ITAL B

(Offered: Fall 2026)

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

0

Credits (max)

0

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course provides a solid introduction to the Italian language and culture. It is intended for students with no previous knowledge of Italian and aims at giving them a complete foundation in Italian grammar and pronunciation, with particular attention to listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Students refine communicative and cross-cultural comparison abilities by completing tasks such as role-plays, music projects, and creative compositions, in pairs and/or small groups, to stimulate dialogue and create a dynamic and vibrant learning environment. Classes are student-centered and designed to foster students' language skills, keeping in mind their different ways of learning. The course is based on five weekly 50-minute sessions: four sessions with the instructor and one with a TA, to work on written and oral assignments and hone language communicative skills. This course promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion by adopting a free, online, and open textbook specifically designed for Tri-Co students.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course is the continuation of ITAL001 and is intended for students who started studying Italian the semester before. It aims at making students be able to: (1) speak and write in Italian at an elementary level; (2) effectively communicate with other Italian-speaking people by giving advice, expressing desires, and sharing their opinions; (3) produce authentic works in Italian such as audio messages, social media posts, songs, etc.; (4) understand and comment on aspects of Italian culture in the target language; (5) refine intercultural communication skills. Classes are student-centered and designed to foster students' language skills, keeping in mind their different ways of learning. The course is based on five weekly 50-minute sessions: four sessions with the instructor and one with a TA, to work on written and oral assignments and hone language communicative skills. This course promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion by adopting a free, online, and open textbook specifically designed for Tri-Co students. Prerequisite: ITAL B001 or placement.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course is the first half of a two-semester sequence and provides students with a broader basis for learning to communicate effectively, accurately, and comfortably in an Italian-speaking environment. This course builds on the students' existing skills in Italian, increases their confidence and their ability to read, write, speak, understand the language, and introduces them to more refined lexical terms, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural materials. While the principal aim of the course is to further develop language abilities, the course also imparts a foundation for the understanding of modern and contemporary Italy. Students will be exposed to newspaper and magazine articles, literary and cinematic texts, Italian songs and internet materials which will facilitate a transition towards content courses. By the end of the first semester, students will have gained an appreciation for many aspects of Italian culture in its broad spectrum and will be able to communicate orally and in writing about a wide variety of topics. Prerequisite: ITAL B002 or placement.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course is the second half of a two-semester sequence designed to help students attain a level of proficiency to communicate effectively and accurately in Italian. This course builds on the students' existing skills in Italian, increases their confidence and their ability to read, write, speak, and understand the language, and introduces them to more refined lexical terms, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural materials. While the principal aim of the course is to further develop language abilities, the course also imparts a foundation for the understanding of modern and contemporary Italy. Practice is given in all four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and students will conduct a collaborative reading of an Italian novel in order to analyze aspects of the Italian culture. By the end of this second semester, students will have reached full command of all the most advanced and sophisticated structures of the language, will have gained an appreciation for Italian culture, and will be able to communicate orally and in writing about a wide variety of topics. Prerequisite: ITAL B101 or placement.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Do patriarchal societies still exist today? Who are the neo-fascists? What does it mean to be a woman, an immigrant, or a queer person in the land of ultra-traditionalism, of the Pope, and the Camorra? Which Italian are we speaking in Italy? This course will explore these questions through a variety of materials in Italian: stories, TV shows, poems, newspaper articles, public art, essays, videos, and songs. We will deal with issues of identity, gender violence, historical memory, politics, and patriarchy. We will immerse ourselves in the culture of patriarchal contemporary Italy through key-themes: conversando insieme. Prerequisite: ITAL 102, or equivalent.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

0.5

Credits (max)

0.5

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course focusses on the development of the short story, and particularly on its changing form through the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Students will analyze Italian novellas through in-class discussions and take-home assignment. They will start by reading some short stories by Boccaccio’s Decameron and will then focus closely on 19th century Rosso malpelo and L'amante di Gramigna by Giovanni Verga and on Terno secco by Matilde Serao. Moving towards 20th and 21st centuries, we will examine racism, immigration, and patriarchy in context with the reading of women writers such as Sibilla Aleramo, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Elena Ferranate, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anna Maria Ortese, Dacia Maraini, Donatella Di Pietrantonio. Our 21st-century examples will also include Roberto Saviano's Il contrario della morte and Valeria Parrella's Il premio. To stimulate classroom discussion and provide useful insight into the wide variety of Italy’s socio-cultural specificities, the texts will be supplemented with selected background information including scholarly criticism, visual media, and media reception. The course is highly interactive and, at times, adopts the mode of a creative writing workshop. Students will thus be asked to comment their and other colleagues’ work by discussing points of strength and weakness. This process will facilitate the preparation for and successful drafting of the papers. It will also encourage students to learn how to analyze and self-assess their own essays. The stories will be read in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL 102 or permission of instructor.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

0.5

Credits (max)

0.5

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This is a topics course. Course content varies. This bridge class, taught in Italian, is designed to familiarize students with the shifting cultural panorama of present-day Italy (and its metamorphosing language) through a variety of readings by living authors, journalists, comic-book artists, intellectuals, and politicians.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

How many women are killed in Italy? How many women suffer abuse at the hands of their partner? Data shows one in seven in Italy have suffered gendered abuse. In many regions, victims have nowhere to turn for shelter. This course will examine domestic and sexual assault in intimate relationships from a feminist analysis. Historical, theoretical, and sociological perspectives on gender violence will be critically analyzed through criminology research, literature, and theory. Course context will focus on dominance and control as a co-factor of gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, age, sexuality, nationality, and other variables. Therefore, the course will highlight the differential impact of gender violence on women of color, lesbians, older women, adolescent girls, immigrants and marginalized and disenfranchised women. Domestic and sexual violence in contemporary Italy will also be reviewed and analyzed in the context of international contexts. This course will be taught in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL 102 or permission from instructor

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

The period or movement commonly referred to as the Renaissance remains one of the great iconic moments of global history: a time of remarkable innovation within artistic and intellectual culture, and a period still widely regarded as the crucible of modernity. Although lacking a political unity and being constantly colonized by European Empires, Italy was the original heartland of the Renaissance, and home to some of its most powerful and enduring figures, such as Leonardo and Michelangelo in art, Petrarch and Ariosto in literature, Machiavelli in political thought. This course provides an overview of Italian culture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century by adopting a cross-cultural, intersectional, and inter-disciplinary approach. The course places otherness at the center of the picture rather than at its margins, with the main aim to look at pivotal events and phenomena (the rise of Humanism, courtly culture, the canonization of the language), not only from the point of view of its protagonists but also through the eyes of its non-male, non-white, non-Christian, and non-heterosexual witnesses. The course ultimately challenges traditional accounts of the Italian Renaissance by crossing also disciplinary boundaries, since it examines not only literary, artistic, and intellectual history, but also material culture, cartography, science, technology, and history of food and fashion. All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students seeking Italian credits will complete their assignments in the target language.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course investigates how global thinkers, poets, and artists reflected in their works on the roles and powers of art, poetry, and human creativity. The course approaches this theme through a cross-cultural and trans-historical approach, which encompasses the Italian Humanism, which argued for the first time for the importance of aesthetic knowledge, as well as the Age of Enlightenment, which founded ‘aesthetics’ as a specific scientific discipline. Readings from these writers will show how artistic products, human imagination, and poetry are not just light-hearted activities but powerful cognitive tools which can reveal aspects of human history. If the human being is deemed to be a combination of reason and feeling – soul and body – art and poetry, which border both the rational and irrational realms, appear the most appropriate scientific tool to reveal the human essence and its destiny. The discussion will focus on pivotal global writers and philosophers such as Giambattista Vico and Giacomo Leopardi, who pioneered aesthetic, historical, literary, and anthropological ideas which are still crucial in the current theoretical debate on arts and poetry. All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students will have an additional hour of class for Italian credit.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Emphasis will be put on Italian women writers and film directors, who are often left out of syllabi adhering to traditional canons. Particular attention will be paid to: a) women writers who have found their voices (through writing) as a means of psychological survival in a patriarchal world; b) women engaged in the women's movement of the 70's and who continue to look at, and rewrite, women's stories of empowerment and solidarity; c) “divaism”, fame, via beauty and sex with a particular emphasis on the '60s (i.e. Gina Lollobrigida, Sofia Loren, Claudia Cardinale). Counts toward Gender and Sexuality Studies; Counts toward Film Studies.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course investigates the history and evolution of Philadelphia as a globalized and multi-ethnic city, using as a case study for this analysis the impact and legacy of transnational Italian culture across the centuries. By adopting a cross-cultural, trans-historical, and interdisciplinary approach, the course explores the influence that — along with and in intersection with many other cultural inputs — also Italian arts and cultures have exerted on the city, making it become the cosmopolitan and transnational urban environment that it is today. Throughout the centuries and way before Italy even started existing as a state, Philadelphians traveled to the peninsula and brought back objects to display in emerging cultural institutions or studied the country’s art and architecture styles to shape the evolving aspect of the city. Simultaneously, incoming immigration formed new neighborhoods — such as South Philly, home to the Italian Market — and Italian figures came to prominence and became part of the social fabric of the city. Nowadays, many non-profit organizations work to preserve the traces that Italian migrants left within Philadelphia’s multi-ethnic urban environment as well as to extend the city's global profile and celebrate its heritage and diversity. Through specific field trips, on-site experiential activities, and forms of civic engagement this course highlights both the enduring fascination of Philadelphians with Italy (or with the idea thereof) across the centuries and the role that the Italian Diaspora played in the development of the city. The course ultimately challenges geographical, chronological, and cultural boundaries by showing how places, arts, identities that today are perceived as ‘American’ have in most cases an intersectional, multi-ethnic, and cross-cultural history to tell. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. All readings and class discussion will be in English, and no knowledge of Italian is required. Students seeking Italian credits will complete their assignments in the target language.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course will be a study of the mafia in its historical, social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions. A wide range of novels, films, testimonies and TV series will offer different representations of the Mafia: its ethics, its relationship with politics, religion and business, its ideas of friendship, family, masculinity and femininity. The Associazione Libera was established in 1995 with the purpose of involving and supporting those who are interested in the fight against mafias and organized crime. Thanks to Italian Law n. 109/96, the Italian government is able now to seize property from Mafiosi and give it to co-operations such as Libera. Specialized sectors of mafia activities explored include prostitution, drugs, finance, and human trafficking. Ecomafia receives special attention, examining the implications of mafia for the environment, agriculture and food markets.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

What are the responses to human suffering during outbreaks of epidemic illness? How can literature be a valuable tool for plague prevention in time of pestilence? This class explores crucial questions on how narrative works in medical contexts, with a focus on the Decameron and the black plague of 1348. Giovanni Boccaccio is the first writer to unite the literary topos of narration during a life-threatening situation with an historical epidemic context in Medieval Italy. How does he tell his stories in time of illness and death? How do writers and other storytellers respond to dominant versions of health and medicine? Taught in Italian.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Youth and Cultural Representation in Modern and Contemporary Italy: Intergenerational conflict, coming-of-age, and societal rebellion. This course examines the representation of youth in modern and contemporary Italian cultural production. It explores themes of rebellion, political unrest, social transformation, and regional identity, with particular attention to the ways in which youth—both real and imagined—has shaped poetic expression and critical discourse in Italy. Special emphasis is placed on a crucial period in the formation of Italian national identity and post WWII. The course also investigates the evolving representation of female coming-of-age narratives, considering how these depictions have been influenced by changing social contexts. By analyzing the reciprocal relationship between cultural change and literary genres, students will gain insight into the voices of youth across different historical moments and the ways in which young individuals emerge as subjects of their own narratives within contemporary discourse, focusing on cinema and narrative.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course is a critical analysis of Modern Italian society through cinematic production and literature, from the Risorgimento to the present. According to Alfred Hitchock’s little stories, two goats were eating the reel of a movie taken from a famous novel. “I liked the book better,” says one to the other. While at times we too chew on movies taken from books, our main objective will not be to compare books and films, but rather to explore the more complex relation between literature and cinema: how text is put into film, how cultural references operate with respect to issues of style, technique, and perspective. We will discuss how cinema conditions literary imagination, and how literature leaves its imprint on cinema. We will "read" films as "literary images" and "see" novels as "visual stories". Students will become acquainted with literary sources through careful readings; on viewing the corresponding film, students will consider how narrative and descriptive textual elements are transposed into cinematic audio/visual elements. An important concern of this course will be to analyze the particularity of each film/book in relation to a set of themes -gender, death, class, discrimination, history, migration- through close textual analysis. We shall use contemporary Film theory and critical methodology to access these themes.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

The course investigates how the concepts of love, magic, and medicine emerged and developed throughout early modernity and beyond. In exploring the fields of Philosophy, Medicine, and Magic, global thinkers, poets, and artists drew not only from classical sources, but were also deeply influenced by a wide range of models, such as fictional ancient sources, Islamic philosophy, and the Jewish Kabbalah. In this interesting syncretism, love was considered as an inspiration experienced by the entire universe, and magical practice was understood as a philosophy in action, which had the power to establish a bond of a loving nature between the different realms of reality. Magicians were therefore conceived as wise philosophers capable of joining this network of correspondences and controlling them (art)ificially. As a result, the figures of poets and artists interestingly merged into those of magicians of physicians, and poetry was conceived both as a magic able to arouse mental images stronger than real visions, and as a medicine able to exert a mental and physiological agency on the body. The course will approach these themes through a multi-disciplinary and trans-historical approach, which will include in the discussion a wide variety of figures, such as global early modern and modern philosophers, physicians, poets, artists, and composers.All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students will have an additional hour of class for Italian credit.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Designed as an in-depth interdisciplinary exploration of Italy’s 20th-century cultural life, the course is organized around major artistic and intellectual trends, viewed in their historical and global perspective, and in connection with Avant-garde literary movements and philosophical ideas: i.e. surrealism, metaphysics, Dadaism, psychoanalysis, futurism, decadence, and modernism. While thinking and writing in Italian, we will examine films, novels, and poetry to gain insight on Modernity with attention also to gender and ethnic perspectives. Elements of metrics and rhetoric will be used to analyze poetry in its own essence. Prerequisite: One 200-Level course in Italian.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

This course is open only to seniors in Italian and in Romance Languages. Under the direction of the instructor, each student prepares a senior thesis on an author or a theme that the student has chosen. By the end of the fall semester, students must have completed an abstract and a critical annotated bibliography to be presented to the department. See Thesis description. Prerequisite: This course is open only to seniors in Italian Studies and Romance Languages with a GPA of 3.7.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Under the direction of the instructor, each student prepares a senior thesis on an author or a theme that the student has chosen. In April there will be an oral defense with members and majors of the Italian Department. See Thesis description. Prerequisite: This course is open only to seniors in Italian Studies and Romance Languages.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu

Offered with approval of the Department.

Subject

ITAL B

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credit

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

Catalog 2026-2027

Source

catalog.haverford.edu