printer friendly pageOSPCPTWN 78: Postcolonial Modernist Art Movements in Africa
Introduction to the complexities and contradictions of 'modernity' and 'modernism(s)' in postcolonial Africa. With a focus on ideology-driven interdisciplinary artistic movements in Senegal, Nigeria, Sudan, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa, examine various schools of thought that were part of modern consciousness that characterised the independence decades. Role that art centres, workshops, collectives and mission schools played in histories of European expansion and colonialism. Debates regarding notions of 'appropriation,' 'natural synthesis' and 'assimilation' interpreted in the context of postcolonial theory. Different modes of production and methodological approaches.
Last offered: Summer 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 11: Film, Food and the Italian Identity
Food in Italian cinema staged as an allegory of Italy's social, political and cultural milieu. Intersections between food, history and culture as they are reflected in and shaped by Italian cinema from the early 1900s until today. Topics include: farmer's tradition during Fascism; lack of food during WWII and its aftermath; the Economic Miracle; food and the Americanization of Italy; La Dolce Vita; the Italian family; ethnicity, globalization and the re-discovery of regional culinary identity in contemporary Italy. Impact of cinema in both reflecting and defining the relationship between food and culture.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 29: The People Amid the Monuments
From both chronological and thematic approaches, examine the efforts of English-speaking writers (and, latterly, film-makers) to get to grips with Italy and the Italians. Beginning in the England of Queen Elizabeth and ending at the present day, cover a variety of themes such as Italy's historical role as a haven for the LGBT community and the modern interest in neglected southern Italy. Illustrative multimedia content with visits to sites of relevance in Florence.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 34: The Virgin Mother, Goddess of Beauty, Grand Duchess, and the Lady: Women in Florentine Art
Influence and position of women in the history of Florence as revealed in its art. Sculptural, pictorial, and architectural sources from a social, historical, and art historical point of view. Themes: the virgin mother (middle ages); the goddess of beauty (Botticelli to mannerism); the grand duchess (late Renaissance, Baroque); the lady, the woman (19th-20th centuries).
Last offered: Autumn 2019
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 48: Sharing Beauty in Florence: Collectors, Collections and the Shaping of the Western Museum Tradition
The city's art and theories of how art should be presented. The history and typology of world-class collections. Social, economic, political, and aesthetic issues in museum planning and management. Collections include the Medici, English and American collectors of the Victorian era, and modern corporate and public patrons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 49: On-Screen Battles: Filmic Portrayals of Fascism and World War II
Structural and ideological attributes of narrative cinema, and theories of visual and cinematic representation. How film directors have translated history into stories, and war journals into visual images. Topics: the role of fascism in the development of Italian cinema and its phenomenology in film texts; cinema as a way of producing and reproducing constructions of history; film narratives as fictive metaphors of Italian cultural identity; film image, ideology, and politics of style.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 54: High Renaissance and Mannerism: the Great Italian Masters of the 15th and 16th Centuries
The development of 15th- and early 16th-century art in Florence and Rome. Epochal changes in the art of Michelangelo and Raphael in the service of Pope Julius II. The impact of Roman High Renaissance art on masters such as Fra' Bartolomeo and Andrea del Sarto. The tragic circumstances surrounding the early
maniera: Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino and the transformation of early Mannerism into the elegant style of the Medicean court. Contemporary developments in Venice.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum
OSPFLOR 58: Space as History: Social Vision and Urban Change
A thousand years of intentional change in Florence. Phases include programmatic enlargement of ecclesiastical structures begun in the 11th century; aggressive expansion of religious and civic space in the 13th and 14th centuries; aggrandizement of private and public buildings in the 15th century; transformation of Florence into a princely capital from the 16th through the 18th centuries; traumatic remaking of the city's historic core in the 19th century; and development of new residential areas on the outskirts and in neighboring towns in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 67: The Celluloid Gaze: Gender, Identity and Sexuality in Cinema
Film in the social construction of gender through the representation of the feminine, the female, and women. Female subjects, gaze, and identity through a historical, technical, and narrative frame. Emphasis is on gender, identity, and sexuality with references to feminist film theory from the early 70s to current methodologies based on semiotics, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Advantages and limitations of methods for textual analysis and the theories which inform them.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:EC-Gender, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 87: What is Love? The Amorous Discourse from Dante to Ferrante
Talking about love was the main reason humans ever began to speak in the first place. From the moment words were invented, they have been used to interpret and describe, in verse and prose, this powerful and mysterious force, in an attempt to interpret and describe our very selves. Lyric poetry was specifically designed for that, but even when telling stories about war, adventure, or the meaning of life and death, as well as when narrating comic or tragic events, countless writers have often endeavored to answer the question: What is love? By combining close readings of texts with a study of their literary, cultural, and historical context, and by paying attention to individual innovations as well as one's dialogue with tradition (a gendered tradition, that nonetheless stimulates fluid and even queer responses from the Renaissance forward), we will discover Dante's love, a means of damnation or salvation; Petrarch's love, which is sinful distraction, the source of poetry, and a path to glory; Boccaccio's love, so sensual and yet so deeply rooted in the human soul as to cause the greatest joy or the deepest despair; Ariosto's love, a dangerous force that can drive people to madness in a world where, after all, everyone is somehow in love and therefore partly (and delightfully) crazy; Machiavelli's love, which can sharpen one's wits and bring with it great achievements, unless it clouds one's judgement and leads to failure; Aretino's love, so unabashedly physical and graphically explicit as to cause scandal and amazement all over Europe. We will also look at how love is described by Veronica Gambara, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa and other women poets of the Renaissance who renewed the lyrical code from within, giving new meanings to old words. We will also listen to the various kinds of love put to music in operas from Don Giovanni to Traviata and Bohème, and we will investigate how love interrelates with history in Manzoni's Promessi sposi and other Romantic historical novels. Finally, we will explore how the previous (male) narratives about love were reconfigured and reinvented by female novelists of the 20th century such as Goliarda Sapienza, Natalia Ginzburg and Elsa Morante, who will lead us to delve into Elena Ferrante's works, where love constantly interplays with friendship, and often confirms that, for better or for worse, appearances can be deceiving. Instructor: L. Degl'Innocenti
Terms: Sum
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
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