ITALIAN (ITAL)
Basic Language Courses
SM 110. Elementary Italian I. (C)
A first semester elementary language course for students who
have never studied Italian or who have had very little exposure to the
language. Students who have previously studied Italian are required to take the
placement test. Class work emphasizes the development of the oral-aural
skills, speaking and listening. Readings on topics in Italian culture as well
as frequent writing practice are also included. Out-of-class homework requires
work with the Internet, audio and video materials.
SM 112. Accelerated Elementary
Italian. (C)
Prerequisite(s): Proficiency in another foreign language.
An intensive two-credit course covering the first and second
semester of the elementary year for students who have never studied Italian
before but have already fulfilled the language requirement in another modern
language, preferably a romance language. Students who have fulfilled the
language requirement in a language other than a romance language will be
considered on an individual basis. All students must have departmental
permission to register.
Class work emphasizes the development of the
oral-aural skills, speaking and and listening. Readings on topics in Italian
culture as well as frequent writing practice are also included. Out-of-class
homework requires work with the Internet, audio and video materials.
SM 120. Elementary Italian II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Completion of
Italian 110 or placement into 2nd semester Italian.
This course is the continuation of the elementary level
sequence designed to develop functional competence in the four skills. Class
work emphasizes the further development of the oral-aural skills, speaking and
listening. Readings on topics in Italian culture as well as frequent writing
practice are also included. Out-of-class homework requires work with the
Internet, audio and video materials.
SM 130. Intermediate Italian I. (C) Prerequisite(s): Completion of
Italian 120 at Penn or a placement score between 450 and 540 on the Achievement
Exam (SAT II).
Italian 130 is the first half of a two-semester intermediate
sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that will allow you
to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The course will
build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your
ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to
more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more
challenging cultural material. You are expected to have already learned the
most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and to review these.
The course textbook, together with all supplementary materials, will allow you
to explore culturally relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills
through the exploration of similarities and differences between your native
culture and the Italian world.
SM 134. Accelerated Intermediate
Italian. (C)
Prerequisite(s): Italian 112 or departmental permit; proficiency in another
foreign language.
Italian 134 is the intensive and accelerated course that
combines in one semester the intermediate sequence (130 and 140). It will
build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence and your
ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and introduce you to
more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more
challenging cultural material. You are expected to have already learned the
most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and to review these on
your own. The course will allow you to explore culturally relevant topics and
to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of similarities and
differences between your native culture and the Italian world.
SM 140. Intermediate Italian II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Completion of
Italian 130 at Penn or placement into Italian 140.
Italian 140 is the second half of a two-semester
intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that
will allow you to function comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. The
course will build on your existing skills in Italian, increase your confidence
and your ability to read, write, speak and understand the language, and
introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical
structures, and more challenging cultural material. You are expected to have
already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary Italian and
to review these on your own. The course will allow you to explore culturally
relevant topics and to develop cross-cultural skills through the exploration of
analogies and differences between your native culture and the Italian world.
The course will move beyond stereotypical presentations of Italy and its people to concentrate on specific social issues together with cultural topics.
SM 180. Italian Conversation in Residence. (E) Must be resident of the Modern
Language House.
Undergraduate-Level Courses
SM 080. (COML080) Introduction to
Italian Cinema. (C)
Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes.
Italian national cinema from the Golden Age of silent film
and classics of Neorealism to present, covering work of a dozen major
directors. Films discussed in context of history from the Unification,
national vs. regional identity, gender roles, contemporary politics. Readings in Italian history, Italian film history, and theory of cinema. Taught in
English.
SM 100. (CINE140, COML107) Topics:
Freshman Seminar. (C)
Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of current offerings.
SM 200. Medieval Culture. (M)
Topics will vary.
SM 202. Advanced Italian. (C) Prerequisite(s): Open to students
who have completed the language requirement.
This course aims at developing and deepening language
abilities acquired in the first two years of study; it also prepares students
for upper-level courses in literature, culture or cinema. Students will
increase their vocabulary and speaking skills through the reading, analysis and
discussion of Niccolo Amanniti's best-selling novel Io non ho paura. Other
reading materials will open windows onto aspects of contemporary Italian
culture and society. We will place special emphasis on a thorough review of
advanced grammar. Short weekly compositions and a final project will develop
writing skills. This course is a prerequisite for other 200-level courses.
SM 203. (COLL228, COML203)
Introduction to Italian Literature and Culture. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All
Classes. Prerequisite(s): Italian 202 (may be taken concurrently).
Readings and reflections on significant texts of the Italian literary and
artistic tradition exploring a wide range of genres, themes, cultural debates
by analyzing texts in sociopolitical contexts. Readings and discussions in
Italian.
SM 204. (CINE240) Italian History on
Screen: How Movies Tell the Story of Italy. (C)
Italian civilization in its encyclopedic sweep, from ancient
Rome to the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Risorgimento, Fascism, World War II, and
the contemporary scene, in compared perspective, through the historian's eye
and the film maker's lens. Course taught in English; films in Italian with
English subtitles, readings in English.
SM 205. Italia Viva Voce. (A) Prerequisite(s): Italian 202 (may be
taken concurrently).
In this advanced conversation course taught exclusively in
Italian, students will perfect their communication skills and learn to use the
most appropriate register in a variety of formal and informal situations while
exploring significant aspects of contemporary Italian culture. Listening and
speaking activities--role plays, discussions, oral presentations, internet
forums, etc.--will be based on audio-visual material (songs, pictures, audio
and video clips) and written texts (newspaper articles, literary texts)
provided by the instructor and/or proposed by the students themselves based on
their explorations of the Italian web. Linguistic structures will be revised
as needed. Some writing will also be required.
SM 208. Business Italian I. (M) Prerequisite(s): Ital
202.
The major purpose of the course, which is conducted entirely
in Italian and therefore requires an intermediate/high, to advanced level of
the language, is to enable students to acquire language proficiency in the area
of the current Italian labor world, so that they can read and comprehend
business publications, write and compose business texts, and participate in
business-related conversations. Business terminology will be placed within the
framework of many different international work situations and practices, such
as industry, trade, insurance, banking, agriculture, communications, etc.
Classes will also include lectures on current political, economic, and labor
developments in Italy as well as an examination of various Italian views on the
creation of the European Internal Market. The course will emphasize, through
Italian newspapers and magazine articles, the differences between Italian and
American business practices and cultural differences, such as the attitude of
the Italian towards money, work, leisure, and consumerism, which will help
students to understand the specific nature of the Italian world.
SM 213. (CINE240, COML214)
Contemporary Italy Through Film. (M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes.
Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of current offerings.
SM 215. Interdisciplinary Approaches
to Literature and Cinema. (C) Prerequisite(s): Italian 140 or Proficiency.
Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of current offerings.
SM 220. Cultura E Letteratura. (C)
Taught in Florence.
SM 222. Topics in Italian Cinema.
(C)
Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of current offerings.
SM 226. SA: Culture and Literature.
(C)
Topics vary.
SM 232. (COML234) The World of
Dante. (M)
Dante's masterpiece in context of 14th century culture. Selected
cantos will connect with such topics as books and readers in the manuscript
era, life in society dominated by the Catholic church (sinners vs. saints,
Christian pilgrimage routes, the great Franciscan and Dominican orders),
Dante's politics as a Florentine exile (power struggles between Pope and
Emperor), his classical and Biblical literary models, his genius as a poet in
the medieval structures of allegory, symbolism, and numerology. Field trip to University of Pennsylvania Rare Book Collection. Text in Italian with facing English
translation.
SM 260. Worldviews in Collision. (M)
This course explores the radical conflicts that developed in
the 16th and 17th century Europe when Protestant reformers, scientific
discoveries, and geographical explorations challenged a long-held Medieval
worldview and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. These historical
developments will be studied in comparison with parallel modern issues, such as
Darwinism, separation of church and state, multicultural religious conflicts.
Historical readings: Machiavelli's comic play Mandragola, the vitriolic polemic
involving Martin Luther, Thomas More, and King Henry VII; Thomas Campanella's
Utopian dialogue The City of the Sun, selections from the scientists Copernicus
and Galileo, and from The History of the Council of Trent by the Venetian Paolo
Sarpi. Modern texts: Osborne's Luther, Brecht's Galileo, and a classic Hollywood film Utopia, Frank Capra's Lost Horizon. In introductory and final units, we
shall consider how 16th and 17th century poetry and visual arts mirrored their
turbulent times, with an attention to the Petrarchan tradition (Vittoria
Colonna, Marino) and stylistic changes in Italian painting, sculpture, and
architecture from Renaissance to Mannerist to Baroque.
SM 267. (HIST181) SA: The Medici.
(L)
Taught in Florence
Topics vary.
SM 280. Films From Literature. (M)
Topics vary.
SM 288. (CINE240) Modern Italian
Culture. (M)
Topics will vary.
SM 300. (ARTH251, CINE340, COML300, HIST180) Topics in Italian
History, Literature, and Culture. (M) Topics will vary.
SM 310. (COML310, GSOC310) The
Medieval Reader. (M)
Through a range of authors including Augustine, Dante,
Petrarch, Galileo, and Umberto Eco, this course will explore the world of the
book in the manuscript era. We will consider 1) readers in fiction-male and
female, good and bad; 2) books as material objects produced in monasteries and
their subsequent role in the rise of the universities; 3) medieval women
readers and writers; 4) medieval ideas of the book as a symbol (e.g., the
notion of the world as God's book); 5) changes in book culture brought about by
printing and electronicmedia. Lectures with discussion in English, to be
supplemented by visual presentations and a visit to the Rare Book Room in Van
Pelt Library. No prerequisites.
SM 322. (CINE240, COML280) Italian
Cinema. (M)
The course will consist of a broad and varied sampling of
classic Italian films from WWII to the present. The curriculum will be divided
into four units: (1) The Neorealist Revolution, (2) Metacinema, (3) Fascism and
War Revisited, and (4) Postmodernism or the Death of the Cinema. One of the
aims of the course will be to develop a sense of "cinematic
literacy"--to develop critical techniques that will make us active
interpretators of the cinematic image by challenging the expectations that Hollywood has implanted in us: that films be action-packed wish-fulfillment fantasies.
Italian cinema will invite us to re-examine and revise the very narrow
conception that we Americans have of the medium. We will also use the films as
a means to explore the postwar Italian culture so powerfully reflected, and in
turn, shaped, by its national cinema. Classes will include close visual
analysis of films using video clips and slides. The films will be in Italian
with English subtitles and will include works of Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica,
Visconti, Pasolini, Wertuller, Rossellini, Rossellini, Bertolucci and Moretti.
Students will be asked actively to participate in
class discussion, and to write a series of critical papers keyed to the units
around which the course will be organized. Substantial Writing Component.
SM 333. (COML333, ENGL223, ENGL323)
Dante's Divine Comedy. (M) Prerequisite(s): Proficiency in Italian. When crosslisted with ENGL
332, this is a Benjamin Franklin Seminar.
In this course we will read the Inferno, the Purgatorio and
the Paradiso, focusing on a series of interrelated problems raised by the poem:
authority, fiction, history, politics and language. Particular attention will
be given to how the Commedia presents itself as Dante's autobiography, and to
how the autobiographical narrative serves as a unifying thread for this
supremely rich literary text. Supplementary readings will include Virgil's Aeneid
and selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses. All readings and written work will
be in English. Italian or Italian Studies credit will require reading Italian
text the original language and writing about their themes in Italian. This
course may be taken for graduate credit, but additional work and meetings with
the instructor will be required.
SM 335. Medieval and Renaissance
Literature. (M)
Taught in Florence.
This course will involve close study of the two major
narrative works to emerge from medieval Florence. We will take advantage of
the study-abroad experience to relate our readings closely to the city and
region in which we are living, with visits to neighborhoods and monuments
important to the authors or illustrative of the cultural forces that shaped
their texts, as well as to the Casa di Dante in central Florence, and the
residence of Boccaccio in the Tuscan hill-town of Certaldo. The classes will
be dedicated to in-depth interpretation of Dante's "Inferno", of
Boccaccio's "Decameron", and the relationship between their vastly
different, yet kindred views of the human condition. The course will be given
in English. This course may be taken for Italian language credit provided
students do reading and writing assignments in Italian. It may also be taken
for graduate credit, but additional work and meetings with instructors will be
required.
SM 340. (HIST338) Topics in the
Renaissance. (M)
Content Varies. Possible contents may be: Renaissance Women
Writers, Love and Sexuality in the Renaissance.
SM 351. Mad Love. (M)
The history of an emotion and how it emerges in Italian
literature, music and film.
SM 360. (COML363) Semiotics and
Rhetoric. (M)
A survey of major currents in the modern theory of signs and
languages, ranging from linguistics through the perspectives of semiotics,
rhetoric and hermeneutics. Readings from modern works on semiotical and
rhetorical theory as well as analysis of primary texts in Italian literature
from Dante to Svevo, as well as other forms of communication including
advertising, journalism, film and television. All readings in English.
SM 380. (CINE340, COML382) Italian
Literature of the 20th Century. (M)
Topics vary, covering a range of genres and authors.
The reading material and the bibliographical references
will be provided in a course reader. Further material will be presented in
class. Requirements include class attendance, preparation, and participation,
a series of oral responses, and a final oral presentation.
SM 383. 20th-Century Italian Novel. (M)
SM 385. Modern Theater. (M)
A study of theater in Italian, beginning with Pirandello.
398. Honors Thesis. (C)
399. Independent Study. (C)
499. Independent Study. (A)
Graduate-Level Courses
SM 501. (COML503) Italian Literary
Theory. (M) Taught
occasionally. This requirement is normally satisfied by taking the Comparative
Literature course in literary theory.
Basic issues in literary theory.
SM 520. (COML520) Medieval
"Autobiography": Augustine to Petrarch. (M) Brownlee.
The development of a new authorial subject in Medieval and
Early Modern first-person narrative.
SM 530. (COML531) Medieval Italian
Literature. (M)
Medieval Italian society, art, intellectual and political
history.
SM 531. (COML533, ITAL333) Divina Commedia I. (M) This course
may sometimes be taught as the first part of a two-semester sequence.
"Divine Comedy" in the context of Dante's medieval
worldview and culture.
SM 532. (COML532) Divina Commedia
II. (M)
Prerequisite(s): Italian 531.
"Divine Comedy" in the context of Dante's medieval
worldview and culture.
SM 534. (COML534, GSOC534) Women in Poetry. (M) Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge
of Italian.
SM 535. (COML524) Petrarch. (M)
Petrarch's life and work in the context of Italian and
European culture and society.
SM 537. (COML521, GSOC537)
Boccaccio. (M)
Kirkham.
Boccaccio's life and work in the context of Italian and
European culture and society.
SM 539. (COML548) Cracking the Code:
Numerology and Literature. (M)
In English. This course reconstructs traditions of Western
number symbolism from antiquity (Plato, the Pythagoreans) to the early modern
period with readings both in encyclopedic treatises on Arithmetic (Macrobius,
Martianus Capella, Rhabanus Maurus) and in literary texts that are numerical
compositions (Augustine's Confessions, Petrarch's epistle on the ascent of Mt.
Ventoux, Dante's Vita Nuova and Commedia, Boccaccio's Diana's Hunt, the Old
French Vie de St. Alexis, and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose). Discussion
will focus on numerology as it relates to the medieval esthetic of order, the
literary text as microcosmic counterpart to God's macrocosm, veiled meaning,
and "difficult" poetics. We shall also consider the end of the
tradition and what changes in science and culture brought about the disappearance
of number symbolism in literature, except for a few moderns (e. g. Thomas
Mann). Cross-listed with COML 539.
SM 540. (COML540, ENGL540, SPAN540)
Topics: Renaissance Culture. (M)
Renaissance Italian society, art, intellectual and political
history.
SM 562. (COML508) World Views in
Collision. (M)
The impact of paradigm shifts on Italian and European
culture.
SM 584. (CINE584) 20th-Century
Italian Novel and Film. (M)
The course will involve an exploration of a number of works
of prose fiction and, when possible, the screening of their filmic
adaptations. We will consider such genres as the historical novel (Tomasi di
Lampedusa's Il gattopardo), biography (Dacia Mariani's La lunga vita di
Marianna Ucria), autobiography (Gavino Ledda's Padre padrone), the mystery
novel (Leonardo Sciascia's A ciascuno il suo), the epistolary novel (Oriana
Fallaci's Lettera ad un bambino mai nato), the political thriller (Antonio
Tabucchi's Sostiene Pereira), "anthropological" memoir (Carlo Levi's
Christ Stopped at Eboli), the psycho-political case study (Alberto Moravia's II
conformista) and the regional short story (selections from Luigi Pirandello's
Novelle per un anno). The class will be conducted as a seminar requiring a
great deal of student participation.
SM 588. (CINE548, COML587) Cinema
and the Sister Arts. (M)
Cinema as a pan-generic system constructed of other art
forms, including fiction, theater, painting, photography, music and dance.
SM 601. Time and Literature. (M)
The perceptions of Time differ according to various
societies, conceptions of history, religious and literary traditions.
Literature not only inhabits Time, but forges it. The course will focus on
representations and elaborations of time throughout the Italian culture from
Dante to the XX Century. We will deal also with the theoretical issues
connected with the relation between time and history. The course will be
taught in Italian. Undergraduates need permission.
SM 602. Tools of the Trade. (M)
Theoretical and practical aspects of academic research.
SM 630. (COML630, FREN630) Medieval
Italian Lierature. (M)
Medieval Italian society, art, intellectual and political
history. Advanced level course.
SM 631. (COML632) Dante's Commedia.
(M)
"Divine Comedy" in the context of Dante's medieval
worldview and culture. Advanced level course.
SM 634. Woman's Place. (M)
Poetry by women and about women. Advanced level course.
SM 640. (COML641) Studies in the
Italian Renaissance. (M)
Renaissance Italian society, art, intellectual and political
history. Advanced level course.
SM 660. 18th Century Italian
Culture. (M)
18th century Italian society, art, intellectual and
political history.
SM 672. Narrativa '800-'900. (M)
Modern and contemporary Italian fiction.
SM 684. (CINE684) 20th-Century
Novel. (M)
Contemporary Italian fiction
990. Masters Thesis. (C)
995. Dissertation. (C)
998. Tutorial. (C)
999. Independent Study. (C)
