2007-2008 Graduate Courses in Italian
| AUTUMN | WINTER | SPRING |
|---|---|---|
| 30400 Corso di perfezionamento | 30400 Corso di perfezionamento | 31100 Le regioni italiane: lingua, dialetti, tradizioni |
| 33601 Il Circolo Mediceo: il Pulci, Poliziano, Lorenzo et al | 30700 MA Survey I. Letteratura italiana dal Duecento al Quattrocento | 32101 Dante's Comedy 3: Paradiso |
| 37000 Settecento | 33600 Il poema epico-cavalleresco del Quattrocento | 32301 A New Commentary on Dante's "Rime" |
| 42100 Readings and Research | 35100 Gender and Genre: The Modern Novel | 32702 How To Do Things With Philology: Who Was Aldobrandino's Son |
| 35300 Gender and Genre: The Modern Lyric | 42100 Readings and Research | |
| 42100 Readings and Research |
Graduate Course Descriptions
30400. Corso di perfezionamento. The goal of this course is to help students achieve mastery of composition and style through the acquisition of numerous writing techniques. Using a variety of literary and nonliterary texts as models, students examine the linguistic structure and organization of several types of written Italian discourse and are guided in the acquisition of the rules underlying each discourse type. Staff. Autumn, Winter.
30700. M.A. Survey I. Letteratura Italian Dal Duecento al Quattrocento. An introduction to Italian literature of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. We will read works by three of the greatest figures of Italian literature—Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio—as well as a number of other important authors of the medieval period. The literary genres examined will be primarily lyric and narrative poetry and the short story (the Italian novella). There will be equal emphasis placed on the formal, metrical, and technical aspects of reading early Italian literature as well as the vibrant social, political, and material contexts in which these texts were produced, circulated, and read. Justin Steinberg. Winter.
31100. Le regioni italiane: lingua, dialetti, tradizioni. PQ ITAL 203 or consent of instructor. This course expands students' awareness of the diversity of the Italian language and culture. It emphasizes the interrelationship between language and culture as well as social and historical transformations. The course also includes a study of the Italian phonological system. Students are exposed to a wide variety of texts, both literary and nonliterary as well as audio-visual materials that enhance their awareness of regional expressions and Italian dialects. Guest lecturers include native speakers from different Italian regions. Francesca Puggioni. Spring.
32101. Dante's Divine Comedy 3: Paradiso. An in-depth study of the third cantica of Dante's masterpiece, considered the most difficult but in many ways also the most innovative. Read alongside his scientific treatise the Convivio and his political manifesto the Monarchia. Completion of the previous courses in the sequence not required, but students should familiarize themselves with the Inferno and the Purgatorio before the first day of class. Taught in English. Justin Steinberg. Spring.
32301. A New Commentary on Dante's "Rime." Together with Petrarch's "Canzoniere", Dante's "Rime" are the most important collection of poems of European Middle Ages: that is, the most beautiful, meaningful, influential. They also form a very difficult book, a book in which every poem raises questions concerning various fields: history, history of ideas, religion. In light of a new commentary to the "Rime" that is going to be published in 2009 (Meridiani Mondadori), the course will be devoted to a discussion of some of the "Rime", and their relationship to latin and romance literature. Claudio Guinta. Spring.
32702. How To Do Things With Philology: Who Was Aldobrandino's Son. Non è un momento, questo, in cui la filologia goda di buona fama. Per molti è sinonimo di banalità, pedanteria, tempo perso in ricerche irrilevanti. Questi critici hanno una parte di ragione: soprattutto negli ultimi anni, la filologia si è fatto sempre più minuziosa e, insieme, sempre più inutile: una specie di hobby per monomaniaci. Ma la filologia – intesa come critica del testo e storia della tradizione – resta la via d'accesso necessaria all'arte pre-moderna. In questo corso, dopo aver dato un nome al poeta del Trecento che negli studi è designato col patronimico, 'figlio di Aldobrandino', si vedrà appunto come lo studio ravvicinato dei manoscritti e dei documenti d'archivio permetta di ricostruire un'intera epoca della letteratura. Claudio Guinta. Spring.
33600. Il poema epico-cavalleresco del Quattrocento. PQ Ital 20300 or consent of instructor. A study of the fifteenth-century Italian epic-chivalric tradition, with concentration on Luigi Pulci's Morgante maggiore and the cantari and other texts thought to have most influenced Pulci's work. We will read various types of cantari and also selections from Matteo Maria Boiardo's masterpiece, the Inamoramento de Orlando. Elissa Weaver. Winter.
33601. Il Circolo Mediceo: i Pulci, Poliziano, Lorenzo et al. A study of humanistic and religious culture in late fifteenth-century Florence. We will read the major works of Lorenzo de' Medici and his mother Lucrezia Tornabuoni, of Angelo Poliziano, Antonia, Bernardo, Luca and Luigi Pulci (only selections from the Morgante), and we will examine the influence of Marsilio Ficino's neoplatonism and that of the Antologia Greca. We will study the Florentine theatrical tradition, both religious and classical plays and their performance history, and we will read selected sermons by Savonarola and fra Mariano da Genazzano and letters, personal and professional, written by Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi, Niccolò Machiavelli, and others. The aim of the course is to gain an understanding of late fifteenth-century Florentine culture, to examine the role played by Lorenzo de' Medici and members of his circle, and the impact on that culture of the Studio (university) and the newly established printing industry. There will be seminar presentations and a term paper. The course will be conducted in Italian. Elissa Weaver. Autumn.
35100. Gender and Genre: The Modern Novel from Verismo to Postmodernismo. What happens to established twentieth-century literary canon, based on "schools," "individual genius," or other traditional categories, when the category of gender is introduced? In this course, taught in Italian and with readings in Italian, we shall study both the "hard" canon of mostly male authors of modern novels, and the "soft" canon of contemporaneous women authors of novels whose works have gained recognition in recent decades. We shall consider the question of "gendered writing" as well as the ways in which women authors have transformed some of the genres (the historical novel, the psychological novel, the mystery novel, etc.). From late nineteenth- century Verismo, we will move through the twentieth century, reading and analyzing realistic, intimistic, experimental, and other forms of the novel, ending up with very recent work by both male and female immigrant writers. Throughout the course, novels by both men and women will be read. Rebecca West. Winter.
35300. Gender and Genre: The Modern Lyric from Decadentismo to Today's Poetic Eclecticism. The lyric tradition in Italy is heavily coded as exclusively male, from Dante's time to today. We shall study the ways in which including the poetry of women shapes a different history of the modern lyric. Instead of segregating women's poetry into a separate sphere, we shall read both men's and women's poetry, tracing the ways in which tradition and innovation mark the best work of both. We shall study how and to what extent the presence of overt critical attention to gender modifies our understanding of the genre of the modern lyric. All readings will be in Italian, and the course will be taught in Italian. Rebecca West. Winter.
37000. Settecento. The Course consists of close reading and comments on some major Italian literary works of the XVIII Century, and discusses the main literary genres of the age, i. e. drama and autobiography, as well as new forms of poetry and satyric poetry (G. Parini). The important comparison and competition between Italy and France, originated from the controversy Orsi-Bouhours, will be also presented. Francesco Bruni. Autumn.
42100. Readings and Research. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.