Spring Quarter 2014 Courses

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 3: Elementary Italian (5 Units)

Course Description: Italian 3 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 3 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 2. 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 2.

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

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

Textbook:

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

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ITALIAN 9: Reading Italian (4 Units)

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 9 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 9 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 5 or consent of instructor. (Students who did not take Italian 5 at UC Davis are encouraged to take the Italian Placement Exam)

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

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

Textbook:

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

    Δ Components of bundle also available separately
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 UPPER DIVISION COURSES
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ITALIAN 114: Boccaccio, Decameron, and the Renaissance Novella (4 Units)
Margherita Heyer-Caput

Course Description: Through close readings of representative novellas, this course explores the universal themes of fate, love and, most importantly, ingegno (intellect, talent, wit) as they are interwoven in the perfect narratological architecture of Boccaccio’s Decameron (1349-50).  By means of textual analysis, we will enjoy Boccaccio’s unsurpassed art of storytelling in the historical context of the rising bourgeoisie of early modern Italy, the development of humanism, and the disastrous plague of 1348.

This course fulfills the literary period requirement (Early Italian) for the Italian Major/Minor and will be conducted in Italian.  The format combines lectures and group discussions, and includes the screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s controversial film, Decameron (1971). Students will contribute to class activities with oral presentations on a specific text, theme, or aspect of Italian cultural history.

Prerequisite: Italian 9 or consent of instructor.

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

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

Textbooks:

• Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, ed. A. Quondam et al.  (Rizzoli B.U.R., 2013)

[RECOMMENDED]

• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron [2nd Edition], translated by G.H. McWilliam  (Penguin Classics, 2003)
   

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ITALIAN 141: Gender Interpretation in the Renaissance (4 Units)  [Cross-Listed with COM 138]   IN ENGLISH
Juliana Schiesari

Course Description:This course touches on critical analysis of Renaissance texts with primary focus on issues such as human dignity, education, and gender politics; "high" and "low" culture and its relation to literary practices. It focuses on the culture of the Renaissance and the question of what it means to be human. Considering the importance of the human being as a focus of Renaissance thought, we will study both theoretical and literary texts that deal specifically with education of boys and girls, the "Querelle des femmes" (A question of women), thus gender and its reception and interpretation. We will also draw upon literary texts that actively engage in the question of male and female sexuality.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement, at least one course in literature, or consent of instructor.

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

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

Textbooks:

• Gaspara Stampa, Gaspara Stampa: Selected Poems, translated by Marie Prentice Lillie  (Italica Press, 2008)
• Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, translated by Guido Waldman  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
• Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, translated by Charles S. Singleton  (W.W. Norton & Company, 2002)
   

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FILM STUDIES 120: Italian-American Cinema (4 Units)   IN ENGLISH
Juliana Schiesari

Course Description: The main focus of this course will be the cinema of Martin Scorsese. We will study his "gangster" films not only in the context of his Italian-American experience in New York but also through the lens of marginalized ethnicities ( Irish and Italian). We will also analyze his other films which depict the struggles of isolated individuals whose only answer to life's events seems to be violence and brutality (Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) and, yet, seem to find redemption in the most contorted of situations. We will also consider how gender is constructed and manipulated in a world of hyper-masculinity. And while the main focus will be the cinema of Scorsese, we may also consider other films by Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, and others.

Prerequisite: Italian 1 and upper division standing, or consent of instructor.

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

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

Textbook:

• A Course Reader