2012-2013 Italian Courses

This course is for students with no previous knowledge of Italian. It aims at giving the student a complete foundation in the Italian language, with particular attention to the oral and written communication of everyday use and to all aspects of Italian culture. The course will be conducted in Italian (after the first couple of weeks) and will involve the study of all the basic structures of the language—phonological, grammatical, syntactical—with practice in conversation, reading, composition, and translation. In addition to the basic Italian textbook and an array of supplementary computer and Internet material, the course will include texts from prose fiction, poetry, journalistic prose, songs, films, recipe books, and the language of publicity. Conference work (in group) is largely based on reading and writing, and the use of the language is encouraged through games and creative composition. In addition to class and group conference, the course also has a conversation component in regular workshops with the language assistants. Supplementary activities such as opera and relevant exhibits in New York City are made available when possible. The course is for a full year, by the end of which students attain a basic competence in all aspects of the language.

This course is for students with no previous knowledge of Italian. It aims at giving the student a complete foundation in the Italian language, with particular attention to the oral and written communication of everyday use and to all aspects of Italian culture. The course will be conducted in Italian (after the first couple of weeks) and will involve the study of all the basic structures of the language—phonological, grammatical, syntactical—with practice in conversation, reading, composition, and translation. In addition to the basic Italian textbook and an array of supplementary computer and Internet material, the course will include texts from prose fiction, poetry, journalistic prose, songs, films, recipe books, and the language of publicity. Conference work (in group) is largely based on reading and writing, and the use of the language is encouraged through games and creative composition. In addition to class and group conference, the course also has a conversation component in regular workshops with the language assistants. Supplementary activities such as opera and relevant exhibits in New York City are made available when possible. The course is for a full year, by the end of which students attain a basic competence in all aspects of the language. This course will be taught in the fall by Ms. Benzoni, and in the spring by Ms. Serafini-Sauli.

This course will constitute an in-depth review of Italian grammar and an introduction to modern Italian literature and culture. For each aspect of the grammar, we will use a text—short stories, poems, songs, films, newspaper articles, plays, novels—that will serve as a focus for aspects of Italian culture, as well as elements of the language. Work on the Web is an integral part of the course for grammar exercises and research, as well as a source for audio, video, and film. Web activities will include topics such as planning a trip, writing a film review, creating a recipe, describing a sports event. Writing assignments will include critical analysis of literary texts, as they evolve from the weekly reading assignments of authors such as Calvino, Eco, Moravia, Pavese, Fo, and many others. Conference work will focus on an author, a genre, or a topic of particular interest to the student. All students attend conversation sections twice a week. Open to students with one year of college Italian or the equivalent.

This course is intended for students with proficiency in Italian who want to study works of Italian literature in the original, as well as continue their work in the language. The course will study modern Italian novels and the films based on them. We will read the novels as linguistic, literary, and cultural texts and examine the films they inspired as both language and “translation.” The texts and films will be chosen to reflect a range of issues in modern Italian culture: regionalism, Sicily and the mafia, fascism and antifascism, politics and social history. Class work will be supplemented by a grammar review based on analisi logica, using Italian scholastic texts. Conference work may explore Italian literature or Italian film and may also focus on further perfecting language skills. There will be emphasis on writing Italian through the frequent submission of short papers, and weekly conferences with the language assistant will offer additional opportunities to speak Italian. Open to students with advanced proficiency in Italian.