FRIT 35.03-Religions in Modern Italy-Wyatt @ 2a-Addressing the complex landscape of modern Italian religious life and the cultural production that has accompanied and/or responded to it, this course will examine texts, films, and performing artists that engage with Italian Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, and other religious traditions represented in the country. The focus is on religious affiliation as a cultural rather than a strictly theological practice, reflected in modern Italian social, linguistic, and political realities as well as in questions of race, sexual roles, and gender identity.

F.I.R.E.-Canepa-

The French and Italian Department offers a Full Immersion in Rome Experience (FIRE) at the University of Rome in Italy. FIRE is an experiential model of study abroad at Dartmouth in which students take full advantage of dynamic Roman cultural life through intensive study of the Italian language and culture in the energetic Trastevere neighborhood.

All courses involve in-class and on-site lectures, guest presentations, cultural activities such as walking tours, visits to piazzas and markets, and trips to the opera and sporting events. Students also visit significant Roman monuments (Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peters and Vatican Museums, Borghese Gallery) and travel to other towns and cities throughout Italy.

Courses are taught by Dartmouth faculty and local instructors.

Italian 1-3 sections-Alberti and Gilebbi and TBD

Italian 2-1 section-Convertini 

Italian 3-2 sections- Benvegnù and TBD

Italian 11-2 sections-Gilebbi

Italian 9-1 section- Benvegnù

Italian 14-Convertini: Journey to Italy; An Introduction to Italian Culture; This course introduces students to Italian culture through a representative selection of texts and topics from past to present, as well as encouraging students to think critically about notions of culture and identity. Topics include stereotypes and the idea of national identity, modern history, society and politics, food culture, the visual arts, music, cinema, religion, science and technology, the environment, Made in Italy, immigration, sports, and mafia.  In many units, guest lecturers will widen the discussion by considering the global impact of Italian cultural production across time and space. Students will actively engage with Italian cultural phenomena through in-class lectures and discussions, hands-on exercises, and site visits.

Italian 33-Callegari: Dante:The Divine Comedy; This course introduces students to Italian culture through a representative selection of texts and topics from past to present, as well as encouraging students to think critically about notions of culture and identity. Topics include stereotypes and the idea of national identity, modern history, society and politics, food culture, the visual arts, music, cinema, religion, science and technology, the environment, Made in Italy, immigration, sports, and mafia.  In many units, guest lecturers will widen the discussion by considering the global impact of Italian cultural production across time and space. Students will actively engage with Italian cultural phenomena through in-class lectures and discussions, hands-on exercises, and site visits.

Italian 35.02-Parati: How to Be a Facist; How do people become fascists?  How do they rise to power? Why did people support fascism? We will focus initially on the original model for fascist dictatorships, that is Italian fascism, but we will also have in-class presentations by Dartmouth professors on German, Spanish, French and Japanese forms of fascism.  This is a course that will concentrate on history, film, literature, and fashion in order to talk about the slippery definitions of fascism. 

F.I.R.E: (Canepa)

FALL 2022 ITALIAN COURSES

Italian 01: Introductory Italian at 10, 11, and 12 (Alberti and Zoller): (3 sections): An introduction to Italian as a spoken and written language, with emphasis on practical conversation. The course includes regular practice in class and scheduled drill-sessions in understanding and using the spoken language. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements.

Italian 02: Introductory Italian at 10 (Convertini): Rapid review and continued study of the fundamentals of Italian, with intensive work in vocabulary building. The course will also include an introduction to the culture and civilization of Italy. Open to students by qualifying placement or to students who have passed ITAL 1. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements.

Italian 03: Introductory Italian at 10 and 11 (Gilebbi): (2 sections): This course is designed to reinforce and refine spoken and written language skills through a review of grammar, exposure to a broad spectrum of language ranging from colloquial to literary styles, and the use of samples of Italian language from multiple sources such as advertising, comics, television and literature. Frequent compositions, quizzes, plus linguistic and thematic analysis of texts. Open to students by qualifying placement or to students who have passed ITAL 2 or ARTH 12. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements.

Italian 11: Intensive Italian at 11 (Alberti): This 1-credit course is designed for students with little or no knowledge of the Italian language, but who have a strong background in another Romance language (i.e. Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, and also Latin).  Italian 11 is an accelerated course that combines Italian 1 and 2 in one term offering an exciting and fast-paced atmosphere to learn Italian. The course will have a web-based component, which, through cultural, grammar and multimedia learning activities, will complement face-to-face work and prepare students for their in-class work. In this course, students will learn to talk about familiar events in the present and the past, as well as formulate plans for the future. Weekly cultural videos will situate in context the grammatical content of the course making it relevant and meaningful. Students will be actively engaged in a variety of creative written and oral activities that will help them develop their language skills. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to sign up for Italian 3 or apply for our Italian LSA in Rome. With the goal to facilitate the acquisition of the target language, this course will be conducted entirely in Italian.
 
Prerequisite: One year or equivalent of university level instruction in a Romance Language or Latin; or three high school years of instruction in a Romance Language or Latin; or native speaking proficiency in a Romance Language; or permission of instructor

Italian 9 at 11 (Callegari): Italian 9 expands on the skills acquired in the Italian language sequence (Italian 1, 2, 3, and/or the LSA) as well as offering a transition to Italian 10 and our upper-division literature and culture courses. This course introduces students to modern and contemporary Italian literature, culture and society through a focus on topics such as evolving political and regional identities, gender relations, the role of the media, and the culture of daily life. Students expand their active use of Italian, refine communicative, reading, and writing strategies, and comprehensively review grammar. Course work includes active participation in class discussions, oral presentations, and regular reading and writing assignments in the areas of narrative and poetry, cinema, music, and journalism. Instructors usually choose one or several "anchor" texts around which coursework revolves.

Italian 14:  Journey to Italy -- an Introduction to Italian Culture (Convertini) at 11:  This course introduces students to Italian culture through a representative selection of texts and topics from past to present, as well as encouraging students to think critically about notions of culture and identity. Topics include stereotypes and the idea of national identity, modern history, society and politics, food culture, the visual arts, music, cinema, religion, science and technology, the environment, Made in Italy, immigration, sports, and mafia.  In many units, guest lecturers will widen the discussion by considering the global impact of Italian cultural production across time and space. Students will actively engage with Italian cultural phenomena through in-class lectures and discussions, hands-on exercises, and site visits. Dist:  SOC; WCult: CI.

Italian 25.01: 20th and 21st-Century Italian Literature and Culture -- "Terrorism" (Parati) at 2:  At the end of WWII a number of amnesties allowed former fascists, some of them guilty of genocide, to go free. Italy did not have what we could call a process of truth and reconciliation after the fall of the fascist dictatorship. While fascism and the founding of a new fascist party was deemed unconstitutional in the newly born republic, fascist groups continued to flourish engendering a number of attempted coup-d'etat aiming at re-establishing a fascist regime. They were also guilty of acts of terrorism including bombing and assassinations. As a consequence, terrorists groups of the extreme left emerged and became active in violent attacks that targeted people representing a political system that had been so tolerant toward fascists. They felt that the success of fascists groups was around the corner and that Italy was headed toward a totalitarian dictatorship. Through historical documentations, films, literature, and personal testimonies, we will explore thirty years of Italian history. Dist:LIT; WCult:W

Prerequisite: ITAL 10 or Permission of the Instructor. If you have taken Italian 9, speak with the instructor to see if this course is appropriate for you.

Italian 33.01: "Into and Beyond Dante's Inferno" at 12 (Callegari): The work of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) stages from beginning to end a struggle between personal desire, social obligation, and the conflicting cultures of Christian religion and the body politic. The unprecedented fusion Dante made of these elements in the Commedia [The Divine Comedy] has guaranteed his great poem a vast public, extending across world cultures and the seven centuries since it initially traveled among elite readers in north-central Italy in the early decades of the fourteenth century. This course will first examine the development of Dante's poetic voice in La vita nova [The New Life, ca. 1293-94] and then focus on its subsequent expansion into an all-encompassing vision of life and death in Inferno [Hell, ca. 1306-09], the first of the three canticles of the Commedia. Situating Dante in his own time and place will be essential to our analysis of his poetry, but attention to the multiple ways that Dante's work has been interpreted, translated, and appropriated in other periods, languages, and media will provide a critical framework for understanding its enduring appeal, why – in the words of Italo Calvino – it "has not finished saying what it has to say." Readings, lectures, discussion, and written work – to include a mid-term exam, two short essays, and a final digital project – will be in English. Students taking the course for major or minor credit will attend a weekly X-hour and write the two essays in Italian. Dist:LIT; WCult:W

Italian 01: Introductory Italian 1  (Andrea Zoller @10 and Giorgio Alberti @ 11) (2 sections): An introduction to Italian as a spoken and written language, with emphasis on practical conversation. The course includes regular practice in class and scheduled drill-sessions in understanding and using the spoken language. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements. 

Italian 02: Introductory Italian 2  (Matteo Gilebbi @10 and Andrea Zoller @ 11) (2 sections): Rapid review and continued study of the fundamentals of Italian, with intensive work in vocabulary building. The course will also include an introduction to the culture and civilization of Italy. Open to students by qualifying placement or to students who have passed ITAL 1. Never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements.

Italian 03: Introductory Italian 3 (Matteo Gilebbi @11):  This course is designed to reinforce and refine spoken and written language skills through a review of grammar, exposure to a broad spectrum of language ranging from colloquial to literary styles, and the use of samples of Italian language from multiple sources such as advertising, comics, television and literature. Frequent compositions, quizzes, plus linguistic and thematic analysis of texts. Open to students by qualifying placement or to students who have passed ITAL 2 or ARTH 12. 

Italian 11:  (Giorgio Alberti @12) 

This 1-credit course is designed for students with little or no knowledge of the Italian language, but who have a strong background in another Romance language (i.e. Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, and also Latin).  Italian 11 is an accelerated course that combines Italian 1 and 2 in one term offering an exciting and fast-paced atmosphere to learn Italian. The course will have a web-based component, which, through cultural, grammar and multimedia learning activities, will complement face-to-face work and prepare students for their in-class work. In this course, students will learn to talk about familiar events in the present and the past, as well as formulate plans for the future. Weekly cultural videos will situate in context the grammatical content of the course making it relevant and meaningful. Students will be actively engaged in a variety of creative written and oral activities that will help them develop their language skills. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to sign up for Italian 3 or apply for our Italian LSA in Rome. With the goal to facilitate the acquisition of the target language, this course will be conducted entirely in Italian.
 
Prerequisite: One year or equivalent of university level instruction in a Romance Language or Latin; or three high school years of instruction in a Romance Language or Latin; or native speaking proficiency in a Romance Language; or permission of instructor

ITAL 10.20: Before Facebook: Friendship in Italian Literature (Tania Convertini @10A)

What does it mean to be friends, and what is it that distinguishes this unique experience? How do people who are first distant from one another become close and connected? Italian novels, poems, short stories, fairy tales, screenplays, journalism and historical media will help us understand the voice of friendship as an essential human experience, a fundamental way of knowing the world.

Prerequisite: ITAL 8 or ITAL 9, or permission of the instructor.

FRIT 31. "How Languages are Learned" (Tania Convertini @ 2A) LRP Course 

Many approaches to language teaching and learning have been proposed and implemented over time. From learning grammar rules and lists of vocabulary to memorization and practice of correct sentences to natural communication, project work, communicative language teaching, and content-based learning, this course will introduce students to some of the language acquisition research that will help them understand how languages are learned. Taught in English. Dist: SOC; this is also an LRP course for the new language requirement.

Italian 34: A Feast of Words: Food, Culture & Literature in the Italian Renaissance (Danielle Callegari @ 11):

While the allure of Italian food might seem obvious to us, literary representations of food and food culture in fact contain profound messages about social values, contours of identity, and political agendas. Taking up iconic meals as depicted in Italian Renaissance literature, we will work to find a thread that connects them and leads us to see how food was developed as a kind of language in this period of cultural explosiveness, understanding how authors manipulated the universal appeal and wide familiarity of food to communicate with their audiences and comment on their society. We will use a variety of sources—audio, image, text—and tap into the greater resources of the Dartmouth environment—from Rauner and the Hood museum to local food producers and purveyors-to enhance of exploration of the relationship between food and literature in the Italian Renaissance. 

 

All required texts and further materials will be provided in digital format. For any questions regarding the course please contact Professor Danielle Callegari (danielle.callegari@dartmouth.edu).

LSA/LSA+ (Graziella Parati)

Our LSA and LSA+ programs in Rome. 

Italian 01: Introductory Italian I at 10 (Zoller): 1 section

Italian 02:  Introductory Italian II at 11 (Zoller): 1 section

Italian 03: Introductory Italian III at 11 and 12 (Alberti), @ 10 (Perego): (3 sections)

Italian 11: Intensive Italian at 10 (Gilebbi) 1 section

Italian 9:  Language Through Culture at 10 (Alberti)-NRO eligible

Italian 07.09: First Year Seminar: Italian Briefs: Storytelling and Crisis in Boccaccio's Decameron (Wyatt) at 3a

This course will entail a close, critically informed, reading of each of the ten tales that make up Day Two of Giovanni Boccaccio's mid-fourteenth-century Decameron. Each of these single stories will be considered within the wider frame of the collection's 100 stories, told over two weeks by a group of ten college-age narrators – seven women and three men – who flee the city of Florence to escape the epidemic that came to be known as the Black Plague. This devastating event that spread like wildfire throughout Eurasia between 1346 and 1353 will be understood as both the occasion that prompted Boccaccio's collection as well as its interpretive key. The Decameron creates a fictional world that posits a clear before and after, an in-between space of experimentation and risk-taking that reimagines the social, political, economic, and cultural codes of late medieval Italy. As a text that constantly probes its own architecture, thematics, and context, the Decameron serves as an especially fitting vehicle for a seminar focused on deepening the skills of analysis and writing.

Italian 27.03: Miracolo! Italy, 1958-63 at 12 (Canepa): 

The years of the economic "boom," or "miracle" following post-WW II reconstruction were, for Italy, a time of unprecedented economic growth and social transformations, of new hopes abut also new challenges. As Italy left behind its predominantly agrarian past and entered full force into the global industrial economy, Italians rapidly made themselves modern: investing in new status symbols and consumer goods in the form of cars, TVs, and refrigerators, listening to new music, cultivating new pastimes and lifestyles, and even making more babies. Yet with modernization came contradictions. Optimism for the future was accompanied by a loss of traditional points of reference and community; economic expansion, by a widening of the gap between Northern and Southern Italy; mass exodus from rural areas to cities, by the creation of the no-mans lands of the urban borgate or shantytowns; and the proliferation of goods, by the perils of unbridled consumerism and existential crisis.                                                                  

In this course we will explore how the developments and radical shifts of these years were investigated and represented in literature, film, and music, by a remarkable group of writers, film directors, and including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino, Natalia Ginzburg, Alberto Moravia, Anna Maria Ortese, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Federico Fellini, and others.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

Prerequisite: ITAL 10 or permission of the instructor.

NRO eligible

FRIT 37.04: European Fairy Tales at 10 (Canepa) 

The fairy tale is among the oldest and most enduring forms of narrative, a prototype of how we tell stories and of how we reflect on our human condition. Fairy tales are uniquely "in" and "out" of the world; their matter-of-fact mash-up of realistic and fantastic elements is an invitation to imagine dimensions different from the here-and-now. As such, they are a potent vehicle for the expression of cultural aspirations and anxieties as well as for the construction and subversion of ideologies and identities.  In this course we will study the evolution of the forms and contents of the rich European fairy-tale tradition, from the Renaissance to our times. Along the way we will also consider the role of "marvelous" genres such as the fairy tale in socialization and the expression of national identity; the relation between oral folk narratives and written literary tales; and the reworking of fairy-tale subjects and motifs in contemporary culture. We will adopt a variety of critical approaches to the fairy tale, as well as create tales of our own.

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 39.03

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

NRO eligible