Italian
Graduate Courses
ACADEMIC YEAR 2009-2010
Please refer to InsideND for the most up-to-date, accurate information.
SPRING 2010 - FALL 2009
SPRING 2010 COURSES
ROIT 63116 DANTE II 12:30-1:45 T/R
C. Moevs
Dante's Comedy is one of the supreme poetic achievements in Western literature. It is a probing synthesis of the entire Western cultural and philosophical tradition that produced it, a radical experiment in poetics and poetic technique, and a profound exploration of Christian spirituality. Dante I and II are a close study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy, in its cultural (historical, literary, artistic, philosophical) context. Dante I covers the works that precede the Comedy (Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia) and the Inferno, Dante II covers the Purgatorio and Paradiso, along with the Monarchia. These are separate courses, and can be taken independently, though they do form an integrated sequence. The course and all discussion will be conducted in English. Dante's minor works will be read in English translation; all critical articles will be in English. The Comedy will be read in facing-page translation, and we will refer to it in Italian. Acquaintance with Latin or a Romance language is therefore helpful, though not strictly necessary. Cross list LLRO 40116, ROIT 40116, MI 40553, 60553, LIT 73665
ROIT 63213 RELIGION AND LITERATURE IN THE LIGHT OF JOB
12:45-3:15 T
V. Montemaggi
This course explores the light that the Book of Job can shed on our understanding of the relationship between literary and theological reflection. An initial reading of the Book of Job itself will open up the questions (concerning, for example, human vulnerability and divine unknowability) that will then provide the conceptual focus for the rest of the course; in which we will examine texts by Gregory the Great, Dante, Shakespeare and Primo Levi, shaped in different but richly complementary ways by a profoundly compelling engagement with the questions raised by Job. Through such examination, and in conversation with contemporary literary and theological studies, students will be invited to reflect closely on the distinctive contribution that the coming together of literary and theological reflection can make to our thinking about meaning and truth.
ROIT 63726 MODERN ITALIAN POETRY TRANSLATION STUDIES J.Welle 3:30-6:15 W
This course will focus on the development of twentieth-century Italian poetry within the broad context of translation studies. The translation, transmission, and reception of modern Italian poetry in the Anglophone world will allow us to attend to the international dimensions of poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Major Italian poets and the chief currents of poetic expression will be examined through a close analysis of works by D'Annunzio, Pascoli, Ungaretti, Marinetti, Gozzano, Ungaretti, Saba, Montale, Luzi, Sereni, Pasolini, Sanguineti, Rosselli, and Zanzotto. Requirements include: preparation of readings, a number of oral reports, a major seminar presentation; a final research paper.
63115-01 DANTE I 3:00-4:15 MW T. Cachey
According to the eminent critic John Freccero "Understanding in the Inferno is a process that might be characterized as hyperbolic doubt systematically applied to the values of contemporary society." This may explain the strong revival of interest in the poem that we have witnessed of late. In this course we will read and discuss in detail the Inferno as well as important "minor" works leading up to the Divine Comedy including the Vita nuova (New Life), the Convivio (The Banquet), and the De vulgari eloquentia (On vernacular eloquence). We will especially focus on major episodes of the Inferno in the light of recent scholarship and in relation to current debates in the humanities. The course satisfies the university literature requirement, and will be offered in English (but we will read the Inferno in a facing-page translation). Undergraduate students of Italian at all levels are welcome. Midterm, final exam and brief presentations. CL- LLRO 40145, MI 40552, MI 60552
ROIT 63118 BOCCACCIO 12:45-3:15 T C. Moevs
Though one of the most entertaining texts in literature, Boccaccio's Decameron has been called "the most enigmatic of medieval texts, richly difficult to fathom." The text that lies behind Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and that created the modern short story, the Decameron is one of the most important and influential works in literature. It is a profound meditation on the grounds of faith, on the relation between language and reality, on literature as a response to human suffering and mortality, on the nature of crisis and historical change. It is a subtle exploration of the concepts of fortune, human intelligence and creativity, love, social hierarchy and social order, culture and nature, and religious language and practice. It explicitly raises questions of gender and the position of women in society and culture. It is an excellent starting-point for further and varied explorations in late medieval culture, such as magic, the visual arts, mercantile culture, travel and discovery, and new religious practices. Conducted mainly in Italian, but students who can read the text in the original and follow discussion in Italian are welcome. Open to advanced and qualified undergraduates by permission.
ROIT 63205 ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 1:00-3:30 W M. Meserve
This course examines the political, cultural, social, and religious history of Italy from about 1350 to 1550. Starting with an extended study of Florence, its economic foundations, social and political structures, artistic monuments, and key personalities, the course then examines how the culture of the Florentine Renaissance spread to the rest of Italy, especially to the papal court of Rome and the princely courts of northern Italy, and, finally, to the new nation-states of northern Europe. Key topics will include: the growth of the Italian city-state; the appearance of new, Renaissance "characters" (the merchant, the prince, the courtier, the mercenary, the learned lady, the self-made man); Renaissance humanism and the classical revival; the relationship between art and politics; and Renaissance ideas of liberty, virtue, historical change, and the individual's relationship to God. The course will not tell a story of steady progress from medieval to modern institutions, societies, and modes of thinking; rather, we will consider the Renaissance as a period in flux, in which established traditions thrived alongside creative innovations and vigorous challenges to authority. Students will write one long paper and take a midterm and a final exam.
ROIT 63410 FICTIONAL SELVES AND TRUTHFUL STORIES Autobiography in Eighteenth-Century Italy S. Ferri 3:30-6:15 R
This course explores the genre of autobiography in eighteenth-century Italian literature. The narcissistic century par excellence, the Settecento saw the rise of autobiography as a major literary form: from Vico to Goldoni, from Casanova to Alfieri, a number of Italian authors ventured into writing memoirs, diaries, and other autobiographical works to recount in their own voices their personal histories. We will focus especially on how these authors defined the autobiographical subject and on the challenges they faced in their feats of self-representation and self-construction, paying particular attention to the historical context and to issues of genre, style, and subject matter. How is the rise of autobiography connected with the emergence of a modern notion of the self? Where do these authors draw the line between autobiography and fiction? Between memory and imagination? How do they construct their personal and literary selves? What kind of pact do they establish with the reader? What are the motives behind their stated autobiographical intentions? We will discuss the primary texts with reference to autobiography and fiction theory, psychology, 18th-century notions of the self, and established autobiographical models. In addition to the primary sources (Vico, Goldoni, Casanova, Alfieri, Da Ponte, et al.) readings will include selected critical and theoretical texts. The seminar will be conducted in Italian, and will require student presentations and a research paper.
ROIT 63820 TOPICS IN RENAISSANCE ART: ART IN THE AGE OF CASANOVA: 18TH CENT. EUROPEAN ART R. Coleman 11:45-1:00 MW
Profound and universal inquiry into all aspects of knowledge marked the history of the century of enlightenment & the Grand Tour. The rise of the collective idea of nature, the study and instrumentality of the antique, the foundations of religion, the state, morality and reason, the relationship of the arts to the state, the philosophy of aesthetic, were all critically analyzed & questioned. This course investigates various stylistic trends in eighteenth-century art in Italy, France and England with a focus on the institutionalization of art through the academies. Discussion also centers on classical art theory and its relationship to the academies in light of the social, political, and religious climate of the period. We will also consider the aesthetical, art historical, and social consequences of the writings of Kant, Burke, and Winckelmann. The course begins with the late subsequent stylistic trends as neoclassicism, Egyptian revival, and the rococo. Attention is also given to the vedute painters, and such diverse personalities as Piranesi, Mengs, Kauffmann, Tiepolo, Watteau, Chardin, and Wright of Derby. CL ARHI 43305/63305, ROIT 30830
ROIT 63828 VENETIAN & NORTHERN ITALIAN REN. ART 3:00-4:15 MW R. Coleman
This course focuses on significant artistic developments of the sixteenth century in Venice with brief excursions to Lombardy and Piedmont. Giorgione, Titian, and Palladio, the formulators of the High Renaissance style in Venice, and subsequent artists such as Tintoretto and Veronese are examined. An investigation of the art produced in important provincial and urban centers such as Brescia, Cremona, Milan, Parma, Varallo, and Vercilli also provide insight into the traditions of the local schools and their patronage. 3 credits. Open to majors only CL ROIT 40828
