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ITALIAN 103: Future Text: AI and Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL 103)

How do AI language models work and what is their impact on education? In this course we will: Experiment with translation; Experiment with textual analysis of specific texts from different contexts and historical periods and cultures; Experiment with large data questions that are very hard to do by a single person; Experiment with ways to fact-check an AI generated work: we know AI creates false assertions, and backs them up with false references; Experiment with collaborating with AI to write a final paper, a blog, a newspaper article, etc.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

ITALIAN 127: Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca

Why have the Italian poets Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francis Petrarch (1304-1374), and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) been conventionally considered the three foundational authorities of the Italian literary tradition? What was their role in the formation of the Italian vernacular language, which is at the core of Italy's linguistic identity? What is the ideological significance of the grouping of these Three Crowns (tre corone), and how does it impact our critical understanding of the origins of Italian literature, as well as of the process of constructing Italy's cultural identity? To what extent has the intellectual legacy of the Three Italian Crowns contributed to shaping the formation of the literary canons of the main European nations? In order to address these and other questions, this course will explore the major works of these three authors within the context of medieval Italian literature and culture by focusing on the stylistic and critical analyses of specific genres: lyric poetry (the Sicilian school, the Dolce Stil Novo, Dante's early poetry, Petrarch's Canzoniere), long narrative poetry (Dante's Commedia), and short story or novella (Boccaccio's Decameron, its antecedent, Il Novellino, and some of its late medieval epigoni). As a continuation of the study of the Italian language, this course will also aim at improving the students' level of reading, writing, and speaking through the discussion of complex theoretical topics, as well as through the formulation and defense of critical arguments at an advanced linguistic level. For this reason, the course is taught in Italian and all class discussion, reading, and writing will be in Italian; the selected primary texts in medieval vernacular will be accompanied by paraphrases in modern Italian and by an exhaustive apparatus of critical and explanatory notes.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Giorgetti, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 140: Great Minds of the Italian Renaissance and their World (ARTHIST 210, HISTORY 240C, ITALIAN 240)

What enabled Leonardo da Vinci to excel in over a dozen fields from painting to engineering and to anticipate flight four hundred years before the first aircraft took off? How did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling? What forces and insights led Machiavelli to write "The Prince"? An historical moment and a cultural era, the Italian Renaissance famously saw monumental achievements in literature, art, and architecture, influential developments in science and technology, and the flourishing of multi-talented individuals who contributed profoundly, expertly, and simultaneously to very different fields. In this course on the great thinkers, writers, and achievers of the Italian Renaissance, we will study these "universal geniuses" and their world. Investigating the writings, thought, and lives of such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccol¿ Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei, we will interrogate historical and contemporary ideas concerning genius, creativity, and the phenomenon of "Renaissance man" known as polymathy. Taught in English. In 2023-24, this course is part of the Humanities Core, a collaborative set of global humanities seminars that brings all of its students and faculty into conversation. On Tuesdays you meet in your own course, and on Thursday all the HumCore seminars in session that quarter meet together: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 181: Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ILAC 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)

Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel Cusk, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Beckett, plus thinkers like Nehamas, Nietzsche, Nussbaum, Plato, and Sartre. We'll also ask whether a disenchanted world can be re-enchanted; when, if ever, the truth stops being the most important thing; why we sometimes choose to read sad stories; whether we ever love someone for who they are; who could possibly want to live their same life over and over again; what it takes to make ourselves fully moral; whether it's ever good to be conflicted; how we can pull ourselves together; and how we can take ourselves apart. (This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.)
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 199: Individual Work

Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1-12 | Repeatable for credit

ITALIAN 200: Italian Lecture Series and Course (ITALIAN 300)

Lecture series and seminar on Italian literature, cinema, and culture. We invite 3-6 speakers per year to address us about their recent work or work in progress, so as to get a better knowledge of very recent trends in the field of Italian studies, both in the US and abroad. Seminar meetings, when speakers are not invited, are for the following: (a) preparation and follow-up discussion of speakers' work; (b) presentation of students' current research; or (c) presentation of recent work in the field. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 15 times (up to 30 units total)
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 217: Love, Death and the Afterlife in the Medieval West (FRENCH 217, FRENCH 317, HISTORY 217D, HISTORY 317D, ITALIAN 317)

Romantic love, it is often claimed, is an invention of the High Middle Ages. The vocabulary of sexual desire that is still current in the twenty-first century was authored in the twelfth and thirteenth, by troubadours, court poets, writers like Dante; even by crusaders returning from the eastern Mediterranean. How did this devout society come to elevate the experience of sensual love? This course draws on primary sources such as medieval songs, folktales, the "epic rap battles" of the thirteenth century, along with the writings of Boccaccio, Saint Augustine and others, to understand the unexpected connections between love, death, and the afterlife from late antiquity to the fourteenth century. Each week, we will use a literary or artistic work as an interpretive window into cultural attitudes towards love, death or the afterlife. These readings are analyzed in tandem with major historical developments, including the rise of Christianity, the emergence of feudal society and chivalric culture, the crusading movement, and the social breakdown of the fourteenth century.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Phillips, J. (PI)

ITALIAN 238A: Dante's "Inferno" (COMPLIT 238A, ITALIAN 338A)

Intensive reading of Dante's "Inferno" (the first canticle of his three canticle poem The Divine Comedy). Main objective: to learn how to read the Inferno in detail and in depth, which entails both close textual analysis as well as a systematic reconstruction of the Christian doctrines that subtend the poem. The other main objective is to understand how Dante's civic and political identity as a Florentine, and especially his exile from Florence, determined his literary career and turned him into the author of the poem. Special emphasis on Dante's moral world view and his representation of character. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 240: Great Minds of the Italian Renaissance and their World (ARTHIST 210, HISTORY 240C, ITALIAN 140)

What enabled Leonardo da Vinci to excel in over a dozen fields from painting to engineering and to anticipate flight four hundred years before the first aircraft took off? How did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling? What forces and insights led Machiavelli to write "The Prince"? An historical moment and a cultural era, the Italian Renaissance famously saw monumental achievements in literature, art, and architecture, influential developments in science and technology, and the flourishing of multi-talented individuals who contributed profoundly, expertly, and simultaneously to very different fields. In this course on the great thinkers, writers, and achievers of the Italian Renaissance, we will study these "universal geniuses" and their world. Investigating the writings, thought, and lives of such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccol¿ Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei, we will interrogate historical and contemporary ideas concerning genius, creativity, and the phenomenon of "Renaissance man" known as polymathy. Taught in English. In 2023-24, this course is part of the Humanities Core, a collaborative set of global humanities seminars that brings all of its students and faculty into conversation. On Tuesdays you meet in your own course, and on Thursday all the HumCore seminars in session that quarter meet together: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 300: Italian Lecture Series and Course (ITALIAN 200)

Lecture series and seminar on Italian literature, cinema, and culture. We invite 3-6 speakers per year to address us about their recent work or work in progress, so as to get a better knowledge of very recent trends in the field of Italian studies, both in the US and abroad. Seminar meetings, when speakers are not invited, are for the following: (a) preparation and follow-up discussion of speakers' work; (b) presentation of students' current research; or (c) presentation of recent work in the field. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 15 times (up to 30 units total)
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 317: Love, Death and the Afterlife in the Medieval West (FRENCH 217, FRENCH 317, HISTORY 217D, HISTORY 317D, ITALIAN 217)

Romantic love, it is often claimed, is an invention of the High Middle Ages. The vocabulary of sexual desire that is still current in the twenty-first century was authored in the twelfth and thirteenth, by troubadours, court poets, writers like Dante; even by crusaders returning from the eastern Mediterranean. How did this devout society come to elevate the experience of sensual love? This course draws on primary sources such as medieval songs, folktales, the "epic rap battles" of the thirteenth century, along with the writings of Boccaccio, Saint Augustine and others, to understand the unexpected connections between love, death, and the afterlife from late antiquity to the fourteenth century. Each week, we will use a literary or artistic work as an interpretive window into cultural attitudes towards love, death or the afterlife. These readings are analyzed in tandem with major historical developments, including the rise of Christianity, the emergence of feudal society and chivalric culture, the crusading movement, and the social breakdown of the fourteenth century.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5
Instructors: ; Phillips, J. (PI)

ITALIAN 328: Literature, Narrative, and the Self (COMPLIT 328, FRENCH 328)

It is often said that "life is a narrative," or that "we live our lives in stories." But is this true? Do we always live our lives as narratives? Could we fail to live our lives as narratives? Could we choose not to live our lives as narratives? Even for those who do see their life as a story, will any old narrative do, or is there something special about the examples provided by the literary tradition? How does literary genre factor in? What is closure? And why are middles what they are? Readings from Appiah, Aristotle, Camus, Hume, Nietzsche, Simmel, G. Strawson, Velleman; Brooks, Woloch; Kahneman, Sacks; Shakespeare, Balzac, Sartre, Beckett, Calvino, Levi, Morrison. Films by Ephron, Kaufman, Polley. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Landy, J. (PI)

ITALIAN 338A: Dante's "Inferno" (COMPLIT 238A, ITALIAN 238A)

Intensive reading of Dante's "Inferno" (the first canticle of his three canticle poem The Divine Comedy). Main objective: to learn how to read the Inferno in detail and in depth, which entails both close textual analysis as well as a systematic reconstruction of the Christian doctrines that subtend the poem. The other main objective is to understand how Dante's civic and political identity as a Florentine, and especially his exile from Florence, determined his literary career and turned him into the author of the poem. Special emphasis on Dante's moral world view and his representation of character. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 369: Introduction to the Profession of Literary Studies (COMPLIT 369, DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, GERMAN 369)

A survey of how literary theory and other methods have been made institutional since the nineteenth century. The readings and conversation are designed for entering Ph.D. students in the national literature departments and comparative literature.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1-2
Instructors: ; Lawton, D. (PI)

ITALIAN 399: Individual Work

Repeatable for Credit
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1-12 | Repeatable for credit

ITALIAN 680: Curricular Practical Training

CPT course required for international students completing degree. Prerequisite: Italian Ph.D. candidate.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1-3 | Repeatable for credit

ITALIAN 802: TGR Dissertation

Doctoral students who have been admitted to candidacy, completed all required courses and degree requirements other than the University oral exam and dissertation, completed 135 units or 10.5 quarters of residency (if under the old residency policy), and submitted a Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee form, may request Terminal Graduate Registration status to complete their dissertations.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 0 | Repeatable for credit
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