Fall 2009

Fall 2009 COURSES

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LOWER DIVISION COURSES
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ITALIAN 1: Elementary Italian (5 Units)

Gustavo Foscarini, Lecturer
(sec. 1, M-F 9:00-9:50, 103 Wellman) CRN 28705

Gustavo Foscarini, Lecturer
(sec. 2, M-F 10:00-10:50, 103 Wellman) CRN 28706

Gustavo Foscarini, Lecturer
(sec. 3, M-F 11:00-11:50, 1342 Storer) CRN 28707

Jay Grossi, Lecturer
(sec. 4, M-F 12:10-1:00, 105 Olson) CRN 28708

Jay Grossi, Lecturer
(sec. 5, M-F 1:10-2:00, 227 Olson) CRN 28709

Jay Grossi, Lecturer
(sec. 6, M-F 9:00-9:50, 115 Veihmeyer) CRN 28710
 

Course Description: This course is an introduction to Italian language. Students attending these courses will learn the language with an emphasis on communicative, interactive classroom activities. Students will come into contact with the language not only through drills and exercise, but also via games, role-playing, and active class participation. The overall goal of these courses is to provide the students with "survival" skills in the target language and, at the same time, acquaint them with Italy and its culture. Also, these courses emphasize listing and speaking, and employ specific proficiency guidelines in determining the students' oral level during their coursework and at the end of the courses.

The syllabus for Italian 1 comprises the Preliminary Chapter and Chapters 1 through 6 of the textbook, and the related chapters in the Workbook/Lab Manual. In this course you will learn pronunciation, and formal and familiar use of the language in introduction. You will also learn how to ask and answer questions and ask for simple directions. Definite and indefinite articles, nouns and adjectives, plural formation, indicative present of the verbs, numbers, days of the week, months, seasons, how to tell times, weather-related expression, use of the prepositions, and many idiomatic expressions will give you the ability to communicate at the basic level. Short dialogues, daily practice, conversation and use of videos make class attendance indispensable.

Attendance and participation: The study of a foreign language is different from the study of other disciplines and is based on some specific requirements of which the most important is students’ involvement. Students enrolled in Italian 1 need to come to class on a daily basis in order to benefit from the exposure to the language. They also need to come to class prepared, i.e., having done the assigned homework, but especially ready to participate in the daily activities, be they games, role-playing, conversation, drills, etc. For this reason, after three unjustified absences, any further unjustified absence will cause a student’s participation grade to drop, and his/her overall grade will suffer accordingly (see below for grading system and grading scale). Laboratory is required. Instructors will collect the lab work (i.e., Esercizi Orali) as scheduled in the Syllabus. Failure to comply with the lab requirements will result in a failing lab grade.

Course Placement: Students who have successfully completed, with a C- or better, Italian 2 or 3 in the 10th or higher grade in high school may receive unit credit for this course on a P/NP grading basis only. Although a passing grade will be charged to the student's P/NP option, no petition is required. All other students will receive a letter grade unless a P/NP petition is filed. For more information, please contact the instructor or the Italian staff adviser directly.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 5 hours; Laboratory - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • Janice Aski & Diane Musumeci, Avanti: Beginning Italian - 2nd Edition (Textbook)
  • Janice Aski, Diane Musumeci, & Carla Wysokinski, Avanti: Beginning Italian - 2nd Edition(Workbook/Laboratory Manual)

 

 

ITALIAN 3: Elementary Italian (5 Units)

Antonella Bassi, Lecturer
(M-F 1:10-2:00, 125 Olson) CRN 28711

Course Description: The syllabus for Italian 3 comprises Chapters 11 to 16. More emphasis on moods and tenses of the verb will increase the students' linguistic awareness with contrastive study of past perfect and present perfect, future perfect, and "simple" future. The conditional (present and perfect), the present of the subjunctive, the passive form and the impersonal constructions of the verb, superlative and comparative structures, suffixes in nouns and adjectives, more uses of prepositions with nouns and verbs will complete the basic knowledge of Italian and increase the students' ability in reading, understanding, speaking and writing, short compositions. Daily class attendance is indispensable in this course.

Attendance and participation: The study of a foreign language is different from the study of other disciplines and is based on some specific requirements of which the most important is students’ involvement. Students enrolled in Italian 3 need to come to class on a daily basis in order to benefit from the exposure to the language. They also need to come to class prepared, i.e., having done the assigned homework, but especially ready to participate in the daily activities, be they games, role-playing, conversation, drills, etc. For this reason, after three unjustified absences, any further unjustified absence will cause a student’s participation grade to drop, and his/her overall grade will suffer accordingly (see below for grading system and grading scale). Laboratory is required. Instructors will collect the lab work (i.e., Esercizi Orali) as scheduled in the Syllabus. Failure to comply with the lab requirements will result in a failing lab grade.

Prerequisite: course 2 or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 5 hours; Laboratory - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • Janice Aski & Diane Musumeci, Avanti: Beginning Italian (Textbook)
  • Janice Aski, Diane Musumeci, & Carla Wysokinski, Avanti: Beginning Italian (Workbook/Laboratory Manual)

 

ITALIAN 4: Intermediate Italian (3 Units)

Antonella Bassi, Lecturer
(sec. 1, MWF 10:00-10:50, 251 Olson) CRN 28712
(sec. 2, MWF 11:00-11:50 251 Olson) CRN 28713

Course Description: This is the first course of 2nd year Italian. Student will review grammar and syntax through written exercises and short prose works. This course is intended to develop the linguistic foundations of students who have completed the first-year language classes.

Prerequisite: course 3 or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Francesca Italiano and Irene Marchegiani, Crescendo! (Textbook)
  • Francesca Italiano and Irene Marchegiani, Crescendo! (Workbook, Lab Manual)

 

 

 

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UPPER DIVISION COURSES
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ITALIAN 101: Advanced Conversation, Composition, and Grammar (4 Units)

Margherita Heyer-Caput, Professor
(TR 12:10-1:30, 101 Olson) CRN 28719

Course Description: This course is aimed at improving oral and written proficiency through group discussions in class and weekly compositions with grammar review exercises at home. Each week of the course will be devoted to a thematic unit on modern and contemporary Italian culture and society such as immigration, family, feminism, education, etc. In addition to short literary texts of prose, poetry, and drama, we will make extensive use of Italian magazines and newspapers. Audiovisual materials (songs, film-clips, etc.) will be included. Grammar and syntax review will be functional to the development of conversational and argumentative skills.

Grading: Each student will be required to give an oral presentation on a subject related to the topics discussed during the course. Students will write four short essays (first and second draft). A mid-term and a final examination will be based on the cultural topics and linguistic structures covered in class. All oral and written work will be completed in Italian.

Prerequisite: course 9 or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Short Papers.

Textbooks:

  • Daniela Gobetti, Better Reading Italian
  • F. Italiano and I. Marchegiani, Cresendo! (2nd edition)

 

 

ITALIAN 120B: Italian Literature of 20th Century - Poetry & Prose (4 Units)

Joann Cannon, Professor
(TR 3:10-4:30, 211 Wellman) CRN 43543

Course Description: Italian poetry of the twentieth century, with emphasis on D'Annunzio, Gozzano and Crepuscolarismo, Marinetti and Futurism, Ungaretti, Montale, Hermeticism; the theater of Luigi Pirandello and its role in the development of contemporary Italian drama. GE credit: ArtHum

Prerequisite: course 9 or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours.

Textbooks:

  • Pirandello, Sei Personaggi in Cerca D'Autore: Enrico IV
  • John Picchione and Lawrence R. Smith, Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry: An Anthology

 

ITALIAN 121: Contemporary Italian Cinema (4 Units)
(Cross-listed with Film Studies 121)

Margherita Heyer-Caput, Professor (CRN 43543)

Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00, 1204 Haring
Film Viewing: W 6:00-9:00, 6 Wellman (evening)

Course Description: This course will explore the thriving Italian cinema of the twenty-first century in relationship with the deep cultural and social changes that Italy has experienced in the last two decades. We will witness how a young generation of Italian filmmakers, from Marco Tullio Giordana to Gabriele Muccino, has overcome a paralyzing sense of “afterness” and infused Italian cinema with a new vitality. These directors-writers-producers-lead actors have successfully coped with the inspiring but also challenging legacy of the great auteurs of Italian Neorealism of the ‘40s and ‘50s (Rossellini, De Sica, etc.) and of the art cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s (Antonioni, Fellini, etc.), and with the disillusions suffered by the political cinema of the ‘80s and ‘90s (Rosi, Petri, the Tavianis, etc.). The movies analyzed revisit classic genres of Italian cinema, from the commedia all’italiana to historical productions, and reinvent film as a powerful art form with a social reference and a moral accountability. GE credit: ArtHum, Wrt, Div

Note:

  • This course is NOT OPEN to those students who took Film Studies 189 in Spring 2008 or Fall 2008.
  • Knowledge of Italian is NOT required.
  • This course counts toward the Film Studies major/minor.
  • This course counts toward the Italian major/minor as an elective course.
  • This course counts toward the International Relations major, under the Area Studies Requirement (Western Europe).

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hour; Film Viewing - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • A Course Reader
  • Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film
  • Recommended: Carlo Celli, A New Guide to Italian Cinema

 

ITALIAN 141: Culture, Gender and Italian Renaissance (4 Units)
(Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 138)

Juliana Schiesari, Professor
(TR 4:40-6:00, 131 Hoagland) CRN 44133

Course Description: This course examines the representation of gender roles and gender hierarchy in early modern texts from various periods, societies, and cultures in light of research and theory on gender, with attention to gender as a topic for literary interpretation. This class is cross-listed with Comparative Literature 138GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.

Prerequisite: Any course from the General Education literature preparation list or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours.

Textbooks:

  • TBA