Winter 2011

WINTER 2011 COURSES

 

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

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.

Texts:

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

 

 

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ITALIAN 2: Elementary Italian (5 Units)

Course Description: The syllabus for Italian 2 comprises Chapters 7 to 10. 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 2 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: Italian 1 or Consent of Instructor.

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

Texts:

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

 

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ITALIAN 5: Intermediate Italian (3 Units)

Course Description: This is the second course in the Intermediate Italian series. Student will continue to 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: Italian 4 or Consent of Instructor.

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

Texts:

• 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)

JoAnn Cannon, Professor 
(TR 9:00-10:20, 229 Wellman) CRN 43659

Course Description: The goal of Italian 101 is to introduce students to Italian literature, while developing reading and comprehension skills. The textbook is a literary reader of contemporary Italian authors designed for intermediate and advanced courses in Italian. These authentic texts are an invaluable source of linguistic and cultural information.

Grammar and syntax review will be functional to the development of conversational and reading skills.

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 compositions (3 pages, type-written, double-spaced). There will be a mid-term and a final examination based on the cultural and grammatical topics covered in class. All oral and written work will be completed in Italian.

Prerequisite: Italian 9 or Consent of Instructor.

Texts:

• Francesca Italiano, Incontri attuali (2007)
• A Course Reader

 

 

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ITALIAN 115A: Studies in the Cinquecento (4 Units)

Juliana Schiesari, Professor
(TR 12:10-1:30, 151 Olson) CRN 43660

Course Description: This course focuses on 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 Ficino, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Aretino, Castiglione, and Tasso.

GE Credit: ArtHum.

Prerequisite: Italian 9 or Consent of Instructor.

Texts:

• Niccolo Machiavelli, Il Principe (Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1991)
• OPTIONAL: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (Random House, 1966)
• Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1991)
• OPTIONAL: Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Oxford, 2008)
• Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata ed Caretti
• Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata), trans. Anthony Esolen (John Hopkins Press, 2000)

 

 

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ITALIAN 141: Gender and Interpretation in the Renaissance (4 Units)
Juliana Schiesari, Professor

(TR 3:10-4:30, 233 Wellman) CRN 43661

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.

This course is cross-listed with Comparative Literature 138. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, Wrt.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) and at least one course in literature, orConsent of Instructor.

Texts:

• Laura Anna Stortoni (ed.) and Mary Prentice Lillie (trans.), Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies & Courtesans (Italica Press, 2007)
• Danielle Clarke (ed.), Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Amelia Lanyer: Renaissance Women Poets(Penguin, 2001)
• Louise Labe, Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe)(Univ. of Chicago, 2006)
• Leon Battista Alberti and Renee Neu Watkins (transl.), The Family in Renaissance Florence: Book Three (I Libri Della Famiglia) (Waveland, 1994)