43 courses with the subject ITAL, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ITAL 105Elementary Italian1
The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Simona Bondavalli, Mario Sassi. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted. Yearlong course 105- ITAL 106 . Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice. Course Format: CLS
The course offers a yearlong introduction to the essentials of Italian language, and an opportunity for students to engage with a different culture and a new way of thinking. By the end of the course students are able to understand speech, have a simple conversation, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar explanation and practice, student presentations, games, songs, films, etc. Reading and performance of a play by a contemporary author concludes the course. Sole Anatrone, Mario Sassi. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted. Yearlong course ITAL 105 -106. Open to all classes; four 50-minute periods; one hour of drill and one hour of aural-oral practice. Course Format: CLS
This Introduction to Italian Language and Culture course condenses the material normally covered in ITAL 105 - ITAL 106 into just one semester and prepares students to move directly into Intermediate Italian. In this fast-paced course students develop communicative skills through listening, speaking, reading and writing practice. Class time is devoted to conversation, grammar review, student presentations, and active engagement with Italian culture (film, song, opera, television, art, literature and traditions). By the end of the course, students are able to understand speech, have simple conversations, and produce a presentation on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays on a variety of familiar topics, and they are familiar with cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers. The course is recommended for students who have previous exposure to Italian in academic or non-academic settings. Students with substantial experience in another Romance language also will be considered. Due to the accelerated nature of the course, students need to be prepared to commit themselves to a fast-paced learning environment. Mario Sassi.
Permission of the instructor. (Please contact the instructor to schedule a conversation.) Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ITAL 109Advanced Elementary Italian1
The course is designed for students who have studied some Italian in high school or through other sources, but are not yet ready for Intermediate Italian. Building on existing skills, daily practice helps students further develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities. By the end of the course students are able to have simple conversations and deliver presentations on everyday topics. They can read and write short essays, and they are familiar with relevant cultural practices and phenomena associated with Italy and Italian speakers.
Open to students who have had previous exposure to Italian. Placement test required. Five 50-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 122Queer Italian American Media (in Eng)0.5
(Same as MEDS 122 and WFQS 122 ) Representations of Italian Americans are ubiquitous in American media, from the mafia patriarch, to the family-obsessed nonna, these archetypal tropes have trained audiences to understand Italian Americanism in terms of exaggerated heterosexuality. This course looks for characters and narratives that push back against those norms, creating cracks in the foundation for other modes of embodiment. We look at movies and popular TV shows that play with the archetypes, like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where the hypermachismo of the blue collar greaser takes the form of a proud gay man; or Younger , where the lasagna loving zia is an out lesbian. We study the parallels between the mobster and queer in The Sopranos and Alto, and we read first-hand accounts from queer Italian Americans working in the media about what representation and the lack thereof has meant to them. This short course introduces students to the interconnected fields of media, film, gender and Italian studies. First six-week course. Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as MEDS 123 and WFQS 123 ) This six week course takes a close look at the representation of women in some of the most iconic examples of Italian cinema. From La dolce vita to La vita è bella this course puts gender theory in dialogue with media studies to consider the ways the art form interacts with and reflects changing attitudes towards women and female sexuality. Each week is devoted to a different historical moment as we move from the early divas of silent cinema, to contemporary films like those of the Rohrwacher sisters whose directing and acting work interrogates the categories of both Italian and woman. No knowledge of Italian is necessary to take this course. Second six-week course. Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 168Food Culture and Italian Identity (in Eng)1
How did spaghetti and meatballs become the symbol of Italian cuisine in the United States? Is it true that pasta was not invented in Italy? How did a cookbook contribute to the creation of national identity? Could abolishing pastasciutta make Italians more optimistic? Images of food and dinner tables pervade Italian art and literature, celebrating pleasures or projecting desires, passing on traditions or stirring revolutions. In this course we examine how eating and cooking habits intersect with material and cultural changes in Italy at various times, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present. We investigate how issues of personal, regional, and national identity are shaped and expressed by food habits. Fiction and non-fiction writings, recipes, documentary and fiction film, advertising, and television shows provide the basis for discussion and writing assignments. Simona Bondavalli. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. May not be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 172Southern Italy on Page and Screen (in Eng)1
It has famously been said that Sicily holds “the clue to everything” and that one can “see Naples and die.” Why and how is the South, Italy’s “internal other”, viewed with alternating fascination and revulsion? In books and on film, Southern Italy is depicted in dramatic, contradictory, and sometimes problematic terms: as pastoral idyll, social and economic backwater, archaeological repository, land of mafia denizens, or locus of modern migration crises. As the site of intersecting, contradictory, and too-often limiting figurations, Southern Italy has a prominent and highly contested position in the modern Italian cultural and artistic imagination that has much to teach us about Italy and Italians. This course interrogates these depictions and stereotypes in literature and film through the careful unpacking of a broad range of texts and images from the 19th century to the present day. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. May not be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 175The Italian Renaissance in English Translation1
In this course we examine the notion of selfhood as it first appears in the writings of early humanists (XIV century), Renaissance authors (XVI century) and works of contemporary visual artists. Cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and gender issues are investigated through the reading of literary and theatrical masterpieces and their influence on visual artists like Botticelli, Raphael, and others. We read in English translation excerpts from Petrarch ( Canzoniere and Letters ), Boccaccio ( Decameron ), poems and letters by women humanists (Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, Laura Cereta), Machiavelli ( The Prince ), Castiglione ( The Book of the Courtier ), Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco ( Poems ). In order to foster the student’s self-awareness and creativity, journaling, experiential practices, and a creative project, based on the course content, are included. Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. May not be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 183Becoming Human, Becoming Animal: Tales of Transformation and Hybridity (in Eng)1
Fiction teems with transformations: a mischievous wooden puppet longs to be a flesh and blood boy, a hideous but sensitive monster roams the Arctic with his creator in vengeful pursuit, an iguana mysteriously metamorphoses into a woman on a tiny island off the coast of Portugal, a young salesman wakes up one morning a huge insect. What is the nature of our fascination with these in-between spaces of bodies and beings? Why does it so often find shape in fantastic stories that delight and disturb? How do such stories channel fears and curiosities about autonomy, intelligence, desire, and disgust? What do they try (or fail) to teach us about humanity? This course looks at tales of transformation in Italian fiction, placing them in dialogue with their shape-shifter counterparts across centuries, cultures, and media. Mario Sassi. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Intermediate language course designed to reinforce and build upon the communication and cultural competencies acquired at the introductory level. Among the goals of this course are: improving reading comprehension, writing, and conversational skills; developing critical thinking in Italian; and deepening students’ understanding of Italian culture. A variety of texts from various genres, both written and audiovisual, provide the context for activities aimed at facilitating grammar review and expansion, vocabulary development, and writing practice. Short stories, essays, poems, newspaper articles, websites, pop songs, videos, and a feature film provide material for analysis and discussion. Students are invited to work in collaborative and communal ways, and to understand a different language and culture by rethinking their own. Mario Sassi.
ITAL 105 - ITAL 106 , ITAL 107 or permission of the instructor. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted. Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
ITAL 206Intermediate Italian II1
An upper-intermediate language and culture course designed to improve reading comprehension and refine oral and written expression. The reading of coming-of-age novel Io non ho paura ( I am not scared ) by Niccolò Ammaniti provides ample opportunities to discuss childhood activities, family life, regional and social differences, popular music, television, comic books, nature and landscape in 1970s Italy. Grammar review is conducted in context, while the novel’s conversational style stimulates vocabulary expansion. We also analyze the film adaptation of the novel and discuss authorial choices in both media. Writing assignments range from analytical to creative, while brief presentations allow students to explore specific aspects of the novel and develop effective oral expression. Alberto Gelmi.
ITAL 205 or permission of the instructor. Electronic versions of required materials are not accepted. Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 205 , ITAL 206 or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
ITAL 218On the Edge of Catastrophe: Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis1
Giorgio Bassani (1916-2000), novelist, poet, essayist wrote this classic of modern Italian literature in 1962. Through the story of the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy Jewish family from Ferrara, Bassani recounts an important part of Italian history: Mussolini’s Fascist regime with its race laws, persecutions, and deportations. However, this is not simply a historical novel, it is also an autobiographical one, a book of memory, and a love story. The novel’s sophisticated structure, its clear and fiercely crafted language, at once high and idiomatic, its evocation of Ferrara, make this work a wonderful medium for the study of Italian language, history, literature, and culture. Particular attention is devoted to the development of oral and written skills. Individual and group multi-media projects.
ITAL 206 , ITAL 217 or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 220Italian Identities1
Following the structure of the pronouns ( io, tu, lei, noi, voi, loro ), this course explores questions of Italian identity across a variety of media from the Middle Ages through today. Through the study and analysis of texts by notable Italian authors like Niccolò Machiavelli, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Natalia Ginzburg, in addition to a selection of varied material including historical recipes, Baroque painting, and Elena Ferrante’s TV series The Lying Life of Adults , students hone their linguistic and cultural competencies and transition from communicative to abstract language as they engage in thoughtful discussion of the material. Students read and produce short essays and oral presentations. Simona Bondavalli.
ITAL 206 or permission of the instructor. Course conducted entirely in Italian. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
ITAL 222Italian Journeys1
This advanced-level course covers different eras of Italian cultural history through the theme of the journey: symbolic journeys, personal development journeys, and journeys of exploration across the Italian territory and beyond. Through reading prose, poetry, theater, and film, students take an in-depth look at some of the more culturally important texts in the Italian canon. Beginning with Dante, Boccaccio and Ariosto and moving through to modern authors like Giorgio Bassani or Amara Lakhous, students become familiar with the recurring themes of displacement and discovery that continue to shape Italian culture. In this course, students read at least one novel in its entirety, produce their own written analysis and give oral presentations on topics they study and research over the course of the semester. Alberto Gelmi.
ITAL 220 , ITAL 244 (Italian Workshop at ECCo) or permission of the instructor. Course conducted entirely in Italian. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ITAL 225Italian Food: Fact and Fiction1
(Same as MEDS 225 ) How can we define “Italian” cuisine in a country characterized by myriad local culinary traditions? How did eating habits, food knowledge, local pride and storytelling intersect to shape a globally circulating image of Italy as a “food nation”? The course investigates the development of Italian culinary traditions in relation to local, regional, and national identities; the long-standing cultural association of Italy with food, both within the national boundaries and without, particularly in the US; and the representation of food across various media (fiction, cookbooks, documentary and fiction film, television and web series, advertising) since the 19 th century, focusing particularly on key moments of change in the history of the modern nation, such as: the national unification process, the Fascist regime and World War II, the post-war economic miracle, the women’s movement in the 1970s, and immigration in the 21 st century. We look at the ways in which representations of food in a variety of media construct or challenge specific images of Italy and Italians and consider the problematic notions of authenticity and typicality so frequently applied to certain dishes, ingredients, or culinary habits. We explore the lasting importance of cities in Italian food history, and the nostalgia for the countryside that urban life projected onto food marketing in the late 20 th century. The changing roles of women in relation to food preparation and consumption, as well as to the transmission of knowledge, are central to the course inquiry. The iconic status of Italy as “Slow food nation” on one hand, and the often lamented “foodification” of the country on the other also constitute topics of discussion. Simona Bondavalli. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 236Art in the Age of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo1
(Same as ART 236 ) An exploration of the works of these three masters and their contemporaries in Renaissance Italy, c. 1485 - c. 1565. The primary focus is on painting and sculpture, but the course also considers drawings, prints, landscape, gardens, and decorative arts, emphasizing artists’ increasing tendency to work in multiple media. We trace changing ideas about the role of the artist and the nature of artistic creativity; and consider how these Renaissance masters laid foundations for art, and its history, theory and criticism for centuries to come. Other topics include artists’ workshops; interactions between artists and patrons; the role of the spectator; ritual and ceremonial; and Renaissance ideas about beauty, sexuality and gender. Yvonne Elet.
ART 105 or ART 106 , or permission of the instructor; open to students without
Offered
Spring
ITAL 237The Hell with Dante! A Journey to Inferno1
Written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dante’s Inferno is one of the greatest, most quoted and misquoted works of literature of all times. First of three instalments in a journey in the afterlife (along with Purgatory and Paradise) Inferno has fascinated readers for centuries, combining visionary poetry with philosophical speculation. In this class, we don’t follow Inferno in the right sequence of its thirty-four cantos. Instead, we de-structure our reading in modules that explore matters of politics and faith, ethics and poetry, intercultural relations, as well as contemporary adaptations of this masterpiece of medieval art. A selection of secondary sources help appreciate the complexity of Inferno in its context and in its reception, developing our sense of aesthetic appreciation for cultural products that were born far in space and time, but that continue to speak to us. Open to all classes. May be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 238Dante’s Commedia: 100 Cantos to God (in Eng)1
An undeniable pinnacle in the history of literature, Dante’s Commedia tells the journey to the Netherworld through Hell, the newly created Purgatory, and Paradise. Imbued with passion (and rage) for the local affairs of medieval Tuscany while unapologetically geared toward a universal understanding of history, Dante’s Commedia is a challenging philosophical and poetic masterpiece that this class will unfold in its entirety. This is a zero-textbook-cost class: all required materials are public domain. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 240Italy and its Migrations: Multimedia Cultural History1
(Same as ANST 240 , INTL 240 , and MEDS 240 ) This course follows the waves that shape and change Italian culture from the time of Unification, in 1861, up through today. We learn about the experiences, dreams, memories and politics of Italian emigration and immigration through a careful study of novels, poetry, cinema, and theater, as well as letters and media coverage. We consider the ways different narrative styles reflect the historical realities of the times, and take a critical analysis approach to the question of how public attitudes towards immigrants have shaped Italian national and diasporic sentiment. Beginning with the first major waves of emigration to the United States in the 1880s, this course provides a unique look at a moment of significant transition in Italian history and the makings of Italian-American Culture; we read literary texts, personal letters detailing the immigrant experience of cross the Atlantic at the turn of the century and of crossing the Mediterranean today, news coverage of significant events like the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, and cinematic renditions of past and current migrant experiences. We look at this cultural material in relation to the specific historical context in which it was produced, reflecting on the impact and legacy of things like the U.S. Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and the Italian Race Laws of 1938. As we read and discuss narratives of migration, we also examine the ways gender, sexuality and social roles determine and are determined by movement through space and time, reflecting critically on the exclusion of women’s voices from early accounts of migration. Sole Anatrone. This course is offered in English; Italian majors please see ITAL 340 . Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Written in the aftermath of the Black Death epidemic, Boccaccio’s Decameron is a masterpiece of Italian and European literature that has inspired artists such as Francesco Petrarca, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sandro Botticelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Margaret Atwood. The Decameron tells the story of ten young men and women who escape the infamous 1348 plague battering their native city of Florence by taking refuge in the countryside. Over the course of two weeks, they take turns sharing stories about the whims of fortune, the power of wits, the resolve of magnanimity, tragic love and dubious affairs. This class reads the novellas in English translation. While providing the necessary historical and cultural background to better understand Boccaccio’s world, the class also considers instances of reception of the Decameron in the present day. Reading and discussion are in English, no previous knowledge of Italian required. Open to all classes. Italian majors see ITAL 342 . Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
Italian cinema is studied through interdisciplinary analyses of historical, social and political changes in Italy. From Fascism to post-war reconstruction, to neo-capitalism and the troubles of the ‘68 generation, and finally to the current national crisis of identity, we explore the cinematic power to symbolize as a matter of privilege. Class, gender, race, and the normative State are concepts through which we examine the paradoxes of an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation. Close readings of films explore the genres, ideologies, and filmic techniques of important trends and phases in Italian film: the Neorealism of the 40s, the auteur cinema of the 50s, 60s and 70s, the political films of the 80s, and the postmodern satires of current directors. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English . Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as FILM 255 ) Close analysis of the narrative and visual styles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Gianni Amelio and Nanni Moretti, in the context of post-war Italian cinema and culture. Theoretical literature on these directors and on approaches to the interpretation of film-such as psychoanalytic film theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and post-colonial analyses of dominant discourses-aid us in addressing questions of style and of political and social significance. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major. Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as DRAM 261 and WFQS 261 ) What makes theatre an effective (or ineffective) vehicle for radical politics? How and why is Italy a valuable case study to consider the relationship between political activity and performance practice, particularly in light of post-1968 social ferment and during the politically explosive (and notoriously violent) 1970s? In this course, we look at plays and performance projects by artists like Dario Fo, Franca Rame, Dacia maraini, Mario Mieli, and numerous theatre collectives operating across the peninsula, as well as culutural theorists that may include Antonio Gramsci, Umberto Eco, Walter Benjamin, and Bertolt Brecht. In light of a historical moment that saw unprecedented worker and students protests and occupation of factories and universities, we consider how performance moved out of the theatre and redifined its goals and boundaries. We also devote particular attention to how feminist and queer theatre-makers critiqued institutional power and re-imagined art, society, and revolutio. This course investigates key concepts, texts, and artists involved in the theatre communities in 1970s Italy, their visions of politics and revolution, their artistic strategies, and their lasting resonance and influence on contemporary practice and aesthetics. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 277The Jews of Italy. History, Geography, Texts (in Eng)1
(Same as JWST 277 ) This course tracks the history and the geography of Jewish communities living in and moving around the Italian peninsula from Late Antiquities to the present day. We follow the developments of the many groups scattered south of the Alps mainly through their own literary voices, reading excerpts from Immanuel of Rome, Leone Ebreo, Leone de’ Sommi, Samuel Luzzatto, Sara Copia Sullam, Primo Levi, Liana Millu, Giacomo Debenedetti, Franco Fortini. We also sample significant moments of interaction – peaceful or tense, productive or disruptive – between the Christian and the Jewish communities across time, with selected readings from Dante, Boccaccio and the novella tradition, Giuseppe Verdi, Rosetta Loy. Taught in English, no previous knowledge of Italian required. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 220 or ITAL 222 or the equivalent. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ITAL 302Senior Project0.5
The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. Through regular group and individual meetings, students receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. Sole Anatrone.
One 300-level course. Yearlong course ITAL 302- 303 . Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
ITAL 303Senior Project0.5
The course is intended to provide Italian majors, who have chosen to produce a senior project, with a collective and regular learning environment. They will receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of their project creation with both the instructor and their peers. The class meets three times a semester for two hours. One hour individual meetings are scheduled bi-weekly. Sole Anatrone.
One 300-level course. Yearlong course ITAL 302 -303. Three 2-hour periods a semester plus one hour, bi-weekly individual meetings. Course Format: INT
Offered
Spring
ITAL 305Italophone African Narratives, from Colonialism to Post-Colonialism1
From Italy’s Fascist colonial aspirations of the 1930s, through the “un-thinking eurocentrism” of the post-war generation, to the contemporary migritudine , we trace the engendering of Africa as concept and as reality in the Italian sociolect and society. Films may include Fellini’s La Dolce Vita , Antonioni’s L’Eclisse , Pasolini’s The African Orestes , Bertolucci’s Besieged, and Michele Placido’s Pummarò . Texts by African and African-Italian women writers may include works by Igiaba Scego, Cristina Ubax Ali Farah, Ribka Sibhatu, and Ramzanali Fazel. In Italian. Sole Anatrone.
Beloved author of children’s tales and nursery rhymes, Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) was also an educator and a prolific journalist who commented on social inequalities in a variety of media. Nonsense and linguistic play cleverly introduced pacifism, class conflict, and environmental issues in his works, promoting nonconformist responses to injustice. Reading a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction writings, students deepen their knowledge of Italian society in post-WWII decades, reflect on the country’s new democratic institutions, and consider the role of imagination and creativity in shaping political change. We discuss Rodari’s canonical status in Italian children’s literature and his popularity in continental Europe, and interrogate the scarcity of English translations through intercultural investigations. Translations, storytelling, and other creative projects allow students to engage with “the grammar of fantasy” and explore “the liberating power of words” that inspired Rodari’s democratic motto: “ Tutti gli usi della parola a tutti .” In Italian.
ITAL 220 or ITAL 222 . ( ITAL 217 with instructor’s permission) Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 320The Language of Desire and the Modern Self1
The course explores ways in which early writers in the Italian vernacular developed the modern concept of selfhood and articulated it through the language of desire. We investigate intimate expressions of both spiritual and physical longing, and analyze how the affirmation of one’s desire requires striking a balance with, or even bending, social norms of gender, ethics, spirituality, and class. We read texts and selections from, among others, San Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Isotta Nogarola, Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco e Michelangelo.
ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 331Heroes, Paladins, and Non-existent Knights: The Italian Epic Tradition from Charlemagne to Calvino1
A study of the epic tradition from the early Carolingian cantari and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to the leading Italian epics of the sixteenth century written at the Ferrara Renaissance court and their great influence on later literature, music, and paintings. Readings include selections from the Chanson de Roland and the Roman de Tristan , Pulci’s Morgante , Bolardo’s Orlando Innamorato , Ariosto’s Orlando furioso , Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata , and Italo Calvino’s parody Il cavaliere inesistente , as a contemporary reference to the traditional epic poetry. This book, epitomizing Calvino’s long interest in the epic poem, provides a good basis for analyzing the archetypal character of Roland, his stoic and ascetic demeanor, and his transformation through the centuries until he becomes indeed “nonexistent.”
ITAL 220 , 220 or 218 with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 340Italy and its Migrations: Stories of Italian Emigration and Immigration1
This course follows the waves that shape and change Italian culture from the time of Unification, in 1861, up through today. We learn about the experiences, dreams, memories and politics of Italian emigration and immigration through a careful study of novels, poetry, cinema, and theater, as well as letters and media coverage. We consider the ways different narrative styles reflect the historical realities of the times, and take a critical analysis approach to the question of how public attitudes towards immigrants have shaped Italian national and diasporic sentiment. Beginning with the first major waves of emigration in the 1880s, this course provides a unique look at a moment of significant transition in Italian history that is of particular interest to students who have followed departmental courses in Early Modern and Twentieth century studies. This course is particularly relevant for those students recently returning from their study-aboard experience in Italy, as they have a chance to reflect on their experiences as migrants with a broader historical and cultural frame. This course builds on the linguistic skills developed in the first two years of Vassar’s Italian language program, pushing students to think and form arguments within the target language. Students develop their critical and analytic thinking skills and learn about key moments in Italian and Italian diasporic history (with a special emphasis on the Italian-American context), and they significantly expand their Italian written and oral comprehension and communication skills though readings, oral presentations, and written compositions (short in-class pieces and longer research essays crafted in a series of drafts and rewrites to ensure students gain a solid familiarity with the logic of grammar and style). Individually designed for Italian majors and other students with some knowledge of Italian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in ITAL 240, but are required to do part of the work in Italian. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 342Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron: The “Novella” as a Microcosm1
A reading of the one hundred tales with specific emphasis on social, cultural and gender issues of the later Middle Ages, as represented in the novella genre. Particular attention is devoted to the Decameron’s frame as a connective tissue for the one hundred tales and a space for gender debate and social re-creation. Reference is made to some of the Decameron’s subtexts (Apuleius’ The Golden Ass , the Novellino, the French Fabliaux, and Courtly Literature). Critical interpretations are analyzed after the reading of the entire masterpiece. Issues related to textual censorship, and contemporary re-writings through different media are addressed.
ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 345Italians and their Languages1
In this seminar, we track consequential moments in the history of the Italian language and the debate surrounding the need and risks of a codified language in a country that was unified only recently and perhaps partially. Starting from medieval authors writing in several languages and dialects ( Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Provençal, Sicilian, Tuscan, Umbrian, Venetian…) we consider the lengthy process that led to the rise of the Tuscan variety as the golden standard of Italian, from the Renaissance to national unification in the 19th century. We also explore the enduring resistance against linguistic homogeneity, exploring dialect literature in the original and in translation. Finally, we consider issues of language inclusivity in present-day Italy, looking at matters such as gender representation, language minorities, and the Italian of migrants, first-, and second generation. Readings include: Dante, Machiavelli, Castiglione, Bembo, Goldoni, Manzoni, Verga, Gramsci, Scego. Secondary sources include: De Mauro, Tomasin, Gheno, De Benedetti.
ITAL 220 or ITAL 222 or the equivalent. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 375Fictions of Youth: Youth Culture in Twentieth-Century Italian Literature1
The course examines the relationship between youth and literature in post-WWII Italy from a double perspective: adolescents as a literary subject, as protagonists of fiction and non-fiction, and as authors. Variously associated with innocence and vitality, innovation and peril, self-creation and anti-authoritarianism, youth long embodied individual and social ideals and fears in literature. In the twentieth century, it also increasingly suggested uncertainty and incompletion. As adolescence acquired importance in both the historical landscape and collective imagination, its symbolic connotations became progressively unstable. When young people wrote about themselves and their peers, first-hand experience mixed with inherited notions in unexpected ways. Using the Bildungsroman as a narrative model for the representation of youth in modern fiction, we study the different ways in which European and American coming-of-age novels influence modern Italian literature. The significance of youth in post-Fascist Italy, the construction of a generational identity through media and popular culture, and the creation of a new literary language for the expression of youth are some of the topics we address. Readings by Pasolini, Moravia, Tondelli, Brizzi, Santacroce, and others. Simona Bondavalli.
ITAL 220 , ITAL 222 ; or ITAL 217 , ITAL 218 with permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ITAL 379Food and Fiction in Modern Italy1
The course investigates the role of food as both subject and metaphor of modern Italian literature and film in the 19 th and 20 th century. While the representation of eating and cooking practices contributes to the realistic mode in fiction, food often mediates memories, anxieties, and desires in narratives of personal or national coming-of-age. Even non-fictional forms of food writing, such as cookbooks or documentary films, contribute to the narrative of Italian national unification and modernization as much as canonical novels and cinema. We analyze both written texts and film, try some of the dishes described, and explore the relationship between writing, cooking, reading, and eating, as acts of creation and fruition that shape personal, regional, and national identity. Tradition and innovation; scarcity and excess; inclusion and exclusion; taste and disgust; local, national, and global trends are among the ideas structuring class discussion and writing. In Italian. Simona Bondavalli.
Reflecting critically upon the transformative experience of one or two semesters spent studying in another country, and sharing one’s perspective with others, helps returning students appreciate the value of education abroad, integrate it into their academic curriculum, and build upon it for senior work and post-graduate life. This symposium offers returning students both collective and individual opportunities to reflect critically on several facets of their time abroad and on the challenges and rewards of reentry on the home campus. The symposium also creates opportunities for returning students to hone their public speaking skills in order to share their reflections with other students at Vassar who are preparing for study abroad. Through readings, research, group discussions, and individual mentoring, participating students produce formal presentations and multimedia artifacts. Culture shock and reverse culture shock, intercultural communication, the encounter with different educational systems, linguistic challenges and achievements, changing perspectives on one’s own country and/or culture, and the value of pursuing advanced proficiency in a language other than English are among the topics addressed. First six-week course. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
