Spring 2016

EXPANDED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Please click here to see the 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:

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

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Italian 008B. Italian Conversation (4 units)
Jay Grossi

TR 12:10-1:30P
205 Wellman Hall
CRN 62929

Course Description: The Italian 8B Conversational Italian course, a continuation of Italian 8A, aims to continue to develop students' speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in the Italian language through a communicative, collaborative, and cultural approach.  Instructional content will focus on themes dealing with the historical evolution of Italian society with a special emphasis on the changes taking place in present-day Italy for young Italians in an ever-expanding world of multiculturalism.   Primary themes will be the effects of a global economy on the Italian work place, the changing eating habits and foods of Italians, and how these effects have influenced Italian emigration and immigration, and finally the ways in which Italian identity is being transformed, especially for young adults.  The aforementioned topics will be explored through the discussion of contemporary films and film clips, articles found both in the textbook Mosaici and on-line, and other cultural realia that exemplify contemporary life in Italy. Group projects, class discussions, and oral presentations will be an integral part of this course.

Prerequisite: Italian 008A.

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

Format: Discussion - 3 hours.

Textbook:

• Anna Clara Ionta and Anna Taraboletti Segre, Mosaici: Snapshots of Contemporary Italian Life  (Edizioni Farinelli, 2014)
   

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Italian 009. Intermediate Italian (5 units)
Carmen Gomez

MWF 12:10-1:00P
101 Wellman Hall
CRN 48765

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 005/005S 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): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and 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 115D. Early Modern Italian Lyric (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

TR 10:30-11:50A
209 Wellman Hall
CRN 62930

Course Description:  Examination of the poetic tradition influenced by Petrarch. Consideration of the relation between gender and genre in such poets as Petrarch, Bembo, della Casa, Tasso, Marino, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco, Isabella di Morra.

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

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

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

Textbooks:

• Veronica Franco, Poems and Selected Letters, translated and edited by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal  (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
• Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies & Courtesans, edited by Laura Anna Stortoni, translated by Laura Anna Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie  (Italica Press, 2008)
• Francesco Petrarch, Petrarch's Lyric Poems: The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics, translated by Robert M. Durling  (Harvard University Press, 1979)
  

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Film Studies 120. Italian-American Cinema (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00P
Film Viewing: R 5:10-8:00P
119 Wellman Hall
CRN 63609

Course Description: Film Studies 120 is a course on Italian-American directors who work on the gangster genre. This course will explore representations of Italian-American identity in American cinema and focus on auteur-based films, such as Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino, Tucci, among others.  (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, Governance & History, Arts & Humanities, Domestic Diversity, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

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

Textbook:

• George S. Larke-Walsh, Screening the Mafia: Masculinity, Ethnicity and Mobsters from The Godfather to The Sopranos  (McFarland Books, 2010)