation possibilities are vast, combinatory, and playful. During the semester we will touch upon all the important grammatical aspects of Hungarian and discuss them in relation to general linguistic principles and discourse, and finally, through some text analysis, see them in action. Although the primary discussion will center on Hungarian, we will draw on comparisons to other Finno-Ugric languages, most notably Finnish and Komi; students are encouraged to draw on comparisons with their own languages of interest. No prerequisite. Counts as Core Linguistics