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ITALIAN SOCIETY IN FILM

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Course Description |Course Website

 

Making use of a multidisciplinary approach, this course will explore how contemporary Italian cinema has mirrored, responded to, and, in some cases, anticipated cultural and social transformations of Italian society. A central aim of this course is to better understand present-day Italy and Europe, by viewing and discussing those films produced in Italy that most reflect the nation, its culture, and its society. A secondary objective will be acquiring the appropriate language and tools necessary to analyze and discuss media. Topics will include work & the economy, organized crime & outlaws, migrants & second-generation Italians, and queer identities.

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VIEWING ITALY IN 20/20

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Course Description |Course Website

 

What does it mean to be Italian in 2020? How do young adults, the aging, members of the LGBTQ community, migrants, and second-generation Italians negotiate and construct their identities in Italy today? More specifically, what are the personal histories of these individuals and groups in a nation where ideologies of an imagined homogeneity persist, yet day-to-day, lived experiences shore up visions of a “modern,” multifaceted Italy?

 

Building on these questions, this course will examine the increasing presence, participation, and visibility of traditionally marginalized persons in Italy. Following a historical introduction that gives context to the Unification and subsequent nation-building projects in Italy, ITAL 295 draws on an archive of interdisciplinary texts of multiple mediums (visual, auditory, etc.) to illustrate conventions, trends, and exceptions of be(com)ing Italian in 2020.

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SCREENING MALE CRISES: ITALIAN-STYLE 

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Course Description |Course Website

 

“There is a myth currently circulating about Italian masculinity. Italians do it better.”Considering Italy’s claim to legendary icons of virility like Casanova, Don Giovanni, and Maciste it’s no wonder. All Italian men are masculine, right? Well, it depends.

 

Through the medium of film, we will explore the ways in which patriarchal family structures, fascism, and mafia culture have influenced, and continue to inform, dominant conceptions of masculinity in Italy. Masculinity will be treated as a performative construct, shaped by evolving socio-cultural and political concerns. The films screened will span several decades and cross multiple genres in order to trace the various ways mediated performances of masculinity sustain, destabilize, satirize, and/or revise stereotypes of Italian masculine identity (the Latin lover, the mafioso, the maschio italiano, and the mammone). Students will deepen their knowledge of competing notions of masculinity through exposure to alternative ways of ‘being a man’. We will focus primarily on male protagonists in ‘crisis,’ especially men who perform ‘failing’ masculinities: absent fathers, fallen patriarchs, ‘feminized’ men, impotent lovers, and isolated elders.

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MODERN ITALY: ROME / READING (IN) ITALY

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Course Description |Course Website

 

Lo scopo generale di questo corso è quello di aiutare gli studenti a sviluppare sempre più pienamente la loro abilità nella lettura, nella comprensione e nella produzione orale e scritta della lingua italiana, continuando a lavorare sulle conoscenze linguistiche e culturali da loro acquisite nei primi due o tre anni di studio della lingua.

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Più specificamente il corso si propone di:

  1. ampliare il vocabolario italiano degli studenti e renderli sempre più coscienti dei vari registri espressivi e delle modalità discorsive presenti nella lingua italiana, in periodi e in contesti diversi

  2. migliorare l’italiano orale e scritto degli studenti attraverso esercizi di applicazione pratica e creativo-espressiva di strutture grammaticali e sintattiche e di dispositivi stilistici e retorici italiani; particolare attenzione verrà fatta ai seguenti punti:

    • pronomi relativi, personali, avverbiali e doppi

    • usi del congiuntivo e del condizionale

    • passato remoto

    • concordanza dei tempi verbali

    • forma passiva e impersonale

    • discorso indiretto

    • usi dei modi indefiniti: infinito, gerundio, participio

  3. esplorare la presenza di Roma nel cinema e nella letteratura attraverso la lettura approfondita, l’analisi e la discussione di film e testi di vario genere, in prosa e in versi, e attraverso l’esame di altri prodotti culturali rappresentativi o comunque pertinenti al tema 


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CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE & CULTURE

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Course Description |Course Website

 

This is an introductory-level course that focuses on the Italian literature and culture, in particular the modern Italian novel.  Through close readings of four Italian novels we will examine the political, economic, and social forces of twentieth and twenty-first century Italian society. Four topical sub-genres will be studied in detail: detective fiction/ murder mystery, organized crime & mafia fiction, migrant literature, & feminist fiction.

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