Courses

ITALIAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS

COURSES SPRING 2009

ITAL0200 - Elementary Italian
Elective for students without previous training in Italian. No credit for first semester alone. Fundamentals of Italian grammar and development of skills in speaking, comprehension, and writing. Overview of contemporary Italian society. Sufficient for enrollment in the Bologna Program. Five meetings per week, audio and video work, two Italian films. Note: This is a year course.
ITAL0200 S01 - 20429 - M.,W.,F. 10:00-10:50 AM and T.,Th. 10:30- 11:50 AM
ITAL0200 S02 - 20430 - M.,W.,F. 1:00-1:50PM and T.,Th. 10:30- 11:50 AM
ITAL0200 S03 - 20431 - M.,W.,F. 11:00-11:50AM and T.,Th. 1:00-2:20 PM
ITAL0200 S04 – 20432 - M.,W.,F. 2-2:50PM and T.,Th. 2:30-3:50 PM
ITAL0200 S05 – 20433 - M.,W.,F. 1:00-1:50PM and T.,Th. 6:30-7:50 PM

ITAL0400 - Intermediate Italian II
Review of specific grammar problems. Reading of one novel and newspaper articles. Compositions and oral presentations. Three Italian films. Prereq: IT 300, or placement by examination.
ITAL0400 S01 - 20434 - M.,W. 10:00-10:50 AM and T. – Th. 12:00-12:50 PM
ITAL0400 S02 - 20435 - M.,T.,W. – Th. 12:00-12:50 PM
ITAL0400 S03 - 23716 - M.,W. 2:00-2:50PM, and Th. 12:00-12:50 PM

ITAL0600 Advanced Italian II - 20436
Continuation of 500. Emphasis on formal and informal styles of writing and speaking, using literary and nonliterary texts. Compositions, oral presentations, and film screenings. Prerequisite: IT 500, placement by examination, or written permission.
ITAL0600 S01 - T.,Th. 1:00- 2:20 PM
Instructor: Cristina Abbona Sneider

HIAA0560 - The Visual Culture of Early Modern Rome - 24112
Examines Renaissance Roman painting, sculpture, and architecture in the context of the unique urban character of the city: site of antique myth, religious pilgrimage, and a cosmopolitan court. Beginning with Filarete and Fra Angelico, we move through the Renaissance (Michelangelo and Raphael), looking at the formation of artists' workshops and academies, ending with the urbanization programs of Sixtus V. A
HIAA0560 T,Th: 2:30-3:50 PM
Instructor: Evelyn Lincoln

COLT 0510G – “The Grand Tour; or a Room with a View”: Italy in the Imagination of Others - 24926 ****NEW COURSE****
Italy has for many decades been the place to which people traveled in order to both encounter something quite alien to their own identities and yet a place where they were supposed to find themselves, indeed to construct their proper selves. This course introduces students to some of the most important texts that describe this "grand tour." We will read texts (both literary and travelogues by Goethe, De Stael, Henry James, Hawthorne, Freud, among others, as well as view films (such as "A Room With a View:) - all in order to determine the ways in which Italy "means" for the cultural imagination of Western civilization. For first year students only. FYS
COLT 0510G W. 3-5:30 PM
Instructor: Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg

ITAL0950 - Introduction to Italian Cinema: Italian Film and History - 24181
How do we visualize the past? How has cinema influenced our understanding of contemporary history? The course will focus on how key moments of 20th-century History (Fascism, WWII, the Mafia and Terrorism) have been described or fictionalized by major Italian film-makers (including Benigni, Bertolucci, Cavani, Fellini and Pasolini). Subtitled films, readings and discussion groups. Reserved for First Year students. Enrollment limited to: 20. FYS
ITAL0950 - M 3-5:20PM
Instructor: Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg

ITAL1020 – Boccaccio’s “Decameron” - 20437
Close study and discussion of Boccaccio's collection of 100 tales told by ten narrators over a period of two weeks, while in flight from the devastating plague of 1348. The Decameron defined the standard of Italian prose narrative for almost four centuries, and furnished a great number of the plots of Italian (and French and English) Renaissance drama. Students will be invited to contribute to the Decameron Web, the Boccaccio award-winning web site administered by the department of Italian Studies. Other, shorter, works of Boccaccio will be read to prepare for tackling the Decameron. Sections in both English and Italian.
ITAL1020 T,TH 2:30- 3:50 PM
Instructor: Ronald Martinez

ITAL1400J – The Many Faces of Casanova - 24183
Philosopher or charlatan, magician or trickster, seducer or seduced, Casanova's life contains multitudes. His name, unlike those of Sade or Sacher Masoch, does not designate a "perversion," but a sort of exuberant hetero-sexual "normalcy." He is the prototype of the Modern (Italian) Man, the Venetian alter-ego (and possibly real-life inspiration) of Mozart's Don Juan. In this course, we will dissect the myth of Casanova, from his own monumental autobiography to novels, films and plays which cast him as protagonist (novels by Arthur Schnitzler, Sandor Marai, Italo Calvino, Sebastiano Vassalli; films by Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola, Lasse Hallström, impersonations by Donald Sutherland, Marcello Mastroianni and Heath Leger). Readings in English and Italian. Most films subtitled. Discussions in Italian.
ITAL1400J T, TH 1:00–2:20 PM
Instructor: Massimo Riva

ITAL1620 - The Divina Commedia: Dante's Paradiso: Justifying a Cosmos - 20438
Close study of the third and final part of Divine Comedy, in which Dante unfolds how, in his view, the planetary and stellar spheres condition human lilfe and fashion the Providential plan of history. There will be ancillary readings from Dante's other works: Convivio, the Monarchia, and the Epistles. In Italian. Prerequisite: IT 0500 or 0600.
ITAL1620 M 3-5:20PM
Instructor: Ronald Martinez

ITAL2190G - Letteratura Italiana del Novecento
In questo seminario leggeremo e discuteremo alcune delle più significative opere di narrativa e poesia del Novecento, da Italo Svevo a Italo Calvino, da Eugenio Montale a Pier Paolo Pasolini, sullo sfondo delle grandi trasformazioni della società e della cultura italiana, dal fascismo al secondo dopoguerra, dal futurismo all'ermetismo e al neo-realismo, alla luce delle teorie critiche e metodologie di analisi più influenti. In particolare, ci concentreremo sulla genealogia del personaggio e la crisi del soggetto moderno e su come viene articolandosi nella prosa di romanzo e nella poesia lirica.
ITAL2190G Th. 4-6:20 PM
Instructor: Massimo Riva

ITAL 2820A - Italian Studies Colloquium
The Italian Studies Colloquium is a forum for an exchange of ideas and work of the community of Italian scholars at Brown and invited outside scholars. Students are expected to come prepared with informed questions on the topic presented. Presentations in both Italian and English. Written permission required.
ITAL2820A - Massimo Riva - M 5:30-7.00PM

If you need any additional information please contact Mona_Delgado@brown.edu or call 863-1561.