Fall 2016

EXPANDED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Please click here to see the Fall Schedule as a PDF
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LOWER DIVISION COURSES 
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Italian 001. Elementary Italian (5 units)

Section Instructor Days/Times Location CRN
001 Jay Grossi MTWRF 9:00-9:50A 261 Olson Hall 38553
002 Jay Grossi MTWRF 10:00-10:50A 53A Olson Hall 38554
003 Jay Grossi MTWRF 11:00-11:50A 261 Olson Hall 38555
004 Carmen Gomez MTWRF 12:10-1:00P 261 Olson Hall 38556
005 Leonardo Giorgetti MTWRF 1:10-2:00P 261 Olson Hall 38557

Course Description: This course is an introduction to Italian language. Students attending Italian 001 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 exercises, but also via games, role-playing, and active class participation. The overall goal of this course is to provide the students with "survival" skills in the target language and, at the same time, acquaint them with Italy and its culture. This course emphasizes listening and speaking skills, and the students' oral proficiency level is regularly assessed during the course.  In this course students will learn pronunciation, and formal and familiar use of the language. They will also learn how to ask and answer questions about simple topics (e.g., daily routines at home and at school, likes and dislikes) 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 time, weather-related expression, use of the prepositions, and many idiomatic expressions will give students the ability to communicate at the basic level. Short dialogues, daily practice, conversation and use of videos make class attendance indispensable.  Unjustified absences will cause a student’s participation grade to drop, and his/her overall grade will suffer accordingly.  Just as important as daily class participation are homework assignments.  Laboratory is required, and instructors will collect and grade the lab work 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 002 or 003 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 directly contact instructors Jay Grossi (jgrossi@ucdavis.edu) or Carmen Gomez (ccgomez@ucdavis.edu), or the Italian staff adviser, Amy Lowrey (allowrey@ucdavis.edu).

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

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

Textbook:

  • Donatella Melucci and Elissa Tognozzi, Piazza (with iLrn Access)  (Cengage Learning, 2015)


Italian 004. Intermediate Italian (5 units)
Carmen Gomez

MWF 11:00-11:50A
1116 Hart Hall
CRN 38561

Course Description: This is the first course of Intermediate Italian. The emphasis of this course is on reviewing and practicing 1st year skills in a communicative and task-oriented classroom, where language and culture are inseparable.  Students will expand their vocabulary and language skills through a variety of class activities (oral presentations, collaborative exercises to critically understand written and spoken Italian) and homework assignments (online lab and workbook).  Students will also strengthen their writing skills though writing activities (compositions) and regular use of tutoring sessions.  Movie clips, videos and music are fundamental learning tools in this course.  Italian 004 covers chapters 1-4 of the textbook, and the related chapters in the Workbook/Lab Manual.  First-year grammar review includes: articles; gender and number of nouns; indicative and imperative moods; descriptive adjectives; personal pronouns (subject and direct object).

Prerequisite: Italian 003.

GE credit (Old): None.
GE credit (New): World Cultures.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Laboratory - 3 hours.

Textbook:

  • TBA
     

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 UPPER DIVISION COURSES
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Italian 120A. The Italian Novel of the 20th Century in Literature and Cinema (4 units)
Margherita Heyer-Caput

TR 3:10-4:30P
1120 Hart Hall
CRN 54174

Course Description: This course is conducted in Italian and focuses on the development of the twentieth century Italian novel with particular attention to its philosophical and historical context.  We will devote in-depth readings and discussions to seminal works of Italian modernity.  In particular, we will analyze Luigi Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904, The Late Mattia Pascal) – to explore the crisis of subjectivity at the center of modernism; Italo Calvino's Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1947, The Path to the Spiders' Nests) – to highlight issues of political engagement and ethical accountability at the core of neorealism; and Dacia Maraini’s La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (1990, The Silent Duchess) – to underscore the role of women’s agency and the theoretical developments of Italian feminism in modern Italy.

Throughout the course we will enhance the interplay between literature and film, which has characterized Italian culture since the silent cinema era, and discuss issues of filmic adaptation and intersemiotic translation.

This course fulfills the literary period requirement (Modern Italian) for the Italian Major/Minor and will be conducted in Italian.  The format combines lectures and group discussions, and includes the mandatory screenings of three significant films inspired by the novels mentioned above. Students will contribute to class activities with oral presentations on a specific text, theme, or aspect of Italian cultural history.

Prerequisite: Italian 009 or consent of instructor (mheyercaput@ucdavis.edu).

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

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

Textbooks:

  • TBA
     

Italian 128. Food and Culture in Italy (4 units)
Carmen Gomez

TR 1:40-3:00P
107 Wellman Hall
CRN 53275

Course Description:
 "Food and Culture in Italy," presents an interdisciplinary exploration of one of the hallmarks of Italian history and culture. In this course students will take a cultural and critical approach to investigate the roles food and cuisine play in shaping Italian cultural and national identities. We will examine the historical evolution of food and cuisine in Italy from within the larger geographical and cultural context of the Mediterranean, the ways in which cuisine was used to shape a cohesive national identity or "Italianness" and how contrasting regional culinary traditions continue to contradict this idea, and explore food as representation and in representation through literature and film.

Prerequisite: Italian 009 or consent of instructor (ccgomez@ucdavis.edu).

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Oral Skills, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Writing.

Textbooks:

  • TBA