ITA 101 | BASIC ITALIAN I | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to the language and culture of Italy, the first in the three-quarter beginning Italian sequence. Focus is on the development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills and the study of Italian culture through language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and from other sources. The course aims to provide students with basic functional skills in Italian. Italian 101 focuses on introducing and talking about oneself (interests, occupation, leisure activities, likes, dislikes), ordering in a cafe and restaurant, addressing others formally or informally, and everyday life. By the end of the beginning Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in basic conversation on a variety of topics, write simple paragraphs, and read passages in contemporary Italian.
ITA 101S | BASIC ITALIAN I FOR SUMMER | 6 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
(Covers the equivalent of the ITL 101 and the first half of ITL 102.) The first half of beginning Italian. Further work on the basic elements of the Italian language, spoken as well as written, with due regard to the cultural context of Italian expression.
ITA 102 | BASIC ITALIAN II | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to the language and culture of Italy, the second in the three-quarter beginning Italian sequence. Focus is on the development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills and the study of Italian culture through language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and from other sources. The course aims to provide students with basic functional skills in Italian. Italian 102 focuses on talking about social network (e.g. family, friends, colleagues), food and dishes, lifestyle and daily routine, planning and managing a trip, communicating past events or activities. By the end of the beginning Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in basic conversation on a variety of topics, write simple paragraphs, and read passages in contemporary Italian.
ITA 103 | BASIC ITALIAN III | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to the language and culture of Italy, the third in the three-quarter beginning Italian sequence. Focus is on the development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills and the study of Italian culture through language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and from other sources. The course aims to provide students with basic functional skills in Italian. Italian 103 focuses on describing one's personality and appearance (for example one's physical traits and fashion style), carrying out a survey and talking and asking about future events, renting an apartment, talking about animals, understanding Italian social habits, traditions, diversity. By the end of the beginning Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in basic conversation on a variety of topics, write simple paragraphs, and read passages in contemporary Italian.
ITA 103S | BASIC ITALIAN II FOR SUMMER | 6 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
(Covers the equivalent of the second half of ITL 102 and all of ITL 103.) The second half of beginning Italian. Further work on the basic elements of the Italian language, spoken as well as written, with due regard to the cultural context of Italian expression.
ITA 104 | INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN I | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is the first quarter of the second-year sequence in Italian language and culture. It gives students the opportunity to expand and improve the four basic language skills (speaking, understanding, reading, writing) while exploring Italian culture through study of the language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and other sources. By the end of the intermediate Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in conversation with native speakers on a variety of everyday topics, communicate in writing through social media, formal correspondence, and short compositions and understand a variety of authentic Italian texts. ITA 103 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 105 | INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN II | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This second is the first quarter of the second-year sequence in Italian language and culture. It gives students the opportunity to expand and improve the four basic language skills (speaking, understanding, reading, writing) while exploring Italian culture through study of the language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and other sources. By the end of the intermediate Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in conversation with native speakers on a variety of everyday topics, communicate in writing through social media, formal correspondence, and short compositions and understand a variety of authentic Italian texts. ITA 104 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 106 | INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN III | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is the third quarter of the second-year sequence in Italian language and culture. It gives students the opportunity to expand and improve the four basic language skills (speaking, understanding, reading, writing) while exploring Italian culture through study of the language. Class activity will consist mainly of interactive oral exercises based on material in the textbook, online, and other sources. By the end of the intermediate Italian sequence, students should be able to engage in conversation with native speakers on a variety of everyday topics, communicate in writing through social media, formal correspondence, and short compositions and understand a variety of authentic Italian texts. ITA 105 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 130 | MOLILSAP STUDY ABROAD | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is specially designed to complement the Modern Language Introductory Languages Study Abroad programs, linked to the third quarter of the first year language program. The course will be taught abroad.
ITA 197 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
See schedule for current offerings.
ITA 198 | STUDY ABROAD | 1-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 199 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 0.5-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 201 | ADVANCED COMMUNICATION I | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed for students of Italian language and culture at the advanced level who wish to secure their knowledge of Italian structure, expand their vocabulary and cultural literacy, and work on their writing skills. The 200-level sequence creates opportunities for students who already have significant background in Italian to make progress in all four areas of language acquisition (reading, understanding, writing and speaking). This quarter will focus on Italian geography and regional culture. Students will gain a familiarity with the physical and political map of Italy, as well as selected topics in cultural geography, Italian history and current events. Students will also review Italian grammar as students work on their language skills through class discussion and targeted assignments. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 202 | ADVANCED COMMUNICATION II | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed for students of Italian language and culture at the advanced level who wish to secure their knowledge of Italian structure, expand their vocabulary and cultural literacy, and work on their writing skills. The 200-level sequence creates opportunities for students who already have significant background in Italian to make progress in all four areas of language acquisition (reading, understanding, writing and speaking). This quarter will focus on Italian culture and society through history. Students will also review Italian grammar as students work on their language skills through class discussion and targeted assignments. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 203 | ADVANCED COMMUNICATION III | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed for students of Italian language and culture at the advanced level who wish to secure their knowledge of Italian structure, expand their vocabulary and cultural literacy, and work on their oral and writing skills. The 200-level sequence creates opportunities for students who already have significant background in Italian to make progress in all four areas of language acquisition (reading, understanding, writing and speaking). This quarter students will focus on topics in Italian history, literature, and culture from Fascism to the present. Students will also review Italian grammar as they work on their language skills through class discussion and targeted assignments. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 260E | EAT ITALY: THE HISTORY, CULTURE AND POLITICS OF ITALIAN FOOD | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
TAUGHT IN ENGLISH. In this course students will look at the modern and contemporary history of Italian food in Italy and the United States to explore and reflect on the material, symbolic, personal, and political implications of this global commodity. Through a variety of primary sources both textual and visual and multidisciplinary critical sources, students will discuss the symbolic and material forces that shaped food choices; the production, marketing, preparation, and consumption of meals; and the access to food from Italy's Unification to the present. Weekly topics will span from cinema's most memorable Italian meals to ethnographic studies of everyday meals in twenty-first century Italian families; from the success of Pellegrino Artusi's cookbook to the star system of Italian-American celebrity chefs to Italian-American culinary literature. The course will conclude with a small-group practicum in which students will document and reflect upon their own process in preparing and eating an Italian meal.
ITA 262E | STYLE MATTERS: ITALIAN FASHION THROUGH LITERATURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
TAUGHT IN ENGLISH. This course is an introduction to Italian fashion from the early-modern period to the present, with an emphasis on understanding fashion through literature in which dress is centrally featured. The word 'style' is derived from the Latin 'stilus' or writing tool, an etymology that invites us to investigate the shared language of the discourse on the arts. We will thus learn to appreciate the formal qualities of dress (the lines, shapes, proportions, fabrics, colors, patterns and decorations) that identify the style of a period or designer, and the linguistic choices, tropes and figures of writers of the period who incorporated fashion in their writing. Costume books and literary sources, from Baldassarre Castiglione's Book of the Courtier to Elena Ferrante's Troubling Love, will be complemented by reproductions of paintings, prints, sketches, drawings, photographs, and film. Critical texts will help us unveil the complex aesthetic, political, and social functions that dressmakers, writers, and society as a whole attributed to fashion as they pursued beauty or another aesthetic experience, but also exerted power, challenged definitions of gender, expressed sexuality, or displayed wealth. Some of the questions we will ask are: what is a style? Is fashion art or a language? How does the literary representation of fashion change through the centuries? When and how does satire operate? What can we learn about a period's aesthetics through descriptions of gendered clothing in literature? How does a color or fabric function as a tool for identity building or disguise, as a symbol of emancipation and revolution or conformism? Do ethics have a role in the production and consumption of fashion as a commodity?.
ITA 297 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
See schedule for current offerings.
ITA 298 | STUDY ABROAD | 1-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 299 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 0.5-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 301 | ORIGINS OF ITALIAN LITERATURE: THE MIDDLE AGES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will introduce students to the major developments in Italian literature from its origins to Dante's Vita nuova. Topics will include: the origins of Italian poetry in the courtly tradition; medieval popular song and verse; the Sicilian school and the court of Frederick II; northern Italian didactic and spiritual literature; Tuscan lyric and the "dolce stil novo." As students familiarize themselves with the historical, philosophical and religious context of medieval writers, they will also learn about poetic verse forms and techniques of close literary analysis. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 302 | MASTERPIECES OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
During the Renaissance the questions raised by human experience in the world came to the forefront of intellectual and artistic inquiry. Starting in the fifteenth and more prominently in the sixteenth centuries, Italian writers and artists developed new concepts of subjectivity and agency and looked at human identity as something made rather than found. This course explores how sixteenth century Italian intellectuals and artists experimented and reflected on fashioning their selves through speaking, writing, self-portraiture, clothing and other practices. Readings include selections of comedies, love and epic poems, letters, autobiographies, how-to manuals, political treatises and memoirs by Niccolo Machiavelli, Baldassarre Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Moderata Fonte, Lodovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, and others. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 303 | LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN ITALY: 1600-1800 | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Should literature primarily educate or entertain? Should it follow the model of ancient masters or explore experimentation and novelty? Should scientific prose be simple or adorned? What is the role of human reason, imagination, and divine Providence in shaping history? Does each language have a specific genius? Should an autobiography be simply accurate or imaginative? These are just a few of the compelling questions raised by Italian poets, writers, historians, politicians, philosophers, and scientists of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries. Readings from this course will include works from these disciplines, and selections from literary masterpieces such as Emanuele Tesauro's treatise Il cannocchiale aristotelico, Galileo Galilei's Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, Giovan Battista Marino's poem Adone, Giambattista Vico's Principi di scienza nuova, Carlo Goldoni's comedy La locandiera, Giuseppe Parini's poem Il giorno and Vittorio Alfieri's autobiographical Vita. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 304 | ITALIAN CIVILIZATION I: THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to medieval and Renaissance Italy, from about the year 1000 through 1600. Students will discover the social and political history and the art and literature of this critical period of Western civilization. They will follow the emergence of the vernacular; the development of the medieval court and city, the era of Dante and Giotto, the rise of Humanism and the Renaissance with towering figures such as Machiavelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, and study the figures of the courtier, historian, politician, artist, and letterato in the High Renaissance. By reading medieval and Renaissance texts in the original, students will expand their understanding of language as a process in constant change. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 305 | TOWARDS UNIFICATION: ROMANTICS, REVOLUTIONARIES, AND REALISTS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course presents an overview of Nineteenth Century Italian prose and poetry. In Italian 305, students will explore themes and cultural realities in the literary works we read. Students will also hone our skills at interpreting works of literature and read some of the great masterpieces of Italian literature. In class, in-depth analisi testuali will be emphasized. By the end of the quarter, students should have a firm understanding of the different natures of poetry and prose as forms of expressions, know the major writers of the nineteenth century, and be able to explain the texts read in class not only as works of literature but as cultural "artifacts" of a particular period of Italian history. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 306 | FUTURISM AND BEYOND: TWENTIETH CENTURY WRITERS AND CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course presents an overview of Twentieth Century Italian prose and theater. In Italian 306, students will explore themes and cultural realities in the literary works read. Students will also hone skills at interpreting works of literature. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 307E | DANTE'S INFERNO: THE WORLD OF THE CONDEMNED | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
TAUGHT IN ENGLISH. The primary goal of Italian 307E is to provide students with an understanding of and appreciation for Dante's Inferno. Students will learn techniques of close literary analysis. They will learn about classical and medieval history, philosophy, theology and poetry. They will become acquainted with the extraordinary cultural and political reality of fourteenth-century Florence and Dante's life. Above all, they will have ample time and space to consider Dante's amazing poem. Advanced Italian students will have the option to develop their written and spoken Italian while learning to read Dante's beautiful verses in the original.
ITA 308E | DANTE'S PURGATORY AND PARADISE: THE REALM OF SALVATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
TAUGHT IN ENGLISH. This course is a continuation of Italian 307E. Italian 308E provides students with an understanding of and appreciation for Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso. Students will learn techniques of close literary analysis. They will learn about classical and medieval history, philosophy, theology and poetry. They will become acquainted with the extraordinary cultural and political reality of fourteenth-century Florence and Dante's life. Above all, they will have ample time and space to consider Dante's amazing poem. Advanced Italian students will have the option to develop their written and spoken Italian while learning to read Dante's beautiful verses in the original.
ITA 309 | THE ITALIAN NOVEL | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course approaches the tradition of the Italian novel. Topics may range from the long prose fiction of the late Middle Ages to the contemporary novel through a multidisciplinary perspective. The course may also analyze specific genres such as the historical novel, the coming-of-age novel, the detective story, the noir. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of the Italian novel, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, will guide understanding and appreciation of the work of classics such as Boccaccio, Sacchetti, Bandello, Basile, Cellini, Alfieri, Foscolo, Casanova, Manzoni, Nievo, Verga, Serao, Svevo, and Salgari as well as more recent masters such as Moravia, Deledda, Calvino, Gadda, Primo Levi, Ginzburg, Morante, and Eco, and the new voices of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the writers. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through the novel and offer ample time to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 310 | PETRARCA AND BOCCACCIO | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will introduce students to the life and works of two towering figures of fourteenth-century Italian literature, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio. The class will focus on select close reading of these authors' major works, the Canzoniere and the Decameron. Students will place these works within the broader context of fourteenth-century social and economic history. Students will also learn techniques of poetic and narrative analysis. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 311 | ITALIAN POETRY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course approaches the tradition of Italian poetry. Topics vary from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of Italian poetry, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, and a poetry reading will guide students' understanding and appreciation of the work of classics such as Dante, Petrarch, Sannazaro, Bembo, Stampa, Leopardi, D'Annunzio, Pascoli, as well as more recent masters such as Pasolini, Montale, Saba, Valduga, Zanzotto, and new voices of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course will also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the poets. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through poetry and give a unique chance to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 312 | ITALIAN DRAMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course approaches the tradition of Italian drama. Topics may range from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of Italian drama, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, and a staged reading will guide understanding and appreciation of masterpieces such as Goldoni's La locandiera and Pirandello's Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore as well as less widely known but equally fascinating and powerful pieces such as Jacopone da Todi's medieval lauda Donna de Paradiso, cardinal Bibbiena's Renaissance comedy La calandria, and Raffaella Battaglini's postmodern play Conversazione per passare la notte. The course will also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the playwrights. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through drama and give a unique chance to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 316 | ITALIAN CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course covers the diverse traditions of Italian writing, art, and film in which the environment takes center stage. Topics may range from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective and include: the pastoral; the country and the city; nature and culture; human and nonhuman animality; issues of nature and race, sex, and gender; religion and the environment; humanism, post-humanism, and contemporary ecocritical perspectives. The close analysis and discussion of primary sources in light of critical theory, a geographical and political survey of the changing Italian territory and its landscapes, and several writing assignments will inform students' understanding and appreciation of the centrality of the environment in Italian culture.
ITA 317 | ITALIAN WOMEN WRITERS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will explore the rich history of women writers in Italian from the Middle Ages to the present. As students follow the changing social, political, and ideological obstacles that women overcame in writing, they will discover the rich history of Italian women letter writers, poets, journalists, essayists, novelists, philosophers, scholars, translators, and literary critics. The course will introduce their diverse biographies and linguistic and stylistic talent in voicing their beliefs, concerns, and values through writing in a variety of genres and disciplines. Major figures include Caterina da Siena, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, Moderata Fonte, Sibilla Aleramo, Anna Banti, Liala, Alba De Cespedes, Antonia Pozzi, Amelia Rosselli, Natalia Ginzburg, Liliana Cavani, Adriana Cavarero, Dacia Maraini, and Elena Ferrante. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 318 | CONTEMPORARY MULTICULTURAL WRITERS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
In this course students will explore the rich landscape of multicultural writers in Italian after 1990. The course will begin with a survey of the recent history of migration in Italy from a variety of countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East and place it in the context of global migration. Students will then delve into a linguistic, stylistic, and thematic analysis of the works of writers such as Pap Khouma, Tahar Lamri, Igiaba Scego, Laila Wadia, Gabriella Kuruvilla, Cristina Ali-Farah, Amara Lakhous, Ron Kubati, Anilda Ibrahimi, and Gabriella Ghermandi. Their novels and short stories will provide an opportunity to reflect on the construction of identity and otherness in a multicultural society, and experiences of exile, displacement, and racism. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 319 | CILS EXAMINATION PREPARATION COURSE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The CILS Preparation is a rigorous and intensive preparatory course for the B2 Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language (CILS). The B2 level officially attests non-native speakers' high intermediate competency in Italian. Therefore, students should already be at the intermediate/advanced level when they enroll in the course. The CILS is awarded by the Universita per Stranieri in Siena and is recognized by the Italian Government. The course will be conducted as a workshop. Students will review all the grammar elements required for this level, perform listening and reading comprehension activities, and refine writing and oral skills. The CILS Exams are scheduled twice a year, at the beginning of June and December. The exam lasts about four hours and requires a separate registration and fee. DePaul University is an official testing site for the exam, and one of the few sites outside of Italy to offer CILS preparatory courses. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 320 | ITALIAN FOR BUSINESS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Italian for business presupposes good knowledge of Italian grammatical structures upon which to build. The course focuses on acquiring business vocabulary, skills for dealing with Italian business partners, and comprehending specialized business journals and reports. An overview of Italy's role of the European Union and the Eurozone are integral to the course. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 321 | TRANSLATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The main objective of this course is to introduce students to some fundamental principles of translation and to allow them to acquire techniques for translating a variety of texts from Italian to English and, to a more limited extent, from English to Italian. Through intensive work in the two languages, students will improve their overall Italian language skills, learn about the challenges and rewards involved in translation, and begin to prepare themselves for advanced or professional translation work. Students will learn to take responsibility for their final work product on both individual and group projects. Students will also review Italian verb forms, study the history and theory of translation, and work with online and computer translation tools. There will be a wide variety of texts at different levels of difficulty and diverse content: academic and philosophical prose, journalism, advertising, commercial Italian, recipes and cooking shows, literary and poetic texts, opera libretti and pop music. This course will also provide students ample opportunity to practice their spoken Italian and conversation skills. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 329 | ITALIAN CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course presents an overview of Italian film, highlighting the most important directors and films. We shall not only examine the works as films, that is particular semiotic systems, but also as particular cultural products. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 332 | ITALIAN CIVILIZATION II: EARLY MODERN ITALY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course presents an overview of Baroque, Enlightenment and Pre-Risorgimento civilization and culture. Students will explore literature, but also art, architecture, science, politics and other areas of civilization as they relate to the artistic world. Primary sources may include Tommaso Campanella's utopia The City of the Sun; the scientific treatises of Galilei, Torricelli, and Redi; the sculptures of Bernini and Canova; Metastasio's libretti; Cesare Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments, Goldoni and Alfieri's autobiographies. By the end of the quarter, students will have a firm understanding of this period, know the major figures of these centuries, and will be able to discuss the texts and images in class as cultural "artifacts" of a particular period of Italian history. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 340 | ITALIAN CIVILIZATION III: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ITALY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course presents an overview of the artistic, social, economic and political developments of Modern Italy from industrialization and unification through the fascist era to contemporary society. Students should gain an understanding of Italian culture during this exciting period. They will also improve their Italian language skills, particularly reading academic texts and writing shorter papers. This course will introduce students to Italy in the twentieth century. By the end of the quarter, students should understand how Italy developed as a nation in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, how it became an industrial power, how and why fascism became a force, and how Italy developed as a modern nation after World War II. Students shall study these developments in art, in society, in the business world, and through media. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 351 | HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
When was the origin of Italian language? Why did Dante, Machiavelli, and Galileo turn to the emergent vernacular when most writers, historians and philosophers still used Latin? Why did Goldoni and Alfieri write in French in the 18th century? How did the language of Italian cuisine, opera, sport, and fashion contribute to shape an Italian identity? Why are written and spoken Italian so different? Is there anything such as an Italian language or should one rather talk about Italian languages (italiani regionali, italiano popolare, italiano standard, dialetti)? In this course students will respond to these and other compelling questions on Italian language. After a general overview of the history of Italian language from the ninth to the twenty-first century, students will focus on its changes in some crucial areas of Italian culture and society. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 352 | ITALIAN LANGUAGE IN THE SOCIETY OF COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course addresses the changes in Italian language usage since the 1980s in a variety of contexts. Students will discuss the impact of the internet, mobile phones, videogames, and social media on Italian language and style in a variety of communicative contexts and become familiar with the linguistic usage in recent politics, commercials, comics, fiction, and TV shows. A variety of critical and theoretical readings will help students reflect on the relation between language, culture, and technology. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 353 | ITALIAN PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to Italian phonetics and phonology. After studying the basic principles of general linguistics students will learn the terminology of articulatory phonetics through a systematic analysis of Italian vowels and consonants. They will learn how Italian sounds are produced, described, and transcribed using the characters of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). They will also develop an understanding of the distinction between phonemes and allophones as applied to contemporary spoken Italian, and learn about some regional variants of spoken Italian and the evolution of Italian from Latin. Along with the theoretical component of the course, students will also have ample opportunity in class and working online to practice their spoken Italian and improve their pronunciation by reducing or eliminating their accent. ITA 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
ITA 395 | FOREIGN LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The two credit FLAC course allows students to enrich their experience in the co-required course through added reading, writing, listening and speaking activities in Italian. Students must have the equivalent of 106 or higher ability in Italian to take this two credit component. Please contact the Department of Modern Languages if you have questions about this course or about language placement.
ITA 397 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
See schedule for current offerings.
ITA 398 | STUDY ABROAD | 1-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 399 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 0.5-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 401 | ORIGINS OF ITALIAN LITERATURE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will introduce students to the major developments in Italian literature from its origins to Dante's Vita nuova. Topics will include: the origins of Italian poetry in the courtly tradition; medieval popular song and verse; the Sicilian school and the court of Frederick II; northern Italian didactic and spiritual literature; Tuscan lyric and the "dolce stil novo." As students familiarize themselves with the historical, philosophical and religious context of medieval writers, they will also learn about poetic verse forms and techniques of close literary analysis.
ITA 402 | WRITING THE SELF IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
During the Renaissance the questions raised by human experience in the world came to the forefront of intellectual and artistic inquiry. Starting in the fifteenth and more prominently in the sixteenth centuries, Italian writers and artists developed new concepts of subjectivity and agency and looked at human identity as something made rather than found. This course explores how sixteenth century Italian intellectuals and artists experimented and reflected on fashioning their selves through speaking, writing, self-portraiture, clothing and other practices. Readings include selections of comedies, love and epic poems, letters, autobiographies, how-to manuals, political treatises and memoirs by Niccolo Machiavelli, Baldassarre Castiglione, Gaspara Stampa, Moderata Fonte, Lodovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, and others.
ITA 403 | LITERATURE OF THE SEICENTO & SETTECENTO | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Should literature primarily educate or entertain? Should it follow the model of ancient masters or explore experimentation and novelty? Should scientific prose be simple or adorned? What is the role of human reason, imagination, and divine Providence in shaping history? Does each language have a specific genius? Should an autobiography be simply accurate or imaginative? These are just a few of the compelling questions raised by Italian poets, writers, historians, politicians, philosophers, and scientists of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries. Readings from this course will include works from these disciplines, and selections from literary masterpieces such as Emanuele Tesauro's treatise Il cannocchiale aristotelico, Galileo Galilei's Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, Giovan Battista Marino's poem Adone, Giambattista Vico's Principi di scienza nuova, Carlo Goldoni's comedy La locandiera, Giuseppe Parini's poem Il giorno and Vittorio Alfieri's autobiographical Vita.
ITA 404 | ITALIAN CIVILIZATION I | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course introduces students to medieval and Renaissance Italy, from about the year 1000 through 1600. Students will discover the social and political history and the art and literature of this critical period of Western civilization. They will follow the emergence of the vernacular; the development of the medieval court and city, the era of Dante and Giotto, the rise of Humanism and the Renaissance with towering figures such as Machiavelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, and study the figures of the courtier, historian, politician, artist, and letterato in the High Renaissance. By reading medieval and Renaissance texts in the original, students will expand their understanding of language as a process in constant change.
ITA 405 | TOWARDS UNIFICATION: ROMANTICS, REVOLUTIONARIES AND REALISTS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course presents an overview of Nineteenth Century Italian prose and poetry. In Italian 405, students will explore themes and cultural realities in the literary works we read. Students will also hone our skills at interpreting works of literature and read some of the great masterpieces of Italian literature. In class, in-depth analisi testuali will be emphasized. By the end of the quarter, students should have a firm understanding of the different natures of poetry and prose as forms of expressions, know the major writers of the nineteenth century, and be able to explain the texts read in class not only as works of literature but as cultural "artifacts" of a particular period of Italian history.
ITA 406 | FUTURISM AND BEYOND: LITERATURE OF THE NOVECENTO | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course presents an overview of Twentieth Century Italian prose and theater. In Italian 406, students will explore themes and cultural realities in the literary works read. Students will also hone skills at interpreting works of literature.
ITA 407 | DANTE'S INFERNO: THE WORLD OF THE CONDEMNED | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The primary goal of Italian 407 is to provide students with an understanding of and appreciation for Dante's Inferno. Students will learn techniques of close literary analysis. They will learn about classical and medieval history, philosophy, theology and poetry. They will become acquainted with the extraordinary cultural and political reality of fourteenth-century Florence and Dante's life. Above all, they will have ample time and space to consider Dante's amazing poem. Advanced Italian students will have the opportunity to develop their written and spoken Italian while learning to read Dante's beautiful verses in the original.
ITA 408 | DANTE'S PURGATORY AND PARADISE: THE REALM OF SALVATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course is a continuation of Italian 407. Italian 408 provides students with an understanding of and appreciation for Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso. Students will learn techniques of close literary analysis. They will learn about classical and medieval history, philosophy, theology and poetry. They will become acquainted with the extraordinary cultural and political reality of fourteenth-century Florence and Dante's life. Above all, they will have ample time and space to consider Dante's amazing poem. Advanced Italian students will have the opportunity to develop their written and spoken Italian while learning to read Dante's beautiful verses in the original.
ITA 409 | THE ITALIAN NOVEL | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course approaches the tradition of the Italian novel. Topics may range from the long prose fiction of the late Middle Ages to the contemporary novel through a multidisciplinary perspective. The course may also analyze specific genres such as the historical novel, the coming-of-age novel, the detective story, the noir. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of the Italian novel, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, will guide understanding and appreciation of the work of classics such as Boccaccio, Sacchetti, Bandello, Basile, Cellini, Alfieri, Foscolo, Casanova, Manzoni, Nievo, Verga, Serao, Svevo, and Salgari as well as more recent masters such as Moravia, Deledda, Calvino, Gadda, Primo Levi, Ginzburg, Morante, and Eco, and the new voices of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the writers. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through the novel and offer ample time to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills.
ITA 410 | PETRARCA AND BOCCACCIO | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will introduce students to the life and works of two towering figures of fourteenth-century Italian literature, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio. The class will focus on select close reading of these authors' major works, the Canzoniere and the Decameron. Students will place these works within the broader context of fourteenth-century social and economic history. Students will also learn techniques of poetic and narrative analysis.
ITA 411 | ITALIAN POETRY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course approaches the tradition of Italian poetry. Topics vary from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of Italian poetry, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, and a poetry reading will guide students' understanding and appreciation of the work of classics such as Dante, Petrarch, Sannazaro, Bembo, Stampa, Leopardi, D'Annunzio, Pascoli, as well as more recent masters such as Pasolini, Montale, Saba, Valduga, Zanzotto, and new voices of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course will also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the poets. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through poetry and give a unique chance to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills.
ITA 412 | ITALIAN DRAMA | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course approaches the tradition of Italian drama. Topics may range from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective. The close reading and discussion of primary sources, a basic overview of the history of Italian drama, several reading comprehension and creative writing assignments, and a staged reading will guide understanding and appreciation of masterpieces such as Goldoni's La locandiera and Pirandello's Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore as well as less widely known but equally fascinating and powerful pieces such as Jacopone da Todi's medieval lauda Donna de Paradiso, cardinal Bibbiena's Renaissance comedy La calandria, and Raffaella Battaglini's postmodern play Conversazione per passare la notte. The course will also address the linguistic, stylistic, social, and ideological issues raised by the playwrights. Ultimately this class will provide a deep understanding of Italian culture through drama and give a unique chance to use, expand, and refine Italian language skills.
ITA 416 | ITALIAN CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course covers the diverse traditions of Italian writing, art, and film in which the environment takes center stage. Topics may range from the Middle Ages to the present through a multidisciplinary perspective and include: the pastoral; the country and the city; nature and culture; human and nonhuman animality; issues of nature and race, sex, and gender; religion and the environment; humanism, post-humanism, and contemporary ecocritical perspectives. The close analysis and discussion of primary sources in light of critical theory, a geographical and political survey of the changing Italian territory and its landscapes, and several writing assignments will inform students' understanding and appreciation of the centrality of the environment in Italian culture.
ITA 417 | ITALIAN WOMEN WRITERS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will explore the rich history of women writers in Italian from the Middle Ages to the present. As students follow the changing social, political, and ideological obstacles that women overcame in writing, they will discover the rich history of Italian women letter writers, poets, journalists, essayists, novelists, philosophers, scholars, translators, and literary critics. The course will introduce their diverse biographies and linguistic and stylistic talent in voicing their beliefs, concerns, and values through writing in a variety of genres and disciplines. Major figures include Caterina da Siena, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, Moderata Fonte, Sibilla Aleramo, Anna Banti, Liala, Alba De Cespedes, Antonia Pozzi, Amelia Rosselli, Natalia Ginzburg, Liliana Cavani, Adriana Cavarero, Dacia Maraini, and Elena Ferrante.
ITA 418 | CONTEMPORARY MULTICULTURAL WRITERS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
In this course students will explore the rich landscape of multicultural writers in Italian after 1990. The course will begin with a survey of the recent history of migration in Italy from a variety of countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East and place it in the context of global migration. Students will then delve into a linguistic, stylistic, and thematic analysis of the works of writers such as Pap Khouma, Tahar Lamri, Igiaba Scego, Laila Wadia, Gabriella Kuruvilla, Cristina Ali-Farah, Amara Lakhous, Ron Kubati, Anilda Ibrahimi, and Gabriella Ghermandi. Their novels and short stories will provide an opportunity to reflect on the construction of identity and otherness in a multicultural society, and experiences of exile, displacement, and racism.
ITA 419 | CILS EXAMINATION PREPARATION COURSE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The CILS Preparation is a rigorous and intensive preparatory course for the B2 Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language (CILS). The B2 level officially attests non-native speakers' high intermediate competency in Italian. Therefore, students should already be at the intermediate/advanced level when they enroll in the course. The CILS is awarded by the Universita per Stranieri in Siena and is recognized by the Italian Government. The course will be conducted as a workshop. Students will review all the grammar elements required for this level, perform listening and reading comprehension activities, and refine writing and oral skills. The CILS Exams are scheduled twice a year, at the beginning of June and December. The exam lasts about four hours and requires a separate registration and fee. DePaul University is an official testing site for the exam, and one of the few sites outside of Italy to offer CILS preparatory courses.
ITA 420 | ITALIAN FOR BUSINESS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Italian for business presupposes good knowledge of Italian grammatical structures upon which to build. The course focuses on acquiring business vocabulary, skills for dealing with Italian business partners, and comprehending specialized business journals and reports. An overview of Italy's role of the European Union and the Eurozone are integral to the course.
ITA 421 | TRANSLATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The main objective of this course is to introduce students to some fundamental principles of translation and to allow them to acquire techniques for translating a variety of texts from Italian to English and, to a more limited extent, from English to Italian. Through intensive work in the two languages, students will improve their overall Italian language skills, learn about the challenges and rewards involved in translation, and begin to prepare themselves for advanced or professional translation work. Students will learn to take responsibility for their final work product on both individual and group projects. Students will also review Italian verb forms, study the history and theory of translation, and work with online and computer translation tools. There will be a wide variety of texts at different levels of difficulty and diverse content: academic and philosophical prose, journalism, advertising, commercial Italian, recipes and cooking shows, literary and poetic texts, opera libretti and pop music. This course will also provide students ample opportunity to practice their spoken Italian and conversation skills.
ITA 429 | ITALIAN FILM | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course presents an overview of Italian film, highlighting the most important directors and films. Students shall not only examine the works as films, that is particular semiotic systems, but also as particular cultural products.
ITA 432 | ITALIAN CIVILIZATION II | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course presents an overview of Baroque, Enlightenment and Pre-Risorgimento civilization and culture. Students will explore literature, but also art, architecture, science, politics and other areas of civilization as they relate to the artistic world. Primary sources may include Tommaso Campanella's utopia The City of the Sun; the scientific treatises of Galilei, Torricelli, and Redi; the sculptures of Bernini and Canova; Metastasio's libretti; Cesare Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments, Goldoni and Alfieri's autobiographies. By the end of the quarter, students will have a firm understanding of this period, know the major figures of these centuries, and will be able to discuss the texts and images in class as cultural "artifacts" of a particular period of Italian history.
ITA 440 | ITALIAN CIVILZATION III | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course presents an overview of the artistic, social, economic and political developments of Modern Italy from industrialization and unification through the fascist era to contemporary society. Students should gain an understanding of Italian culture during this exciting period. They will also improve their Italian language skills, particularly reading academic texts and writing shorter papers. This course will introduce students to Italy in the twentieth century. By the end of the quarter, students should understand how Italy developed as a nation in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, how it became an industrial power, how and why fascism became a force, and how Italy developed as a modern nation after World War II. Students shall study these developments in art, in society, in the business world, and through media.
ITA 451 | HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
When was the origin of Italian language? Why did Dante, Machiavelli, and Galileo turn to the emergent vernacular when most writers, historians and philosophers still used Latin? Why did Goldoni and Alfieri write in French in the 18th century? How did the language of Italian cuisine, opera, sport, and fashion contribute to shape an Italian identity? Why are written and spoken Italian so different? Is there anything such as an Italian language or should one rather talk about Italian languages (italiani regionali, italiano popolare, italiano standard, dialetti)? In this course students will respond to these and other compelling questions on Italian language. After a general overview of the history of Italian language from the ninth to the twenty-first century, students will focus on its changes in some crucial areas of Italian culture and society.
ITA 452 | ITALIAN LANGUAGE IN THE SOCIETY OF COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course addresses the changes in Italian language usage since the 1980s in a variety of contexts. Students will discuss the impact of the internet, mobile phones, videogames, and social media on Italian language and style in a variety of communicative contexts and become familiar with the linguistic usage in recent politics, commercials, comics, fiction, and TV shows. A variety of critical and theoretical readings will help students reflect on the relation between language, culture, and technology.
ITA 453 | ITALIAN PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course is an introduction to Italian phonetics and phonology. After studying the basic principles of general linguistics students will learn the terminology of articulatory phonetics through a systematic analysis of Italian vowels and consonants. They will learn how Italian sounds are produced, described, and transcribed using the characters of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). They will also develop an understanding of the distinction between phonemes and allophones as applied to contemporary spoken Italian, and learn about some regional variants of spoken Italian and the evolution of Italian from Latin. Along with the theoretical component of the course, students will also have ample opportunity in class and working online to practice their spoken Italian and improve their pronunciation by reducing or eliminating their accent.
ITA 495 | FOREIGN LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM | 2 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The two credit FLAC course allows students to enrich their experience in the co-required course through added reading, writing, listening and speaking activities in Italian. Students must have the equivalent of 106 or higher ability in Italian to take this two credit component. Please contact the Department of Modern Languages if you have questions about this course or about language placement.
ITA 106 is a prerequisite for this class.
ITA 496 | PRACTICUM IN ITALIAN INSTRUCTION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Supervised practice in language instruction, paired with a mentor instructor in a beginning or intermediate language course. Students observe a class, teach a lesson or lessons, assist in assessment and lesson planning, and complete individualized assignments to develop their skills as classroom language instructors. Repeatable.
ITA 497 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ITALIAN | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
See schedule for current offerings.
ITA 498 | STUDY ABROAD | 4-8 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Variable credit.
ITA 499 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 1-8 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Variable credit.