Spring 2015

EXPANDED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Please click here to see the Spring Schedule as a PDF

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LOWER DIVISION COURSES 
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ITALIAN 003: Elementary Italian (5 units)

Course Description: Italian 003 is the third course of Elementary Italian.  Students in this course will continue learning the language in a setting that emphasizes communicative and interactive class activities, e.g., games and role-playing, while focusing also on form (grammar exercises).  The syllabus for Italian 003 comprises Chapters 11 to 16 of the textbook, and the related chapters in the Workbook/Lab Manual (which is available online). Students will review and practice moods and tenses of the verbs they studied in Italian 002. 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, and 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. Since the study of a foreign language is different from the study of other disciplines, daily class attendance is indispensable in this course. 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.

Prerequisite: Italian 002 or consent of instructor (jgrossi@ucdavis.edu, ccgomez@ucdavis.edu).

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

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

Textbook:

• Janice Aski, et al., Avanti [3rd Edition] Bundle (McGraw Hill, 2011)

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ITALIAN 009: Intermediate Italian (4 units)
Carmen Gomez

MWF 12:10-1:00P
141 Olson Hall
CRN 38612

Course Description: This is the third course of Intermediate Italian. The purpose of this course is to review and practice 1st and 2nd year language skills with a particular emphasis on reading comprehension skills.  Italian 009 prepares students for the more reading-intensive work of 3rd year Italian (upper-division language and literature courses), and encourages them to interact with the written text (short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, poems) in a communicative and task-oriented classroom, where language and culture are inseparable.  Students will continue to expand their vocabulary and language skills through a variety of class activities and homework assignments in line with the previous Italian intermediate classes (i.e., oral presentations, online lab and workbook, compositions, tutoring sessions, authentic visual materials and music).   Italian 009 covers chapters 9-12 of the textbook and the related chapters in the Workbook/Lab Manual. Grammar review covers chapters 1-8 of the textbook, while new language structures include: hypothetical clauses; passive voice; direct and indirect speech; and the indefinite moods (gerund, infinitive, participle).

Prerequisite: Italian 005 or consent of instructor (ccgomez@ucdavis.edu). Students who did not take Italian 005 at UC Davis are encouraged to take the Italian Placement Exam. 

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

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

Textbook:

• Elissa Tognozzi and Giuseppe Cavatorta, Ponti: Italiano Terzo Millennio Bundle (Cengage Learning, 2012)
   

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 UPPER DIVISION COURSES
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ITALIAN 115A: The Cinquecento (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

TR 10:30-11:50A
192 Young Hall
CRN 52648

Course Description: Analysis of key texts from the high moment of the Italian Renaissance. The political and aesthetic legacy of humanism will be foregrounded in relation to authors such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Torquato Tasso, Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco.

Prerequisite: ITA 009 or consent of instructor (jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu).

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Oral Literacy.

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

Textbooks:

• Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, edited by Franco Tomasi  (BUR, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2009)
• Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, translated and edited by Anthony M. Esolen  (John Hopkins University Press, 2000)
• Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe / The Prince [Italian / English Bilingual Text]  (JiaHu Books, 2013)
• Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola  (Aonia Edizioni / LuLu Books, 2013)
• Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans, translated by Mary Prentice Lillie and edited by Laura Anna Stortoni  (Italica Press, 2008)
   

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ITALIAN 120A: The Italian Novel of the Twentieth Century in Literature and Film (4 units)
Margherita Heyer-Caput

TR 12:10-1:30P
167 Olson Hall
CRN 52728

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: ITA 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:

• Italo Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno  (Mondadori, 1993)
• Luigi Pirandello, Il fu Mattia Pascal  (Garzanti Libri, 1993)
• Dacia Maraini, La lunga vita di Marianna Ucria  (Rizzoli, 2012)

[Recommended]

• Italo Calvino, The Path to the Spiders' Nests [Revised Edition], translated by Archibald Colquhoun and revised by Martin McLaughlin  (Harper Perennial, 2000)
• Luigi Pirandello, The Late Mattia Pascal, translated by William Weaver  (Marsilio Publishers, 1995)
• Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess, translated by Dick Kitto and Elspeth Spottiswood  (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2000)
   

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 FILM STUDIES
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FILM STUDIES 120: Italian-American Cinema (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

CRN 34768

Course Description:  Explorations of representations of Italian-American identity in American cinema. Analysis of both Hollywood and independently produced films, especially as they represent ethnicity, gender, and social class of Italian-Americans. (Not open for credit to students who have completed the course Humanities 120)

Prerequisite: Film Studies 001.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): American Cultures, Arts & Humanities, Domestic Diversity, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

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

Textbooks:

• TBA