Goals

The aim of the course is to understand better modern and contemporary Italy by viewing, meditating upon and discussing those movies produced in Italy which reflect most the nation, its culture and its literature.  The required texts and other assigned readings serve as the necessary prefatory and background material to aid the film analysis and through it the understanding of Italy.

Class Procedure

The Monday and Wednesday meetings consist of lecture and class discussion.  On Wednesdays a general discussion will introduce the students to aspects of the Italian culture contained in the assigned readings and in the film to be viewed on Thursdays, which will be analyzed in greater depth and detail during the Monday classes.  Occasionally students will be assigned a specific article from the reading material listed below to report on briefly during the Wednesday classes.  Lectures and discussions presuppose students’ preparation based on:

a) assigned readings;
b) film viewing;
c) questions distributed in class prior to the film viewing.

Preparation may also require your listening to and copying material on audio tapes placed in the language laboratory.  Students may be required to have at least one 90 minutes Type I audio cassette.  They are expected to take notes during class lectures and keep them in an orderly fashion.

Homework

Two written papers of 4/5 pages each, on two different films, based on the questions seen in class or other discussed topic.  For extra-credit, students may write a 5/7-page analysis of a novel chosen in consultation with me.  The analysis should relate the novel to a film or films shown and indicate how both genres have helped you to understand Italian culture better.  All compositions must be neatly typed, with at least 1.5” margins all around.  First papers with a grade of C- or less must be returned to me incorporating the written suggestions for improvement.  The paper’s final grade will take into consideration how thoughtfully it has been rewritten and be the average of both grades.

Exams

There will be one major exam, the final, covering the material of the entire semester.

Attendance

During Monday and Wednesday lectures students are expected to attend every class and not step out of class, for any reason, during the lecture sessions.  On Thursdays, prior to the film showing, there is a ten-minute presentation of material not covered during the Monday and Wednesday lecture sessions, for which each student is responsible.  Attendance is taken and absences count toward the maximum allowed of four.  For each unexcused absence beyond four the final grade will be diminished in steps.  Thus a student with B and 7 absences will have the final grade diminished by 3 steps to a C (B to B- to C+ to C).

Grade

The final grade will be based upon class participation [30%], a final exam [30%] and two papers (4/5 pages each) [40%].  The novel analysis counts for extra-credit which, if well done, will increase the grade by one step: e.g., from C to C+, from C+ to B – and so on.  Poor attendance will lower the grade (see above).

Readings

Assigned from:
   a) required texts;
   b) books put on reserve in the library;
   c) chosen novel.

Required Texts (Available at the Campus Bookstore)

- Bondanella, Peter. Italian Cinema from Neoralism to the Present. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1996;

- Duggan, Christopher. A Concise History of Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Recommended text (Available at the Campus Bookstore)

- Mignone, Mario. Italy Today. A Country in Transition. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.

Optional Novels (Please consult with me)

The Betrothed (Manzoni); The House of the Medlar Tree (Verga); After the Divorce (Deledda); The Time of Indifference (Moravia); Fontamara (Silone); The Leopard (Tomasi di Lampedusa); Family Sayings (Ginzburg); Christ Stopped at Eboli (C. Levi); The Gardens of Finzi-Contini (Bassani); Woman at War (Maraini).  Other novels can be chosen.

Texts on Reserve at the Library

- Armes, Roy. Patterns of Realism. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1971.

- Giannetti, Louis D. Understanding Movies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1976.

- Jarrat, Vernon. The Italian Cinema. London: The Falcon Press, 1951.

- Landy, Marcia. Fascism in Film. The Italian Commercial Cinema, 1931-1943. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986.

- Leprohon, Pierre. The Italian Cinema, New York: Praeger, 1972.

- Liehm, Mira. Passion and Defiance. Film in Italy from 1942 to the Present. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984.

- Marcus, Millicent. Italian Film in the Light of Neoralism. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986.

- Barzini, Luigi. The Italians. New York: Atheneum, 1964.

- Caroli, B., Harney, R., Tomasi, L. ed. The Italian Immigrant Woman in North America. Toronto: The Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1978. Part 1: “The Silent Half: Le Contadine del Sud Before The First World War”; “The Civil Code of 1865 and the Origins of the Feminist Movement in Italy”. Part 4: “Emigration, the Italian Family, and Changing Roles”. Part 5: “Selected Poems”.

- Covello, Leonard. The Social Background of the Italo-American School Child. A Study of the Southern Italian Family Mores and Their Effect on the School Situation in Italy and America. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967. [*Useful to the course are chap. 2: “The Southern Question in Italy in its Bearing on Italo-American Problems” pp. 15-33; chap. 3: “The Agricultural System of the Southern Italian Town” pp. 65-102; chap. 5: “Religious Concepts and Practices” pp. 103-145; chap. 6: “The Family Group (La Famiglia) in Southern Italy” pp. 149-191; chap. 7: “The Primary Family Group (Marriage Unit) in Southern Italy” pp. 192-238; chap. 8: “Education in Southern Italy” pp. 241-274.]

- De Grand, Alexander, Italian Fascism, Its Origins and Development. Lincoln, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1982.

- Sassoon, Donald. Contemporary Italy. New York: Longman, 1986.

- Smith, Denis Mack. Italy a Modern History. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1959.

- Williams, Phyllis H. South Italian Folkways in Europe and America. New York: Russel & Russel, 1938, reissued 1969.

Required Films {in chronological order}

[Shown Thursday evenings, 6:30 p.m.  The following are also available in the Language Laboratory, HUM 115, for in-lab viewing.]

- Blasetti, Alessandro          - 1860 (1984) 72’
- Rossellini, Roberto            - Rome Open City (1944-45) 103’
- De Sica, Vittorio               - Bicycle Thief (1948) 92’
- Monicelli, Mario                - The Great War (1959) 130’
- Germi, Pietro                   - Seduced and Abandoned (1964) 118’
- De Sica, Vittorio               - The Garden of Finzi-Continis (1970) 93’
- Scola, Ettore                   - We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974) 124’
- Taviani, Paolo e Vittorio     - Padre Padrone (1976-77) 114’
- Magni, Luigi                    - In the Name of the Pope-King (1977) 115’
- Scola, Ettore                   - A Special Day (1977) 105’
- Rosi, Francesco               - Three Brothers (1980) 113’
- Scola, Ettore                   - The Family  (1987) 128’
- Benigni, Roberto               - Johnny Stecchino (1991) 100’

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