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Winter 2003
This information effective for Winter 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Italian Literature
[LTIT-130D] [LTIT-170A]
130D. Dante's Inferno
TTh
2:00-3:45 p.m., Stevenson 221
Instructor: Margaret Brose
LASCIATE
OGNE SPERANZA, VOI CH'INTRATE.
Above
the gates of Hell is written, "Leave behind all hope, you who enter!"
Course Description:
This seminar focuses on the great Medieval Italian poet, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). Enrollment is limited to seniors who have advanced proficiency in Italian (Italian Studies students; Italian Literature students; Italian Language Studies students, etc.). We will read Dante's youthful autobiographical novel, the Vita Nuova and a selection of his lyric poetry; class focuses on the Inferno, the first book of the Divine Comedy (we will read the original Italian text in a bilingual edition). We will focus on Dante as a love poet, a political poet, and a poet writing in exile.
The Divine Comedy consists of three poetic books (each one called a cantica), one each devoted to Dante's journey through the three realms of the after-life: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante is led through Hell by Virgil, the Latin poet of the Aeneid. We will join them and learn about lust, gluttony, anger, betrayal, sodomy, and things unspeakable. We will experience first hand this master of poetic imagery and verse. Learn why Dante continues to influence so many writers and thinkers; learn why we use the term "poetic justice" to describe Dante's vivid imagination of how the punishment (il contrapasso) fits the crime—in a Hell which is of our own making.
Requirements:
Devoted attendance; participation in class discussions; oral presentations (individual and group); students will read several critical essays on the Inferno; write two papers; written final exam.
170A.
Modern Italian Poetry: Passion and Politics
TTh 10:00-11:45
a.m., Porter 246
Instructor: Margaret Brose
Course Description:
This seminar examines the major poets and poetic movements of the 20th century in Italy. We will focus especially on various poets' attempts to refashion the traditional Italian literary language: to move away from Latin Classicism and towards a language able to express the political exigencies of the 20th century. We begin with Futurism, an avant-guard literary and artistic movement of the 1910s, and then examine the works of poets who wrote during the two World Wars and under Italian Fascism: Umberto Saba, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale (Nobel Prize winner of 1975), Cesare Pavese, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. The last few weeks of the class focus on contemporary Italian women poets and issues of gender, passion, and authorship (Dacia Maraini, Amelia Rosselli, Margherita Guidacci, Patrizia Cavalli, etc.). Two classes will be designated as translation sessions.
Course will be conducted in Italian; prerequisite is completion of Italian 5 or equivalent. Course will have a graduate component.
Requirements:
dedicated attendance, participation in class discussions, oral presentations,
3 translations, and 3 short papers (2 short, one longer).