Italian

This course is designed for students interested in an in-depth exploration of the artistic production of Italy from the 14th to the 16th centuries, with a special focus on Florence and its social, political, and devotional context. Starting with the Gothic, the course follows the development of different forms of art – painting, sculptures and architecture – up to the middle of the 16th century, thus covering the period known as the Renaissance. The course analyzes how the recovery and study of ancient sources and the work of contemporary humanists inspired and stimulated painters, sculptors, and architects. For the analysis of the Early Renaissance and its continuity with and renovation of Medieval art, special emphasis is placed on such figures as Giotto, Ghiberti, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, and Fra Angelico. Moving on to the High Renaissance in the second part of the course, the works of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, the young Raphael, and Giorgio Vasari are considered in the light of the Medici family political rule and artistic patronage. Through lectures, class discussions, and frequent site visits, the course aims at training students to study works of art in their original context, to recognize iconographic features and subjects, and distinguish the different styles and techniques used by the artists.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course provides critical and cultural awareness in contemporary Italian literature and civilization. Literary texts are analyzed as open shapes, focusing on the relationships between tradition and cultural legacies. The course discusses a corpus of selected prose works through comparative analysis and practice on different methods of interpretation. The topic of the spring term of the 2018-2019 academic year is: Italian Noir. The course aims to present contemporary noir representations, such as transmedia narrative examples that incorporate entertainment experiences on multiple multimedia platforms. Noir has been compared to the Italian realist novel, for its search for the representation of the reality and its ability to describe the dark aspects of a social community. The course highlights the features that allow the “noir all'italiana” genre. The analysis of the production shows how the traditional genre is resumed or reconfigured in texts confronted with a cultural production increasingly dominated by visual culture. In different ways the case studies reflect on how other media, and the relationships with them, give rise to an inquiry into the Italian society that portrays literature as civil engagement. Required readings: ROMANZO CRIMINALE by De Cataldo, LA FEROCIA by Nicola Lagioia, IL SOGNO DI VOLARE by Carlo Lucarelli, CATTIVI SOFFETTI by Daniele Brolli, CINACITTÀ by Tommaso Pincio, NARRARE AL TEMPO DELLA GLOBALIZZAZIONE by Roberto Rossi, and CRIMINI E MISFATTI LA NARRATIVA NOIR ITALIAN DEGIL ANNI DUEMILA by E. Mondello. The course is based on traditional lectures with student participation in discussions. Students are invited to present specific materials of some of the texts and authors. The course also includes the use of audiovisual materials, and a guest lecture series on specific topics related to course topics. Assessment is based on a final oral exam whose aim is an evaluation of the student's critical and methodological ability. Students are invited to discuss the texts on the course and must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the syllabus.

This course is divided into three parts. The first part covers Dante, topics include the evolution of the Latin language; an overview of medieval Romance literatures; Italian lyric poetry before Dante; Dante’s life; and Dante’s VITA NOVA (selected passages), DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, CONVIVIO, INFERNO (selected cantos), PURGATORIO, and PARADISO. The second part of the course discusses Petrarch, topics include his biography within the historical and cultural context; literary production (in Latin and Italian); his multifaceted relationship with the Roman Antiquity and the Christian doctrine (selected readings from THE SECRETUM and THE SENILES EPISTLES); in-depth study of RERUM VULGARIUM FRAGMENTA with attention on its genesis, structure, contents, and features; and Petrarch’s legacy and impact on the Italian language and literature, and on the early-modern Western literary production. The last part of the course discusses Boccaccio, topics include his biography and literary production (Italian and Latin works); his intricate links with eminent predecessors (both Dante and Petrarch); in-depth study of the DECAMERON with focus on its genesis, structure, themes, and features; Boccaccio’s erudite, humanistic, and lyrical texts; his multifarious relationship with women and the varied ways in which he depicted them; and Boccaccio’s impact on later authors. This course is taught in a degree program which introduces students to knowledge of Italian language throughout the degree. The first year of instruction in this degree begins in English and then gradually shifts to Italian by the third year. Because this course is taught in the first semester of the first year of the degree, the course is mostly taught in English with some Italian and is appropriate for students who do not speak Italian.

This course provides an introduction to Italian language and culture in order to develop a communicative competence that allows students to function and interact in common daily life situations.

This is a course unit for intermediate students who possess an A-Level qualification or equivalent competence in Italian. It revises, consolidates, and extends students’ prior knowledge of Italian through a structured program of taught classes and assessed coursework with a strong focus on a program of independent language learning made available through Blackboard. 

This course provides an introduction to the culture and society of contemporary Italy in the post-war period, identifying and challenging traditional stereotypes. In Semester 1, the course identifies the major political, economic, and social changes which have affected Italy since the Second World War. In Semester 2, students consider how we make sense of the process of Italian cultural production in multiple media and across multiple centuries, from the medieval and Renaissance period to the modern era, directing the attention towards the study and interpretation of different kinds of texts (poetic, narrative, and filmic) created in this cultural context.

This course provides students with a sound basis for communicating effectively and accurately in oral and written Italian. Students obtain proficiency in basic Italian spelling and pronunciation. Elementary Italian grammar and syntactic structures are covered, especially the use of nouns and adjectives and regular and irregular verbs in the present and past tense. Authentic materials (songs, videos, advertisements, and film clips) are used in a communicative-based approach, and emphasis is placed on the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students participate in several sessions of language exchange with Italian university students, and field trips take them outside the classroom to engage with the city and Romans to reinforce the grammatical skills learned in class. The course is conducted entirely in Italian.

The course examines the theoretical and methodological tools to understand and analyze human language in its complexity and in its various manifestations, i.e. languages. At first, human language is contextualized within the larger set of semiotic phenomena, and the main models of linguistic and non-linguistic communication will be compared. The course then defines the concept of natural language, within a broader perspective taking into account the world's languages and their variation in time and space, and focuses on the concept of linguistic diversity. The diversity of languages is the background during the middle part of the course, where various levels of linguistic analysis are explained and demonstrated using examples from Italian and other European and non-European languages. The course addresses phonetics, phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. In light of the different levels of analysis addressed, the course proposes possible typologies and taxonomies with which to organize linguistic diversity, and concludes by discussing the concept of linguistic universals.

The course has 2 parts: A & B. Students must take both parts. Students who complete a term paper on a pre-approved topic are awarded 1 extra unit. Maximum units for the course are 8. Part A covers types of comics from the 13th century to the 16th century. Part A is dedicated to comic in literature. The first part focuses on Boccaccio with in-depth studies on the DECAMERON, and the second part is dedicated to the reading of Machiavelli. Part B discusses poetry and theater in the 18th and 19th centuries. Part B discusses Goldoni, Pascoli, and an in-depth study of Dante's INFERNO in the context of poetry.