Connections 23008. Italian Culture, Language and Society
The First-Year Seminar section forming the basis of this connection examines different ways of seeing Italy and the complex nature of Italian life reflected in the concept of la dolce vita. Course materials, in English and Italian, include films, fiction, history and personal accounts of life in Italy today. The centrality of language to the historical disunity and eventual unification of Italy is a theme that runs throughout the seminar, and the politics of art and the ways in which language reflects cultural values emerge as important themes in the course. These themes mean that either or both of the other two courses provide stimulating interdisciplinary intersections of culture, art and language. Combining these courses will also provide a strong foundation for students who wish to study or travel in Italy.
Readings in Contemporary Italian Literature is designed to improve students’ oral and written abilities to communicate abstract and sophisticated ideas in Italian. The course also introduces them to contemporary Italian writers and thus broadens their understanding of the Italian world through poetry, short stories and other textual production such as advertising and film. ITAS 200 is normally a fourth-semester Italian course with Italian 101, 102 and 150 as prerequisites, but there are also usually a number of first-year students in the course.
Connections:
Humanities
ARTH 111 Arts of the Western Tradition
ARTH 211 Arts of the Western Tradition (Enhanced)
ITAS 200 Advanced Intermediate Italian
Social Sciences
FSEM 101 la dolce vita
(This Connection was inactive Spring 2011)
