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Recommended Courses
Recommended Courses for the Summer 2008
Elementary Italian (ITL 101-102)
New!!! Italian Language & Cooking (Cross listed: 100; 200/400)
Italian Language & Drama (Cross listed: 300/400 level)
Italian Cinema Course (ITL 315)
Dante’s Divine Comedy (ITL 395)
Elementary Italian Courses: learn Italian in only 4 weeks!!!
As we always say to all our participants, De Rada is one of the best program in Italy to learn Italian at the elementary level. You can go to San Demetrio Corone, and know just how to say "ciao", and in four weeks you will be able to understand and to handle a conversation in Italian. The secret is our excellent teaching techniques, our "real-life" activities and your full immersion experience. Remember that your Italian new friends and the local people in a small community such as San Demetrio Corone, will talk to you day and night only in Italian. In the town some people can also speak English, but they prefer to use Italian with our students.
Italian Language and Cooking (3/6 credits. all 100 level courses=101-102 & 103-104; 200/300 level courses= ITL 205-206 & 305).
A new experimental course which will combine our experience in teaching and our great cuisine. The 100 level students will study the vocabulary and grammar related to the Italian cuisine, plus discover the secrets of traditional recipes, before they will learn how to cook some delicious Italian dishes. The 200-300 level students will read Italian short stories, poems, essays and articles about the history and tradition of Italian cuisine and will prepare incredible Italian meals.
For more pictures visit our Photo Gallery
Italian Drama: Theory and Performance.
-Origins and developments of the Italian Comedy (3 credits). ITL 301/Cross listed ITL 325, 455 (M-F, 9-10:50 am).
-Italian Advanced Oral expression: from the page to the stage (3 credits). ITL 302/Cross listed ITL 326, 465.
(Dates: June 27 –July 24, 2008. M-F, 11:00 am-12:50 pm).
Taught in Italian. For students with an intermediate-advanced knowledge of Italian. Instructor: Prof. Walter Valeri, M.F.A. Art/MAXT Institute at Harvard University. E-mail: ITCNE@aol.com.
Prerequisite: Italian C 205 -206 or permission of the Director Prof. Michelangelo La Luna e-mail laluna@uri.edu.
I. Courses Description:
These two complementary courses examine dramatic texts of Italy’s leading playwrights: from Ruzante (Angelo Beolco), Carlo Goldoni, Luigi Pirandello to Dario Fo. Students will read and analyze extracts of several dramatic masterpieces. Italian 301 requires students to write a brief final essay whereas Italian 302 culminates in a student performance in Italian open to the faculty and other students. In doing so, students will refine their knowledge of the origin of one of the most enjoyable genres of dramatic literature ever produced in Europe. They will develop their Italian oral expressiveness and interactive communication as well as acquire techniques that will assist them in any forum where public speaking and performance are key to effective communication. Learning Italian is in many ways analogous to staging a text. Both disciplines call upon the mind and the body – the cerebral and the mechanical, if you will - to work in concert. The dramatic texts motivate the students to speak and write in Italian by developing situations that inspire them to use language. This process encompasses imagination, communication, and cooperation among students. Furthermore, the humor of the texts offers a pedagogical context in which to reflect on comedy as it relates to the social realities of life in Italy and beyond. The two courses include a review of Italian grammar in context, while reinforcing and expanding the four basic communication skills of listening, speaking, reading and some writing.
II. Textbooks:
Franco Fido, La commedia del cinquecento ( free on line)
www.italica.rai.it/rinascimento/saggi/commedia_cinquecento/index.ht
Niccoló Machiavelli, La Mandragola – Atto I – (free on line)
www.classicitaliani.it/index008.htm
Ruzante (Angelo Beolco), Vita e opere (free on line)
www.it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruzante
Carlo Goldoni, Le avventure della villeggiatura - Atto I, II,II
(free on line) www.classicitaliani.it/index105.htm
Luigi Pirandello, Enrico IV – Atto I - (free on line)
www.classicitaliani.it/index026.htm
Dario Fo, Morte accidentale di un anarchico
edited by J. Lorch, Manchester University Press 1997 (Bilingual suggested edition).
Other materials (videos and texts) will be commented and distributed in class.
Mistero Buffo by Dario Fo. Summer 2007 life performance.
Walter Valeri founded and taught this successful course at Harvard University from 2000 -2007. He is the author of various essays, plays and collections of Italian poems, including Donna de Paradiso (2006) and Deliri Fragili (2006). From 1980 to 1996 he worked with Nobel laureate Dario Fo, serving as his personal assistant. He has edited a standard sourcebook on Dario Fo, Fabulazzo (1994) and on Franca Rame, Franca Rame: a woman on stage (2001). His essay on using the theater as tool for learning and perfecting the Italian language will appear in the collective volume Set the stage! Italian Language, Literature, and Culture through Theater (Yale University Press 2008).
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| La Locandiera by Carlo Goldoni | 2002 Harvard Summer School performance at the De Rada Institute |
For more pictures visit our Photo Gallery
Italian Cinema (3 credits. Taught in English. Italian majors must write their essays and final project in Italian). ITALIAN CIN-ITL 315. If there are enough students, we are going to offer two sections, one in Italian and one in English. (For URI students only: please note that ITL 315 counts for the major in Italian, for Film Media and for Foreign Language/Cross Culture. Instructor: Robert Manteiga (roberto@uri.edu), distinguished Professor of Hispanic Studies, Comparative Literature and Film Media, University of Rhode Island.
I. Course Description
This course surveys the development of Italian cinema from the fascist era of the Cinecitta to the present day. The focus will be on Italian Neorealism and its influence on post-neorealist Italian auteurs and film genres. Films will be examined in a historical/aesthetic context. The instructor will comment on both the ideological and stylistic aspects of the films. Lectures by the instructor are designed to (1) give the students a basic understanding of film and the film-making process, (2) provide insights into the director and his work, and (3) offer social, political and cultural background information necessary for a better understanding of the film.
II. Texts:
(you must buy these books before you leave your country):
There will be daily reading assignments from the two texts indicated below. These must be done prior to viewing the films.
Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies =UM required
Giorgio Bertellini, The Cinema of Italy =CI required
Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film=highly recommended
Films to be viewed
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Accattone
Roberto Rossellini (clip of) Rome Open City
Vittorio De Sica, The Bicylce Thief & Umberto D
Federico Fellini, La Strada & 8 1/2
Pietro Germi, Divorce Italian Style
Roberto Benigni, Johnny Stecchino
Luchino Visconti, Death in Venice & Rocco and his Brothers
Lina Wertmuller, Seven Beauties
Franco Brusatti, Bread and Chocolate
Giuseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso
Paolo and Vitorio Taviani, Padre padrone
Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
ITALIAN DC-ITL 395: Dante’s Divine Comedy (3 credits. General Education Course. Taught in English. Cross listed with ITL 481) (A)* (F)*
Reading in English translation of Dante’s chief work. Analysis and interpretation of the Divine Comedy from the social, religious, philosophical, and political viewpoints of the Middle Ages. Dante’s Divine Comedy is a masterpiece of the Western literary tradition and a great synthesis of Medieval culture and society. Through textual and critical analysis, students will interpret the language and the cultural content of the Divine Comedy. Secondary readings will be assigned for further interpretation of the most important passages of La Divina Commedia. In the past the course has been taught by Dante Della Terza, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, which is considered one of the best Dante scholars in the world. We hope he can come back this summer and teach for us.
Books: Any edition of the Divine Comedy (for more information see the list of editions suggested below in the description of Dante's course).
ITALIAN AU-ITL 455: Selected Italian Authors (3 credits. Taught in Italian).
Students will explore the literature of the 20th century through the works of major contemporary Italian writers and poets such as Luigi Pirandello, Umberto Saba, Eugenio Montale, Salvatore Quasimodo, Italo Calvino, Cesare Pavese, and Antonio Tabucchi (the selection will be made by the instructor). The course maybe taught by the distinguished literary critic Dante Della Terza, Emeritus Professor of Harvard University, and by Gianni Mazzei, writer and poet and professor of Liceo Classico (Trebisacce) and of Universita' La Sapienza a distanza in Rossano (CS). Our lessons and special guests will provide students with a unique opportunity to improve their writing skills and their ability to analyze literary texts.