The Program's mission is to guide students towards proficiency in Italian and toward the knowledge necessary to communicate effectively in a variety of cultural contexts. Foreign language literacy and intercultural competence are central components of a liberal arts education and open up diverse and unique career opportunities.
Programs
Italian Studies offers a minor in Italian Language and Culture and a foreign area study in Italian Studies. The requirements for completion are those in effect in the bulletin year when the declaration of the minor or foreign area study occurs.
Study Abroad
The Department strongly encourages students of Italian to spend a year, a semester, or a summer studying abroad. Overseas study in concert with on-campus coursework helps students develop greater fluency, deeper knowledge of other cultures, and increased awareness of their own language, attitudes, and beliefs.
Special Notes
Pass/Fail Policy for 100-Level Language Courses:
Sophomores, juniors, and seniors may choose to take 100-level language courses pass/fail, subject to instructor approval and the following requirements:
- Pass/fail students must achieve an overall course grade of C or better to pass.
- Pass/fail students are subject to the same attendance policy as all students.
- Pass/fail students must complete each component of the course included in the syllabus grade breakdown. That is, students will not be able to skip any one part of the course, such as homework or the final exam, and still earn a passing grade.
Contact Information
Italian Studies
Greene Hall 324, Box 7566
Phone 336-758-5487
Italian (ITA)
ITA 111. Elementary Italian I. (3 h)
Beginners course covering grammar essentials and emphasizing speaking, writing, and the reading of elementary texts. Lab required. ITA 111 and 112 count for students in the Venice program.
ITA 112. Elementary Italian II. (3 h)
Beginners course covering grammar essentials and emphasizing speaking, writing, and the reading of elementary texts. Lab required. ITA 111 and 112 count for students in the Venice program.
ITA 113. Intensive Elementary Italian. (4 h)
Intensive course for beginners, emphasizing the structure of the language and oral practice. Recommended for students in the Venice program and for language minors. Credit not given for both ITA 113 and ITA 111 or 112. Lab required. Lecture. By placement or faculty recommendation.
ITA 153. Intermediate Italian. (4 h)
Continuation of ITA 113, with emphasis on speaking, developing students' reading, writing skills and preparing them for oral and written discussion of literary texts in ITA 212 or 213. Lab required. P-ITA 112 or 113.
ITA 154. Intermediate Italian. (3 h)
An intermediate-level course intended for students who have taken the 111-112 sequence. It offers the opportunity to develop further their reading, writing and conversation skills and prepare for oral and written discussion of literary texts in ITA 212 or 213. Lab required. P-ITA 111-112.
ITA 196. Italian Across the Curriculum. (1.5 h)
Coursework in Italian done as an adjunct to specially-designated courses throughout the College curriculum. May be taken for grade of Pass/Fail. May be repeated for credit if topic varies. P-POI.
ITA 197. Italian for Reading Knowledge. (1.5 h)
Review of essential Italian grammar, usage, vocabulary, and processing strategies for reading various types of literary, social science, and technical publications for content. Designed for students interested mainly in strengthening reading proficiency in the language and aimed at preparing students to take the graduate reading exam administered at the end of the course. Undergraduate credit given. Offered in the first half of the semester. P-Intermediate Italian or equivalent and placement exam.
ITA 212. Exploring the Italian World. (3 h)
Continued language study through exploration of significant cultural expression from the multifaceted Italian world. Credit not given for both ITA 212 and 213. P - ITA 153 or equivalent.
ITA 213. Introduction to Italian Literature. (3 h)
Reading of selected texts in Italian. Satisfies basic requirement in foreign language. Students cannot recieve credit for both ITA 212 and 213. P-ITA 153 or equivalent.
ITA 217. Studies of Italy. (3 h)
Survey course on Italian literature from authors from the various regions of Italy and on special cultural themes such as Italian immigration and new immigrations in Italy to give to students in Venice a deeper and broader understanding of Italian cultural complexity. Only taught in Venice. P - ITA 212 or 213 or POI.
ITA 260. Contemporary Italy. (3 h)
Study of society and culture in contemporary Italy. Offers elements of civilization, arts, gender, politics, literature and cinema and includes Italian-American studies. Intended for students interested in continuing Italian beyond the language requirement. P-ITA 212, 213 or POI.
ITA 280. Business Italian. (3 h)
Development of vocabulary and communication skills necessary to operate in Italian business settings. Emphasis on cross-cultural competency in the context of Italian business practices. P-ITA 212 or 213.
ITA 319. Grammar and Composition. (3 h)
Review of the basics of structure and vocabulary; detailed examination of syntax and idiomatic expressions; practice in translation of texts of diverse styles and from varied sources; and free composition. P-ITA 212, 213 or 216 or equivalent.
ITA 324. Italian Regional Cultures. (3 h)
Focuses on different aspects of regional cultures in Italy. Emphasizes local lifestyles, literatures, and cinematography. Regional cultures and historic background are analyzed and compared through class demonstrations and cultural artifacts. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 326. Comedy in Italian Cinema. (3 h)
Study of modern Italian society through the analysis of films from the 1950s to the present. Taught in Italian. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 327. Modern Italian Cinema. (3 h)
Study of the major developments of modern Italian cinema. Full-length feature films by Federico Fellini, Ettore Scola, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Gianni Amelio, Nanni Moretti, Gabriele Moretti Salvatores, Guiseppe Tornatore, Massimo Troisi, Roberto Benigni, and other Italian filmmakers will be studied and discussed from different perspectives. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 328. Dante's Divine Comedy. (3 h)
Introduces Italian medieval literature and culture through a selected, critical reading of Dante's masterpiece and other medieval texts. Introduces students to the intellectual and social context of the Italian Middle Ages by relating the texts to the cultural, political, social, and philosophical concerns of the period. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 329. Love, Gender, and Diversity in Italian Epic. (3 h)
The course focuses on spaces and modalities of representation of love, gender, and diversity in Italian epic through text and images, including films. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 333. Italian Theatre. (3 h)
Study of representative Italian drama such as commedia dell'arte and works from Machiavelli, Goldoni, and Dario Fo. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 335. Italian Women Writers. (3 h)
Study of representative novels by women writers from Italy and the Italian world, with emphasis on the historical novel within its cultural context. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 336. Italian Women and the City. (3 h)
This course proposes, through Italian readings and films, the interpenetration of women's lives with the urban environment, both physical and imagined. It proposes to be a guide to mapping not only how city spaces shape or limit women's lives, but also how women participate in the construction or reconstruction of these spaces. P-ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 338. South in Contemporary Italy. (3 h)
Throughout centuries of struggles for nationhood, southern Italy as a society dealt with many obstacles: hastened modernization, regionalism and organized crime. This course examines southern Italy as a society through history, short novels, films, newspapers and academic articles within a national perspective. P-any 200-level course.
ITA 340. Traveling with Muhammad and Dante. (3 h)
Examines, in literary and visual forms, the Book of the Ladder of Muhammad and Dante's Inferno where the journeys of the two travelers into the afterlife are narrated. P-ITA 319 or POI .
ITA 342. Boccaccio's Decameron or 'Sex in the City': Rethinking Community in Medieval Florence. (3 h)
Studies the impact of the plague that hit Europe in 1348 and the power of storytelling to rebuild the community. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 346. Narrating and Visualizing the Mediterranean in the Italian Trecento. (3 h)
This course examines the representation of the Mediterranean through texts and images. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 375. Special Topics. (3 h)
Selected special topics in Italian literature. May be repeated for credit if topic varies. P - ITA 319 or POI.
ITA 381. Italian Independent Study. (1.5-3 h)
May be repeated once for credit. P - POI.
Italian Literature and Culture in English (IAS)
IAS 210. Introduction to Italian Literature. (3 h)
Italian literature through the centuries focusing on Italy’s most significant contributions to Western literature and culture. Includes major works in poetry, theater, and novels that explore Italian historical, social, and cultural experiences and reflect on the process of literary creation. (D)
IAS 212. Contemporary Italian Fiction. (3 h)
Introduction to works of fiction in post-World War II Italy. Themes vary and may include historical trauma, the changing faces of Italy, and the role and forms of fiction in the contemporary world. (D)
IAS 214. Italian Drama. (3 h)
Survey of Italy’s most influential contributions to the history of theater, ranging from Commedia dell’arte, Renaissance spectacle, and the bourgeois theater of Carlo Goldoni to the Nobel prize-winning 20th century playwrights Luigi Pirandello and Dario Fo. (D)
IAS 220. Italian Women Writers. (3 h)
Through readings, films, and documentaries, explores the foremost issues concerning contemporary women’s writing in the Italian context—women’s fight against marginalization and struggle for freedom, both economic and social, and the right to assert themselves. (D)
IAS 310. Italian Historical Fiction. (3 h)
Inquiry into Italian novels and stories blending fictional and historical elements. (D)
IAS 325. Italian Neorealism in Films and Novels. (3 h)
Study of important films, novels, and short stories of Italian Neorealism, including considerations of the history, philosophy, politics, artistic movements and civic renaissance of postwar Italian life that led to its development. (D)
IAS 360. Dante. (3 h)
Study of the Divina Commédia as epic, prophecy, autobiography, and poetry, relating it to antiquity, Christianity, Dante’s European present, the birth new intellectual and poetic forms, and Dante’s own afterlife in the West. (D)
IAS 375. Special Topics. (3 h)
Selected special topics in Italian literature, cinema, society and/or culture. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.
IAS 380. History of Italian Cinema. (3 h)
Examines the cultural history and aesthetics of motion pictures through the works of significant Italian filmmakers and genres from silent era to the 21st century.