Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Italian Department
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Chair: Simona Bondavalli;
Associate Professors: Rodica Diaconescu Blumenfeld, Simona Bondavalli;
Assistant Professor: Sole Anatroneb;
Visiting Assistant Professor: Alberto Gelmi.
b On leave 2021/22, second semester
Advisers: The department.
Courses are conducted in Italian, except for ITAL 168 , ITAL 175 , ITAL 177 , ITAL 237 , ITAL 250 , ITAL 255 , and ITAL 275 .
Major
Correlate Sequence in Italian
Students majoring in other programs may elect a correlate sequence in Italian.
Italian: I. Introductory
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ITAL 105 - Elementary Italian Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Simona Bondavalli.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Yearlong course 105-ITAL 106 .
Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 106 - Elementary Italian Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Simona Bondavalli.
Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Yearlong course ITAL 105 -106.
Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 107 - Intensive Elementary Italian 2 unit(s) A single-semester equivalent of ITAL 105 -ITAL 106 . Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Open to all classes; four 75-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice. Supplementary material from Andiamo in Italia, a web-based trip to Italy. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 168 - Food Culture and Italian Identity 1 unit(s)
How did spaghetti and meatballs become the symbol of Italian cuisine in the United States? Is it true that pasta was not invented in Italy? How did a cookbook contribute to the creation of national identity? Could abolishing pastasciutta make Italians more optimistic? Images of food and dinner tables pervade Italian art and literature, celebrating pleasures or projecting desires, passing on traditions or stirring revolutions. In this course we examine how eating and cooking habits intersect with material and cultural changes in Italy at various times, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present. We investigate how issues of personal, regional, and national identity are shaped and expressed by food habits. Fiction and non-fiction writings, recipes, documentary and fiction film, advertising, and television shows provide the basis for discussion and writing assignments. Simona Bondavalli.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
May not be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 175 - The Italian Renaissance in English Translation 1 unit(s)
In this course we examine the notion of selfhood as it first appears in the writings of early humanists (XIV century), Renaissance authors (XVI century) and works of contemporary visual artists. Cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and gender issues are investigated through the reading of literary and theatrical masterpieces and their influence on visual artists like Botticelli, Raphael, and others. We read in English translation excerpts from Petrarch (Canzoniere and Letters), Boccaccio (Decameron), poems and letters by women humanists (Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, Laura Cereta), Machiavelli (The Prince), Castiglione (The Book of the Courtier), Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco (Poems). In order to foster the student’s self-awareness and creativity, journaling, experiential practices, and a creative project, based on the course content, are included. Eugenio Giusti.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
May not be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
Italian: II. Intermediate
Italian: III. Advanced
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ITAL 301 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) An examination of selected topics in recent Italian culture or of a single topic across several centuries. May be taken more than once for credit when topic changes. Required of all senior majors.
Topic for 2020/21b: Italophone African Narratives, from Colonialism to Post-Colonialism. From Italy’s Fascist colonial aspirations of the 1930s, through the “un-thinking eurocentrism” of the post-war generation, to the contemporary migritudine, we trace the engendering of Africa as concept and as reality in the Italian sociolect and society. Films may include Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, Pasolini’s The African Orestes, Bertolucci’s Besieged, and Michele Placido’s Pummarò. Texts by African and African-Italian women writers may include works by Igiaba Scego, Cristina Ubax Ali Farah, Ribka Sibhatu, and Ramzanali Faze. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220, ITAL 222 or ITAL 217, ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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ITAL 302 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. Through regular group and individual meetings, students receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): One 300-level course.
Yearlong course ITAL 302-303 .
Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings.
Course Format: INT -
ITAL 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring 0.5 unit(s) The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. They will receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. The class meets three times a semester for two hours. One hour individual meetings are scheduled bi-weekly. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): One 300-level course.
Yearlong course ITAL 302 -303.
Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings.
Course Format: INT -
ITAL 305 - Italophone African Narratives, from Colonialism to Post-Colonialism 1 unit(s) From Italy’s Fascist colonial aspirations of the 1930s, through the “un-thinking eurocentrism” of the post-war generation, to the contemporary migritudine, we trace the engendering of Africa as concept and as reality in the Italian sociolect and society. Films may include Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse, Pasolini’s The African Orestes, Bertolucci’s Besieged, and Michele Placido’s Pummarò. Texts by African and African-Italian women writers may include works by Igiaba Scego, Cristina Ubax Ali Farah, Ribka Sibhatu, and Ramzanali Fazel. In Italian. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with the permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 306 - Reading Rodari: Revolutionary Rhymes, Telephone Tales, Fantastical Grammar Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Beloved author of children’s tales and nursery rhymes, Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) was also an educator and a prolific journalist who commented on social inequalities in a variety of media. Nonsense and linguistic play cleverly introduced pacifism, class conflict, and environmental issues in his works, promoting nonconformist responses to injustice. Reading a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction writings, students deepen their knowledge of Italian society in post-WWII decades, reflect on the country’s new democratic institutions, and consider the role of imagination and creativity in shaping political change. We discuss Rodari’s canonical status in Italian children’s literature and his popularity in continental Europe, and interrogate the scarcity of English translations through intercultural investigations. Translations, storytelling, and other creative projects allow students to engage with “the grammar of fantasy” and explore “the liberating power of words” that inspired Rodari’s democratic motto: “Tutti gli usi della parola a tutti.” In Italian. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 or ITAL 222 . (ITAL 217 with instructor’s permission)
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 320 - The Language of Desire and the Modern Self 1 unit(s) The course explores ways in which early writers in the Italian vernacular developed the modern concept of selfhood and articulated it through the language of desire. We investigate intimate expressions of both spiritual and physical longing, and analyze how the affirmation of one’s desire requires striking a balance with, or even bending, social norms of gender, ethics, spirituality, and class. We read texts and selections from, among others, San Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Isotta Nogarola, Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco e Michelangelo.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 331 - Heroes, Paladins, and Non-existent Knights: The Italian Epic Tradition from Charlemagne to Calvino 1 unit(s) A study of the epic tradition from the early Carolingian cantari and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to the leading Italian epics of the sixteenth century written at the Ferrara Renaissance court and their great influence on later literature, music, and paintings. Readings include selections from the Chanson de Roland and the Roman de Tristan, Pulci’s Morgante, Bolardo’s Orlando Innamorato, Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, and Italo Calvino’s parody Il cavaliere inesistente, as a contemporary reference to the traditional epic poetry. This book, epitomizing Calvino’s long interest in the epic poem, provides a good basis for analyzing the archetypal character of Roland, his stoic and ascetic demeanor, and his transformation through the centuries until he becomes indeed “nonexistent.”
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , 220 or 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 340 - Italy and its Migrations: Stories of Italian Emigration and Immigration 1 unit(s)
This course follows the waves that shape and change Italian culture from the time of Unification, in 1861, up through today. We learn about the experiences, dreams, memories and politics of Italian emigration and immigration through a careful study of novels, poetry, cinema, and theater, as well as letters and media coverage. We consider the ways different narrative styles reflect the historical realities of the times, and take a critical analysis approach to the question of how public attitudes towards immigrants have shaped Italian national and diasporic sentiment. Beginning with the first major waves of emigration in the 1880s, this course provides a unique look at a moment of significant transition in Italian history that is of particular interest to students who have followed departmental courses in Early Modern and Twentieth century studies.
This course is particularly relevant for those students recently returning from their study-aboard experience in Italy, as they have a chance to reflect on their experiences as migrants with a broader historical and cultural frame. This course builds on the linguistic skills developed in the first two years of Vassar’s Italian language program, pushing students to think and form arguments within the target language.
Students develop their critical and analytic thinking skills and learn about key moments in Italian and Italian diasporic history (with a special emphasis on the Italian-American context), and they significantly expand their Italian written and oral comprehension and communication skills though readings, oral presentations, and written compositions (short in-class pieces and longer research essays crafted in a series of drafts and rewrites to ensure students gain a solid familiarity with the logic of grammar and style).
Individually designed for Italian majors and other students with some knowledge of Italian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in ITAL 240 , but are required to do part of the work in Italian. Sole Anatrone. Sole Anatrone.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 342 - Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron: The “Novella” as a Microcosm 1 unit(s) A reading of the one hundred tales with specific emphasis on social, cultural and gender issues of the later Middle Ages, as represented in the novella genre. Particular attention is devoted to the Decameron’s frame as a connective tissue for the one hundred tales and a space for gender debate and social re-creation. Reference is made to some of the Decameron’s subtexts (Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, the Novellino, the French Fabliaux, and Courtly Literature). Critical interpretations are analyzed after the reading of the entire masterpiece. Issues related to textual censorship, and contemporary re-writings through different media are addressed. Eugenio Giusti.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 375 - Fictions of Youth: Youth Culture in Twentieth-Century Italian Literature 1 unit(s) The course examines the relationship between youth and literature in post-WWII Italy from a double perspective: adolescents as a literary subject, as protagonists of fiction and non-fiction, and as authors. Variously associated with innocence and vitality, innovation and peril, self-creation and anti-authoritarianism, youth long embodied individual and social ideals and fears in literature. In the twentieth century, it also increasingly suggested uncertainty and incompletion. As adolescence acquired importance in both the historical landscape and collective imagination, its symbolic connotations became progressively unstable. When young people wrote about themselves and their peers, first-hand experience mixed with inherited notions in unexpected ways. Using the Bildungsroman as a narrative model for the representation of youth in modern fiction, we study the different ways in which European and American coming-of-age novels influence modern Italian literature. The significance of youth in post-Fascist Italy, the construction of a generational identity through media and popular culture, and the creation of a new literary language for the expression of youth are some of the topics we address. Readings by Pasolini, Moravia, Tondelli, Brizzi, Santacroce, and others. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 379 - Food and Fiction in Modern Italy 1 unit(s) The course investigates the role of food as both subject and metaphor of modern Italian literature and film in the 19th and 20th century. While the representation of eating and cooking practices contributes to the realistic mode in fiction, food often mediates memories, anxieties, and desires in narratives of personal or national coming-of-age. Even non-fictional forms of food writing, such as cookbooks or documentary films, contribute to the narrative of Italian national unification and modernization as much as canonical novels and cinema. We analyze both written texts and film, try some of the dishes described, and explore the relationship between writing, cooking, reading, and eating, as acts of creation and fruition that shape personal, regional, and national identity. Tradition and innovation; scarcity and excess; inclusion and exclusion; taste and disgust; local, national, and global trends are among the ideas structuring class discussion and writing. In Italian. Simona Bondavalli.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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ITAL 385 - Three Contemporary Women Writers: Dacia Maraini, Rossana Campo, Laila Wadia 1 unit(s) This course explores new literary styles that reflect the new freedoms of contemporary Italian women and women writers. We study the texts of these writers from the 1970s to 1990s, from the early days of feminist activism, to recent transformations in literature and politics, asking whether postmodernism leads to the de-ideologization of feminism. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Prerequisite(s): ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
ITAL 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Course Format: OTH
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