Courses for Spring 2024

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Syllabus Syllabus URL
ITAL 0087-401 Desire and Deception in Medieval Erotic Literature Francesco Marco Aresu CANCELED In this course, we will investigate the ideology, content, and material forms of love literature from Dante Alighieri to Francesco Petrarca. Through close readings of such texts as Dante’s Vita nova (ca. 1295), Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (ca. 1353), and Petrarca's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (often referred to as the poetry book par excellence: il canzoniere, ca. 1374), we will unveil the literary and fictitious nature of medieval erotic literature. We will explore the origins of love poetry in medieval France and its subsequent interpretation and rewriting in Italian courts and comuni. We will inquire into the cultural constructions of the medieval notion of lyrical self and how it still has an impact on our own notion of consciousness. We will study the forms, themes, and characters that populate 'love stories' in the Middle Ages. We will analyze the dynamics of composition, circulation, and reception in manuscript culture. Our close analysis of the texts as they have been preserved in manuscript form will help us gauge the differences between medieval and contemporary ways of writing, reading, and loving. COML0087401, GSWS0087401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0087401
ITAL 0100-301 Elementary Italian I Nicole E Ferrari WILL 214 MTWR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM A first-semester elementary language course for students who have never studied Italian or who have had very little exposure to the language. Students who have previously studied Italian are required to take the placement test. Class work emphasizes the development of spontaneous discourse skills and interactional competence. Out-of-class homework required. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0100301
ITAL 0200-301 Elementary Italian II Alessandra Fumagalli WILL 204 MTWR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM This course is the continuation of the elementary-level sequence designed to develop functional competence in the four skills. Class work emphasizes the further development of spontaneous discourse skills and interactional competence. Out-of-class homework required. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0200301
ITAL 0200-302 Elementary Italian II Julia Heim WILL 23 MTWR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM This course is the continuation of the elementary-level sequence designed to develop functional competence in the four skills. Class work emphasizes the further development of spontaneous discourse skills and interactional competence. Out-of-class homework required. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0200302
ITAL 0200-303 Elementary Italian II Zhanar Beketova WILL 24 MTWR 3:30 PM-4:29 PM This course is the continuation of the elementary-level sequence designed to develop functional competence in the four skills. Class work emphasizes the further development of spontaneous discourse skills and interactional competence. Out-of-class homework required. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0200303
ITAL 0300-301 Intermediate Italian I Arianna Fognani WILL 741 MWF 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Italian 0300 is the first half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that will allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. You are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and to review these. The course materials will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of similarities and differences between your native culture and the Italian world. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0300301
ITAL 0340-301 Accelerated Intermediate Italian Arianna Fognani WILL 438 MWF 1:45 PM-2:44 PM This course is the intensive and accelerated course that combines in one semester the intermediate sequence (0300 and 0400). It will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. The course will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of similarities and differences between your native culture and the Italian world. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0340301
ITAL 0400-301 Intermediate Italian II Massimiliano Lorenzon WILL 843 MWF 12:00 PM-12:59 PM This course is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that will allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. The course will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world. The course will move beyond stereotypical presentations of Italy and its people to concentrate on specific social issues together with cultural topics. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0400301
ITAL 0400-302 Intermediate Italian II Lorella Prichett WILL 316 MWF 1:45 PM-2:44 PM This course is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that will allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. The course will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world. The course will move beyond stereotypical presentations of Italy and its people to concentrate on specific social issues together with cultural topics. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0400302
ITAL 0400-303 Intermediate Italian II Lourdes Contreras WILL 316 MWR 3:30 PM-4:29 PM This course is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that will allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material. The course will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world. The course will move beyond stereotypical presentations of Italy and its people to concentrate on specific social issues together with cultural topics. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0400303
ITAL 0800-301 Italian Conversation Massimiliano Lorenzon WILL 214 R 5:15 PM-7:14 PM The course materials and nature of assignments and projects complement the Italian Studies curriculum by supporting the cultural content, linguistic functions, and types of assignments students may have already been exposed to in other Italian courses. This course will serve not only as a gateway to inspire students to take Italian Studies courses in the future, but will also accompany classes they may be taking simultaneously. The learning objectives of the works studied in this course will mirror and support the goals of the Italian Studies Curriculum while paying particular attention to oral expression, communication, and fostering a community of students of Italian both inside and outside the classroom. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL0800301
ITAL 1200-301 Advanced Italian II Rossella Di Rosa BENN 407 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM In this course, students will strengthen their communication skills, while continuing to explore significant aspects of contemporary Italian culture and history. Students will take further steps towards being able to understand in depth and to contextualize authentic Italian documents. Films, songs, and a variety of readings, will be used as windows on particular historical periods, cultural movements, political issues, and social customs. They will serve as a tool to investigate the many facets of Italian identity and, at the same time, as a way to prepare those students who will continue their study of Italian literature and culture in higher-level courses. Students are expected to participate in conversations and all other class activities in order to improve their oral and written ability to narrate, express opinion, hypothesize, and discuss a variety of topics, using rich, appropriate vocabulary and grammar, and organizing well-structured discourses, be they oral presentations, weekly compositions or the final essay. To reach these goals, speaking, listening, reading and writing activities -- role plays, discussions, oral presentations, journals, grammar reviews -- will be based on audio-visual material and written texts and/or proposed by the students themselves, based on their independent explorations and research. Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL1200301
ITAL 1900-401 Italian History on Screen: How Movies Tell the Story of Italy Carla Locatelli
Julia Anastasia Pelosi-Thorpe
BENN 138 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM How has our image of Italy arrived to us? Where does the story begin and who has recounted, rewritten, and rearranged it over the centuries? In this course, we will study Italy's rich and complex past and present. We will carefully read literary and historical texts and thoughtfully watch films in order to attain an understanding of Italy that is as varied and multifacted as the country itself. Group work, discussions and readings will allow us to examine the problems and trends in the political, cultural and social history from ancient Rome to today. We will focus on: the Roman Empire, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Unification, Turn of the Century, Fascist era, World War II, post-war and contemporary Italy. Lectures and readings are in English. CIMS1900401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL1900401
ITAL 2522-401 Modern Italian Culture: Italian American Experience Julia Heim WILL 214 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM Please check the website for a current course description at: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/italians/courses CIMS2522401, GSWS2522401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ITAL 2952-401 Palermo: Empires, Mafia, and Migration Domenic Vitiello PWH 108 R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This seminar explores the history and contemporary experiences of migrant communities in Palermo, Sicily. Palermo is an important site to consider critical questions about diversity and intercultural relations, power, exploitation and opportunities for migrants, city and imperial or national politics of migration, among other important questions about migration, migrant communities, and cities. Today the fifth largest city in Italy, it was founded by Phoenician traders and over time has been one of the most “conquered” cities in the world, ruled by Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French, Spanish, briefly the British and Americans, and since 1860 the nation of Italy. It was also home to Greeks, Jews, and other migrants, and to slaves of various races and ethnicities. Since the mid-19th century, the province of Palermo has been the center of the Sicilian mafia, which continues to influence emigration from Sicily and the work, housing, and lives of many migrants there today. Palermo is a diverse city, with people from North and West Africa, South and East and other parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, largely residing in its historic center. In the 21st century, it has been one of most welcoming cities in the world, a sanctuary city in some ways, though city politics are changing. Migrant leaders long involved in city government and civil society will be our partners in this class, helping us engage with migrant communities. The class trip over spring break will include visits to and assignments exploring historic sites and museums related to migration and contemporary migrant neighborhoods, shops, and organizations with a cultural mediator from the community. URBS2952401
ITAL 3060-401 Mafia in the Movies Frank Pellicone BENN 141 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course examines representations of the mafia in Italian and American cinema from the early 20th-century until contemporary times, exploring the historical, economic and political causes that led to the mafia’s rise in Italy and the USA. Beginning with an analysis of the social problems that led to its emergence in 19th-century Sicily, the course will trace the transformation of the mafia into an international criminal organization throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing on historical events such as Italian migration to the Americas, the Second World War, the rise and consolidation of an Italian-American mafia in 1950s and 1960s New York, the Sicilian mafia’s attack on the Italian justice system in the 1980s and 1990s, and its more recent transformation into a global financial player. Some of the films we will watch and discuss include Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor (2019), and popular American and Italian TV shows such as David Chase’s The Sopranos (1999-2007) and Stefano Sollima’s Romanzo criminale (2008-10). In our discussions, we will pay particular attention to the ways that gender, class and race figure in cultural perceptions of the mafia and of Italy more broadly.
Taught in English.
CIMS3060401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ITAL 3405-401 Italian Fashion Deion Dresser WILL 301 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM Topics vary. Please check the department's website for a course description at: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/italians/courses CIMS3405401, GSWS3405401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL3405401
ITAL 3510-301 Italian Renaissance Studies. Rinascimento! Francesco Marco Aresu
Eva Del Soldato
VANP 626 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Taught in Italian. Topics vary. Please check the department's website for a course description at: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/italians/courses Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL3510301
ITAL 3820-401 Renaissance Europe Ann Elizabeth Moyer JAFF B17 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM The Renaissance was a defining era in European history, the age of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, crucial in the formation of Europe’s culture and identity. In this course we will examine the philosophers, writers, artists, and scientists of this era, as well as the political and social climate in which they lived and worked. We will give particular attention to the humanist movement, university culture, revolutionary changes in the visual arts, science, and religion. Readings will include key primary sources from the Renaissance era as well as the writings of modern historians. HIST3820401 Cross Cultural Analysis
ITAL 5300-301 Medieval Italian Literature: Fragments of a Lover's Discourse in Medieval Italy Francesco Marco Aresu VANP 00 CANCELED Medieval Italian society, art, intellectual and political history.
ITAL 5300-401 Medieval Italian Literature: Fragments of a Lover's Discourse in Medieval Italy Francesco Marco Aresu VANP 605 W 1:45 PM-3:44 PM Medieval Italian society, art, intellectual and political history. COML5300401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL5300401
ITAL 5850-401 Italian Thought Alessandro Mulieri CANCELED What is Italian philosophy? Does Italian philosophy have a peculiar character? Can we speak of "Italian philosophy" if Italy became a unified country only recently, and its history is complex and fragmented? Yet “Italian Thought” and its genealogy are central to today’s theoretical debates on concepts such as biopolitics, reproductive labor and “empire” among others. This course will offer a diachronic review of the most important Italian thinkers, highlighting the political vocation of Italian philosophy, and its engagement with history and science, while discussing the modern supporters and opponents of the “Italian Thought” category. Readings might include Dante, Machiavelli, Bruno, Vico, Beccaria, Gramsci, Cavarero and Agamben among others. CIMS5850401, COML5850401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=ITAL5850401
ITAL 5851-401 Machiavelli’s Political Thought and its Modern Readers Alessandro Mulieri COHN 337 T 3:30 PM-5:29 PM There is hardly an author who has been as controversial as Niccolò Machiavelli. The influence of this Italian political thinker on the theoretical imaginary of subsequent thinkers and writers has been huge. Yet, there have been strong disagreements on how to interpret Machiavelli’s ideas and questions still abound on the political meaning of his thought. Is there a core message of Machiavellian politics? Is he a political philosopher or a theorist or a ‘scientist’ of politics? Can we call him a realist? Or is he rather a republican or a plebeian actor and thinker, as recent scholars have pointed out? If so, what kind of republicanism or plebeian ideas can be found in his context and in his works? What has been the impact of his ideas in 20th century political thought? The goal of this course is two-fold. Each class will comment and discuss passages from The Prince and the Discourses or important modern and contemporary texts based on Machiavelli’s ideas. On the one hand, the course aims to directly analyze some key passage of the two main texts of Machiavelli, The Prince and the Discourses. The aim of this investigation is to stress the complexity of Machiavelli’s thought in its own context, which substantially challenges any attempt to reduce him to simple labels. Machiavelli’s texts will also be approached through a close and thorough reading as well as a comparison with the ideas of its own sources (especially Polybius, Dante, Petrarca, Plutarch, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero etc.). On the other hand, the course aims to analyze the influence of Machiavelli thought on some 20th century thinkers (The students will also read texts from Antonio Gramsci, Claude Lefort, Isaiah Berlin, Leo Strauss, Louis Althusser, next to the most recent scholarly historical literature in Machiavelli studies). This will allow the students to become familiar not only with Machiavelli’s texts but also with several thinker who have drawn on this author from completely different perspectives to shape their own political thought. COML5851401
ITAL 9999-011 Independent Study Eva Del Soldato Independent research under the supervision of a department faculty member. Research topic is determined in consultation with the supervising faculty member.