Pat Zupan

Beginning Italian II
This course is a continuation of ITAL 0101, and emphasizes spoken and written Italian and the mastery of more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students continue to work with conversation partners, but will also incorporate more specific cultural references in oral presentations and in written assignments. Students attend the Italian table and mandatory film screenings. (ITAL 0101 or equivalent)

Beginning Italian III
This course emphasizes increased control and proficiency in the language through audiovisual, conversational, and drill methods. Italian life and culture continue to be revealed through the use of realia. Short reading selections on contemporary Italy and discussions enlarge the student's view of Italian life and culture. Students continue to participate in the Italian table. (ITAL 0102 or equivalent) 6 hrs. disc./perf.; 2 hrs. screen.

Elena Ferrante: The Neapolitan Novels (in English)
An international sensation since the 2011 publication of this four-novel series, Elena Ferrante depicts the life-long, ambivalent relationship between Lenù and Lila, two “brilliant friends,” attempting escape from Neapolitan poverty and crime, from late 1940s Reconstruction Italy into the new Millennium. The first two novels, translated by My Brilliant Friend (2011) and Story of a New Name (2012), also subject of Saverio Costanzo’s 2018-2020 HBO series, will provide our particular focus. Blogs, short essays, oral presentations, research project; possible video. 3 hrs.

An Introduction to Contemporary Italy
Intended for students at the intermediate level, this course will afford the opportunity to expand conversation, writing, and reading skills while consolidating knowledge of the more difficult points of grammar. The contextual focus of the course is contemporary Italian culture, including contemporary history and politics, the economy, the division between North and South, immigration from developing countries, environmental issues, and popular music, among others. Italian films, music, and articles from newspapers and news magazines will enhance and complete the learning experience. (ITAL 0103, ITAL 0123, waiver, or equivalent) 3 hrs. lect.

Italian Culture II: From the Sixties to the Present Day
To deepen the historical knowledge gained in ITAL 0251, we will discuss and analyze modern and contemporary Italian literature of various genres, as well as essays, art, and film. In the context of reading, critical viewing, textual analysis, and discussion, we will continue to develop both historical and linguistic competence. Discussion and the writing process, along with selected exercises, will continue to refine grammatical competence. (ITAL 0251) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Boccaccio’s Decameron in the Age of Coronavirus
Composed at the end of the 1348 Black Plague, the Decameron engages the social crises emerging from pandemic. Popularly considered only a collection of bawdy stories, we will challenge this popular stereotype of the work, discussing also how its storytelling emerges as a responsible act critiquing the society passing away, and proposing alternatives foundational to modern Western society regarding class, gender, and religion. We will also consider how contemporary Western essays and media (some in translation) re-engage the Decameron. Class work includes short analytical essays with rewrites, blogging, scrapbooking, and a class project rewriting the Decameron for today. This course will be conducted exclusively in English, with English language sources. 3 hrs. lect.

Elena Ferrante: The Neapolitan Novels
An international sensation since the publication of this four-novel series, Elena Ferrante depicts the life-long, ambivalent relationship between Lenù and Lila, two “brilliant friends,” attempting escape from Neapolitan poverty and crime, from late 1940s Reconstruction Italy into the new Millennium. Although we will consider the whole four-novel series, the first two novels, subject of Saverio Costanzo’s HBO series as well, will provide this seminar’s particular focus. Blogs, short essays, oral presentations, research project; possible video.(ITAL0351, 354 or equivalent) 3 hrs. sem.

Traveling through the Medieval Mediteranean: Dante’s Commedia
We will explore the Commedia in a contemporary key: the poet’s visionary journey through the pan-Mediterranean literary, intellectual, and religious traditions, including the classical, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic. While a visionary journey, the Commedia actually proposes the reformation of earthly life, religion, and politics. We will consider the particularly Mediterranean nature of this transformation. We will read selected cantos, and other of Dante’s works, in relation to literary or visionary journeys across the traditions: not only to Virgil’s Aeneid and the prophets of the Bible, but also to the Islamic Libro della Scala, Mohammed’s own visionary journey, and Francis of Assisi’s encounter with the Sultan. We will also consider Islamic figures of the Commedia and those thinkers influencing its proposals for earthly life: the crusader hero Saladino, and Mohammed himself; the philosophers Avicenna, Averroes, and Al-Farabi. In so doing, we aim to reveal the poet’s modernity: his synthesis of the three traditions, proposing to his readers a “interpretive” journey that broadens the Western Christian imagination in a radical re-visioning of ethical and spiritual life on earth.