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ITALIAN 41N: Imagining Italy

No city in Italy has inspired the imagination of writers, artists, and filmmakers more than Venice, with its golden dance of water and stone, its carnival masks, and its melancholic intimations of mortality. This course will be devoted to the city¿s imaginary life in literature and film. Readings include Marco Polo, Henry James¿s The Aspern Papers, Italo Calvino¿s Invisible Cities, John Ruskin¿s The Stones of Venice, and Joseph Brodsky¿s Watermarks. Films include ¿Dangerous Beauty,¿ ¿Casanova,¿ ¿Don¿t Look Now,¿ ¿Death in Venice,¿ and ¿The Comfort of Strangers.¿
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Harrison, R. (PI)

ITALIAN 52N: Life is a Play: Identity, Persona, and Improvisation in Luigi Pirandello

Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. For Pirandello (1867-1936; Nobel Prize, 1934), to suddenly realize your entire life has been a performance is a moment of utmost horror, comedy, and opportunity for self-awareness. In a quintessentially modern fashion, he claims that the performance cannot be stopped, that authenticity is a mirage, and that learning to laugh at oneself is the only liberation. Materials include Pirandello's existential "theater within the theater," his novels, and their film adaptations, which we will study in their cultural context.
| Units: 3

ITALIAN 75N: Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences (FRENCH 75N)

Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 100: Masterpieces: Dante

An exploration of Dante's "Inferno" (the first of the three canticles of The Divine Comedy). The aim is to learn how to read the poem in detail and in depth, through both slow reading and ongoing reconstruction of Dante's world. We will also ask to what extent Dante's civic identity as a Florentine, especially his exile from Florence, gave momentum to his literary career and helped him become the author of one of the masterpieces of Western literature. Special emphasis is placed on Dante's ethical world view and his representation of character. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 101: Italy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Renowned for its rich cultural tradition, Italy is also one of the most problematic nations in Europe. This course explores the contradictions at the heart of Italy by examining how art and literature provide a unique perspective onto modern Italian history. We will focus on key phenomena that contribute both positively and negatively to the complex "spirit" of Italy, such as the presence of the past, political realism and idealism, revolution, corruption, decadence, war, immigration, and crises of all kinds. Through the study of historical and literary texts, films, and news media, the course seeks to understand Italy's current place in Europe and its future trajectory by looking to its past as a point of comparison. Taught in English.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

ITALIAN 102: Masterpieces: Boccaccio's Decameron

This course offer an in-depth consideration of Boccaccio's masterpiece The Decameron. We will pay special attention to Boccaccio's unparalleled art of storytelling; at his distinctly "modern" sensibility; and at the new kind of heroes his book champions: heroes of wit, imagination, free-thinking and self-reliance. Finally we will consider the erotic exuberance of many of Boccaccio's tales.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 104: La dolce vita: Italian Stereotypes in Film

Passion, nostalgia, mafia, women. What has it meant to be Italian in the past hundred years? How are these stereotypes invented, portrayed and dismantled by filmmakers such as Fellini, Scola, Giordana, Benigni and Torre? This course will address the problem of Italianità, its anomalies and contradictions, and look at how Italians have imagined themselves on the big screen, from the figure of the hopeless romantic to the mafioso. Films will be in Italian with English subtitles. Taught in Italian.
Last offered: Winter 2014 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 110: Gateway to Italy

This course serves as an introduction to the world of Italy by focusing on the cultural significance associated with five key words and their concomitant human figures: ¿Stile¿ (the artist), ¿Spirito¿ (the hero-saint), ¿Scienza¿ (the thinker), ¿Migrazione¿ (the explorer), and ¿Crisi¿ (the political man). Readings will address figures such as Dante, Michelangelo, Saint Francis, Da Vinci, Galileo, Fermi, and Columbus; and socio-cultural phenomena such as fashion and design, the scientific revolution, brain drain, immigration and emigration, religion, and politics.
| Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 120: Love Italian Style

Gateway course for Italian studies. An examination of representations of love and sexuality in Italian literature, art, film, and popular culture from the Italian Renaissance to the current period. Beginning with the figure of Silvio Berlusconi and ending with Dante's love for Beatrice, the course considers differences in social practices and mores over time, the role of literary and artistic representations in establishing cultural expectations about love, the question of gender roles and identity in Italian society, as well as contemporary stereotypes about love in Italy and Italians in love. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent
Last offered: Spring 2013 | Units: 4

ITALIAN 127: Inventing Italian Literature

An introduction to the study of literature in Italian, especially short prose fiction and poetry. Attention will be given to building a vocabulary and critical tool-set for the interpretation of literary texts from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Aut | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Lummus, D. (PI)

ITALIAN 128: The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity

The literature, art, and history of the Renaissance and beyond. Readings from the 15th through 18th centuries include Moderata Fonte, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso, Galileo, and Goldoni. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Win | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Nakata, C. (PI)

ITALIAN 129: Modern Italian Culture: Avant-garde and Politics

This course will provide students with an introduction to twentieth century Italian literature and culture through the lens of major trends in literary aesthetics, with an emphasis on the experimental and avant-garde. We will focus on gaining an understanding of the interrelationship between different aesthetic approaches and their expression in works of literature and film. We will also investigate political culture in twentieth-century Italy, in an attempt to map historical changes alongside ideas about literature. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Gounalis, N. (PI)

ITALIAN 136: Literature and Politics - Two Mediterranean Cases: Catalonia and Italy (ILAC 122)

A comparison between the different roles played by writers as members of the intellectual establishment in Catalonia, Spain and Italy. Focus on the relation between intellectuals and politics in shaping national identity. We will give especially consideration to the role played by intellectuals during the Fascist and Francoist dictatorships and during Spain's transition to democracy. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 143: Favorite Italian Films

In this course we will view and discuss 9 beloved & critically acclaimed Italian films, primarily from the 1980¿s and 90¿s, including Cinema paradiso, Il postino, Mediterraneo, and La vita e¿ bella. This course is especially intended for returnees from the Florence program who want to maintain and develop their spoken Italian. A film screening time will be scheduled during the first week of class. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 21 or equivalent (4 quarters of Italian)
Terms: Aut | Units: 2
Instructors: ; Nakata, C. (PI)

ITALIAN 152: Boccaccio's Decameron: The Ethics of Storytelling (ITALIAN 352)

This course involves an in-depth study of Boccaccio's Decameron in the context of medieval theories of poetry and interpretation. The goal is to understand more fully the relationship between literature and lived experience implied by Boccaccio's fictions. We will address key critical issues and theoretical approaches related to the text. Taught in English translation, there will be an optional supplementary Italian discussion section during weeks 2-9.
Last offered: Autumn 2013 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 154: Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, FRENCH 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)

Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 155: The Mafia in Society, Film, and Fiction

The mafia has become a global problem through its infiltration of international business, and its model of organized crime has spread all over the world from its origins in Sicily. At the same time, film and fiction remain fascinated by a romantic, heroic vision of the mafia. Compares both Italian and American fantasies of the Mafia to its history and impact on Italian and global culture. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

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

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 214: Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 314)

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 215: Italian Film, Fashion, and Design, 1950-1968 (ITALIAN 315)

In a close analysis of films by Fellini, Antonioni, Rossellini, Pasolini, and Bertolucci, we will explore the various contradictions that fueled the Italian cultural imagination in the 50s and 60s: minimalism and multiplicity, male and female, industrial and archaic, comic and tragic, wealth and poverty. Special emphasis placed on fashion, design, and modernist art. Taught in English, with the option of an additional discussion section in Italian. Occasional screenings Monday evenings at 7pm.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 220: Early Modern Seminar (DLCL 323)

Explores some of the key texts of European early modernity and the critical paradigms according to which the idea of the "Renaissance" has been formed, analyzed, and questioned since the 19th century. Will aim to provide a broad introduction to Early Modern studies from the point of view of the Italian Renaissance and its reception in different European contexts. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 221: Italo Calvino: Literature, Science, Philosophy

The course will follow the development of Italo Calvino's literary career, with a particular focus on his interest in fantastical and meta-fictional forms of narrative. Readings of Calvino's literary works, such as Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and Mr. Palomar, will be supplemented by readings from his critical prose, collected in the volumes The Uses of Literature and Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2014 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 224: Leopardi, Baudelaire, and Modernity (FRENCH 224, FRENCH 324, ITALIAN 324)

A close reading of Giacomo Leopardi's Canti and Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen in the context of 19th-century Europe. Discussion of the poetry will be enriched by selections from their essays on literature and art and by notes from the Zibaldone and Mon coeur mis à nu. Key themes and concepts include language, imagination, "noia," "spleen," and the oppositions between nature and civilization, modernity and antiquity. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 225: Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 225E, COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 325)

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 226: Modern Italian Poetry and Ultimate Questions

More than in any other tradition, Italian poets of the twentieth century focus on "ultimate questions," and look all the way back to Dante in doing so: why do we die? is there a God? what does it mean to love? are we responsible for our neighbors? is beauty related to truth? what do we learn from the past? what makes life meaningful? Poets include Ungaretti, Montale, Caproni, Sereni, Rosselli, Pasolini, Luzi, Merini, and Zanzotto. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: Second-year Italian minimum
Last offered: Autumn 2012 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 227: Giambattista Vico & Claude Lévi-Strauss (FRENCH 230, FRENCH 330, ITALIAN 327)

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science with special emphasis on Vico's theory of anthropogenesis, myth, and the poetic origins of human consciousness. Vico's thought will be placed in relation to Lévi-Strauss's theories of myth and so-called "primitive thought". Readings include Vico's New Science and Lévi-Strauss's "The Structural Study of Myth", and the first chapters of his book The Savage Mind. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Harrison, R. (PI)

ITALIAN 228: Science, technology and society and the humanities in the face of the looming disaster (FRENCH 228, POLISCI 233F)

How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.
Terms: Win | Units: 2-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-ER

ITALIAN 232B: Heretics, Prostitutes and Merchants: The Venetian Empire (HISTORY 232B)

Between 1200-1600, Venice created a powerful empire at the boundary between East and West that controlled much of the Mediterranean, with a merchant society that allowed social groups, religions, and ethnicities to coexist. Topics include the features of Venetian society, the relationship between center and periphery, order and disorder, orthodoxy and heresy, the role of politics, art, and culture in the Venetian Renaissance, and the empire's decline as a political power and reinvention as a tourist site and living museum.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 5

ITALIAN 234: Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages (COMPLIT 221A, FRENCH 234)

A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Last offered: Winter 2013 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 235E: Dante's "Inferno"

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.
Last offered: Winter 2014 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 236E: Dante's "Purgatorio and Paradiso"

Reading the second and third canticles of Dante's Divine Comedy. Prerequisite: students must have read Dante's Inferno in a course or on their own. Taught in English. Recommended: reading knowledge of Italian.
Last offered: Spring 2014 | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ITALIAN 247: Shakespeare and Italy

Focus on Italy's presence in Shakespeare's corpus; his use of Italian literary sources, and the Italian settings of some of his plays. It will also look at the reception of Shakespeare in Italy, especially in Italian opera and film. Readings will include Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bandello and Machiavelli; Shakespeare's sonnets and some of his major plays that are set in Italy. We will also discuss Verdi's opera, Otello, and Zeffirelli's movie Romeo and Juliette, among others Italian renditions of Shakespeare's plays. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2013 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 251: Writing, Memory, and Self-Fashioning (FRENCH 251)

Writing is not a mere recording of the past, but a selection and reinvention of our experiences. We will look at how writing is central to the philosophical project of fashioning the self, even as it reveals that much of what we call the self is a fictional construct. Materials include fiction and memoirs (Primo Levi, Michel Tournier, Melania Mazzucco, Jonathan Littell), and theoretical works in philosophy (Bergson, James, Freud, Jung, Derrida, Wyschogrod, Nehamas), psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

ITALIAN 255: Literature and Death: An Existential Constellation in its Historical Unfolding (COMPLIT 257A, COMPLIT 355A, FRENCH 256)

This seminar will pursue the intuition that literary texts, due to their status as ¿fiction,¿ have always been intensely related to Death as the ultimate horizon of individual existence, a horizon that is only available to our ¿imagination.¿ We will concentrate on this ¿ largely unexplored ¿ link as an existential constellation of concrete historical and of challenging philosophical complexity. The discussions will begin with a detailed analysis of the canonical passages in Martin Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ from 1927 that try to understand the difference between Death ¿as seen from outside¿ and Death in its ¿Jemeinigkeit,¿ that is Death as the absolute end-horizon of individual existence which necessarily causes ¿Angst¿ because it is followed by ¿Nothingness.¿nnOn this basis and supplemented by an introduction into several present-day theories and reflections on ¿imagination¿ as a distinct potential of the human mind, we will dedicate the weekly seminar sessions to specific historical moments and different literary (and perhaps artistic) forms that have articulated the connection between Death and Literature (with the final choice of texts and paradigms being open to the participants¿ interests and area of competence). Topics and textual materials may include:nn- fifth century Greek Tragedy,n- Roman Stoicism,n- Medieval Epic in the context of Christian cosmology,n- Death as a horizon of individual existence in early Modernity (¿Don Quijote¿),n- the invisible presence of Death in baroque artn- the bracketing of Death in the context of the Enlightenment mentality,n- Death and suicide as gestures of Romantic self-stylization,n- the presence of Death in Classical and Romantic conception of musicn- Death and ¿the absence of God¿ in nineteenth century novels and philosophy,n- the experience of World War I and a new intensity in the experience of Death,n- Death and grand abstraction in artn- Death in mid-twentieth century Existentialismn- Death and its place in the ¿¿Anthropocene¿ as an early twenty-first century frame of mind.nnEmphasizing weekly the reading assignments and intense participation in the seminar discussions, this course is laid out for two units (no final paper) but open for the participation of auditors (including undergraduate students with specific areas of competence) who are willing to work through the full range of philosophical texts, literary texts, and artworks on the syllabus. Students interested in this topic should begin with a reading of Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ and try to remember own readings and forms of experiences that seem pertinent to this topic. Contact with the instructor during the summer months is encouraged (sepp@stanford.edu).
Terms: Aut | Units: 2-3

ITALIAN 256: North/South in Contemporary Italy

One of the most difficult tasks of Italian unification was to negotiate the many differences between North and South -- economic, social, cultural, and linguistic. The phenomenal growth of regional and even separatist sentiment exemplified in the Northern League shows that Italian integration is far from complete. In this course we will explore the history of conflict between North and South from the Risorgimento to the present day, with a primary focus on prose fiction and film. Taught in English.
| Units: 4

ITALIAN 257: Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero (FRENCH 257, FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 357)

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are woman? This course explores how De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with this question and how all three of them think, each in her own way, outside the box of philosophy, of political science, of ethics, and of feminism. Particular attention will be given to the role of art in directing social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought today. Texts include The Second Sex, The Ethics of Ambiguity, The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, Stately Bodies, and Relating Narratives.
Terms: Win | Units: 1-5

ITALIAN 260: Italy, France, and Postcolonialism (FRENCH 260)

The starting point for our seminar is the question of how postcolonial thought enhances our possible understandings of Italy - as a nation, as a territorial unit coalescing cultural parts that remain disparate to this day, and as a population that has not come fully to terms with its fascist history, its crimes in World War II, or the atrocities it perpetrated as a colonizing state. The Italian case is unusual compared to others, in that the country's colonial past in north and east Africa is still being uncovered after a long period of public silence and government suppression; and what might be called the postcolonial Italian project has begun only recently, driven by a distinct minority of scholars, 'migrant' authors, and activists.nnFrench cultural politics and history are often taken as a point of reference from which to analyze Italian phenomena. In this case, we will make use of the French postcolonial tradition as a point of both comparison and differentiation. Among other things, we will focus on the different meanings of 'postcolonial' in a country that is strongly centralized (France) and another which is unremittingly fragmented (Italy). As just one example, we will scrutinize how Gramsci's work has been understood in Anglophone and Francophone criticism (cultural studies, Subaltern studies, and so on), as opposed to how it may be read in its original Italian context, where it concerned subalterns within the nation-state.nnAsking what is postcolonial, for whom, when, and where?, ultimately our goal is to discern the specific contours of Italy's postcolonialism by juxtaposing it with France's, and to simultaneously ask what light can be shed on French postcolonial particularities by placing it in this dialogue. Beginning with fundamental historical readings (Gramsci, Fanon, Memmi) and touching on some early Anglophone postcolonial critics (Said, Bhabha), the seminar will then be structured around key literary and theoretical readings from Italy and France. Ideally, readings will be in the original language, but as often as possible they will be selected such that they will be accessible in English translation as well. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 266: Women's Voices in Contemporary Italian Literature

The traditional canon of Italian literature consists almost exclusively of male authors. Yet Italian women writers have been active since the time of Dante. This presents an overview of women's prose fiction of the last 100 years, from Sibilla Aleramo's groundbreaking feminist novel *Una donna* (1906) to novels from the 80's and 90's. We will examine such issues as the central issue of sexual violence in many female autobiographies; the experience of motherhood; the conflict between maternal love and the desire for self-determination and autonomy; paths to political awareness; reinventing the historical novel. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Nakata, C. (PI)

ITALIAN 281: Novels into Film

Some critics claim that film has displaced the novel as the most popular narrative form of contemporary culture. What is the relationship between the two media? Which novels are chosen for adaptation and why? What are the relative strengths and limitations of literature and film as media? What are the specific pleasures of adaptations? In this course we will read five Italian novels and analyze their film versions, viewing adaptation as a legitimate creative response to a work of literature. We will first read the novel and consider the particular challenges it presents to transposition into film. We will follow this discussion with a close reading of the film version. The goal of the course is to examine cinematic adaptation as a cultural process by introducing a group of significant texts from the Italian tradition. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2014 | Units: 4-5

ITALIAN 288: Decadence and Modernism from Mallarmé to Marinetti (FRENCH 288, FRENCH 388, ITALIAN 388)

One hundred years ago, artists feared their work was incompatible with modern economic systems, secular bourgeois values, and materialist science. Accused of being decadent, they took up this term of derision and made it into a program of rebellion that has shaped modern art. This course explores decadent rebellion, with an eye toward how the last turn of the century might be similar to our current one. Writers include Huysmans, Poe, Mallarmé, Nietzsche, Nordau, d'Annunzio, Valéry, Ungaretti, Marinetti, and Breton; we will also consider parallels in the visual arts.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 314: Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214)

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 315: Italian Film, Fashion, and Design, 1950-1968 (ITALIAN 215)

In a close analysis of films by Fellini, Antonioni, Rossellini, Pasolini, and Bertolucci, we will explore the various contradictions that fueled the Italian cultural imagination in the 50s and 60s: minimalism and multiplicity, male and female, industrial and archaic, comic and tragic, wealth and poverty. Special emphasis placed on fashion, design, and modernist art. Taught in English, with the option of an additional discussion section in Italian. Occasional screenings Monday evenings at 7pm.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 322: Decadence and Modernism from Mallarmé to Marinetti (FRENCH 322)

One hundred years ago, artists feared their work was incompatible with modern economic systems, secular bourgeois values, and materialist science. Accused of being decadent, they took up this term of derision and made it into a program of rebellion that has shaped modern art. This course explores decadent rebellion, with an eye toward how the last turn of the century might be similar to our current one. Writers include Huysmans, Poe, Mallarmé, Nietzsche, Nordau, d'Annunzio, Valéry, Ungaretti, Marinetti, and Breton; we will also consider parallels in the visual arts.
Terms: Spr | Units: 1-2
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 324: Leopardi, Baudelaire, and Modernity (FRENCH 224, FRENCH 324, ITALIAN 224)

A close reading of Giacomo Leopardi's Canti and Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen in the context of 19th-century Europe. Discussion of the poetry will be enriched by selections from their essays on literature and art and by notes from the Zibaldone and Mon coeur mis à nu. Key themes and concepts include language, imagination, "noia," "spleen," and the oppositions between nature and civilization, modernity and antiquity. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 325: Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 225E, COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 225)

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 327: Giambattista Vico & Claude Lévi-Strauss (FRENCH 230, FRENCH 330, ITALIAN 227)

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science with special emphasis on Vico's theory of anthropogenesis, myth, and the poetic origins of human consciousness. Vico's thought will be placed in relation to Lévi-Strauss's theories of myth and so-called "primitive thought". Readings include Vico's New Science and Lévi-Strauss's "The Structural Study of Myth", and the first chapters of his book The Savage Mind. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Harrison, R. (PI)

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

The role of narrative in the well-lived life. Are narratives necessary? Can they, and should they, be literary? When might non-narrative approaches, whether literary or otherwise, be more relevant? Is unity of self something given, something to be achieved, or something to be overcome? Readings from Aristotle, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, MacIntyre, G. Strawson, Velleman; Ricoeur, Brooks; Shakespeare, Stendhal, Musil, Levi, Beckett, Morrison; film. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Landy, J. (PI)

ITALIAN 332B: Heretics, Prostitutes and Merchants: The Venetian Empire (HISTORY 332B)

Between 1200-1600, Venice created a powerful empire at the boundary between East and West that controlled much of the Mediterranean, with a merchant society that allowed social groups, religions, and ethnicities to coexist. Topics include the features of Venetian society, the relationship between center and periphery, order and disorder, orthodoxy and heresy, the role of politics, art, and culture in the Venetian Renaissance, and the empire's decline as a political power and reinvention as a tourist site and living museum.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | Units: 4-5

ITALIAN 345: In Defense of Poetry (FRENCH 343)

Beginning with the account of the quarrel between philosophy and poetry in Plato's Republic, we will read definitions and defenses of poetry by authors such as Cicero, Horace, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Sidney, Shelley, and Pound, among others. While we will try to historicize these authors' defenses as much as possible, we will also read them from the perspective of contemporary efforts to defend literature and the humanities. Topics of central concern will be the connection between poetry and ethics, the conflict between poetry and the professions of business, law, and medicine, poetry's place in the university, the political role of the poet, questions of poetic language and form, and the relevance of defenses of poetry to literary theory.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Lummus, D. (PI)

ITALIAN 352: Boccaccio's Decameron: The Ethics of Storytelling (ITALIAN 152)

This course involves an in-depth study of Boccaccio's Decameron in the context of medieval theories of poetry and interpretation. The goal is to understand more fully the relationship between literature and lived experience implied by Boccaccio's fictions. We will address key critical issues and theoretical approaches related to the text. Taught in English translation, there will be an optional supplementary Italian discussion section during weeks 2-9.
Last offered: Autumn 2013 | Units: 3-5

ITALIAN 357: Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero (FRENCH 257, FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 257)

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are woman? This course explores how De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with this question and how all three of them think, each in her own way, outside the box of philosophy, of political science, of ethics, and of feminism. Particular attention will be given to the role of art in directing social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought today. Texts include The Second Sex, The Ethics of Ambiguity, The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, Stately Bodies, and Relating Narratives.
Terms: Win | Units: 1-5

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

A history of literary theory for entering graduate students in national literature departments and comparative literature.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1-2

ITALIAN 388: Decadence and Modernism from Mallarmé to Marinetti (FRENCH 288, FRENCH 388, ITALIAN 288)

One hundred years ago, artists feared their work was incompatible with modern economic systems, secular bourgeois values, and materialist science. Accused of being decadent, they took up this term of derision and made it into a program of rebellion that has shaped modern art. This course explores decadent rebellion, with an eye toward how the last turn of the century might be similar to our current one. Writers include Huysmans, Poe, Mallarmé, Nietzsche, Nordau, d'Annunzio, Valéry, Ungaretti, Marinetti, and Breton; we will also consider parallels in the visual arts.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Wittman, L. (PI)

ITALIAN 395: Philosophical Reading Group (COMPLIT 359A, FRENCH 395)

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with H. U. Gumbrecht is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut, Win | Units: 1 | Repeatable for credit

ITALIAN 398: Intensive Reading in French/Italian (FRENCH 398)

Enrollment is limited to French/Italian Ph.D. students. Course is designed for French/Italian Ph.D. students to prepare for department milestone exams.
Terms: Sum | Units: 10 | Repeatable 2 times (up to 20 units total)
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