Prof. Michela Versari has a Master of Art in Applied Linguistic and a Bachelor of Art degree in Biomedical Illustration both received from the University of Bologna. She taught Italian and English in several institutions in Bologna since 1993. She has been teaching at BCSP since 1996. She also works as a free-lance translator and she cultivates her research interests in Italian as second language, creative writing, conversational analysis, pragmatics, visual perception, scientific communication/illustration, and public understanding of science.

DESCRIPTION The analysis of the most complex structures of grammar and syntax will be performed through reading a selection of contemporary Italian literature and by writing a short story in different controlled stages. This course aims at developing a better knowledge and understanding of the Italian language and at building a competence on basic narrative techniques towards the creation of a “personal” style. Grammar topics include: the structure of transitivity and intransitivity in the relationship between prepositions and verbs, subtle features of the subjunctive, temporal shifts in modal auxiliaries, phraseology and conjunctions in compound constructions. The course also focuses on elements of rhetoric and the ways to use the language to create irony, in order to understand humorous contemporary literature, and to write humorous short stories.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Michela Versari

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

METHOD OF PRESENTATION All activities, oral and written, are based on a communicative approach and they will be tailored according to students’ levels and compliance through constant interaction with the instructor.

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Class attendance (20%), Participation (20%), Homework and Class Activities (20%). 4 complete humorous short stories written by the student will represent the final work required for the completion course (40%). They will be written and evaluated throughout the semester.

CONTENT

Grammatical content

Syntax

Activities

REQUIRED READINGS Course material provided by the instructor. Excerpts from the following books will be used as introductory readings and creative guidelines throughout the semester:

DESCRIPTION Analysis of Italian Renaissance Art, its "linguistic" and semantic systems. Through the structural and semiotic exam of the paintings, the course is designed to provide the student with the cultural and methodological instruments in order to perform a correct reading of the work of art, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also from a "synoptic," more global one.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Maurizio Nicosia (Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna)

PREREQUISITES General knowledge of Italian and European culture

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Lectures accompanied by multimedia presentations and guided visits.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance and active participation in class discussion (25%), oral presentation (25%), final exams (oral and written) (25%+25%=50%)

CONTENT

• Methodology of Art History and its main figures, from Vasari to Kubler. The concept of "Renaissance"
• Perspective as common "language." Origins, functions and interpretations. Diffusion of use of perspective in Italy and Europe
• Painting as "liberal art:" De pictura by Leon Battista Alberti. The treatise on perspective by Piero della Francesca
• Architectural and composition theory, from Vitruvio to Palladio
• The "dispositio:" systems of composition of the work of Art; harmonic proportions; perspective and proportion
• Holy subjects in the XV and XVI century; the altar-piece and its evolution
• The secular subjects in the XV and XVI century; myths, fables; portrait and self-portrait
• The "dialects;" Florentine, Ferrarese and Venetian paintings
• Tour of Bologna
• Discussion in class and oral presentations. Assignment of paper topic (5 pages of comment and analysis of one of the course themes)
• Tour of Ferrara
• Discussion in class and oral presentations
• FINAL EXAM AND DISCUSSION OF CORRECTED PAPERS

REQUIRED TEXTS Readings assigned in class. Photocopies and CdRom which will include texts mentioned in class and a selection of works of art, examined or to be examined

SUGGESTED TEXTS

Prof. Maurizio Nicosia has been tenured professor of art History at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna and Urbino since 1987. He has published extensively (articles and essays) on several journals and magazines such as Il foglio, Lineagrafica, Titolo, Taxi art, Apeiron, Segno, Qnst, Iterarte, Nuova meta, Il Sole 24 Ore. He is currently curator of a series of books published by Atanòr in Rome. He is member of the scientific committee of the Journal of Symbolic Studies Arkete. In 1997 he has founded Zenit, an on-line magazine of symbolic studies.

DESCRIPTION The purpose of this course is to introduce some of the most important aspects of the Italian cultural life (mainly those aspects that are connected with popular culture, such as behaviors, traditions, sport, show business, etc.) through their integration with the actual Italian history that goes from the foundation of the nation in 1861 to World War II. Thus, while the main points of the national history (the unification of Italy, the issue of Catholicism, the Southern Italy problem, the “trasformismo,” the origins and character of Italian capitalism, the birth of Socialism, the Giolittian system, World War I, the origins and rise of Italian fascism, the Resistance, World War II) will be taken into consideration, the cultural roots of some aspects that tend to be considered “peculiarly and strictly Italian” will be analyzed. This will be achieved through the use of a comparative approach that will entail the comparison with other European countries such as France, United Kingdom and Germany.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Fulvio Cammarano

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Classroom lectures

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance and participation (20%), mid-term exam (20%), oral presentation (20%), final paper (40%).

CONTENT

1. The Unification of Italy
   The culture deriving from the French Revolution. The political, social and economic situation of the Italian provinces and states before unification. The price of unification. Southern Italy. The social and civil conditions of the new state. Culture and tradition of Italian Catholicism.
2. "Historic Right" and "Young Left"
   The "Historic Right" and the "Roman Question." The economic policy of the government of the Right. The rise to the power of the Left. The "Trasformismo." Rome becomes the nation capital. The birth of the German empire. The liberal culture and the British paradigm. The Cairoli alternative. National identity and literature: from De Amicis and Carducci to D’Annunzio.
3. Origins and Character of Italian Capitalism
   The agricultural crisis. Life in rural areas. Italian emigration. Capitalist development and statalism.
4. The End-of-Century Crisis
   Francesco Crispi. Domestic and foreign policy. Catholic and Socialist movements. 1898 and public reaction.
5. Beginning of the New century
   The Giolittian system. Anti-Giolittism of the Left and of the Right. The Libyan War and universal suffrage. Bureaucracy. Mass-society and the birth of the free time question.
6. From the War to Fascism
   The problem of peace: intervention and neutrality. Italy at war: the myth of the mutilated victory. The mass political parties. The aftermath of WWI: economic crisis and origins of Italian fascism.
7. Fascist Italy
   Fascism's rise to power: from government to regime. Mussolini and the mass-media. The myth of ancient Rome. Folklore: traditions and popular feasts. The economic crisis and corporate economy. Mussolini's foreign policy: the Ethiopian War and the Empire, the axis Rome- Berlin. Antifascism.
8. World War II and the Fall of Fascism
   Italy in the Second World War. The collapse of fascism. The Forty-five days and the Armistice. The Resistance.
9. The Post-war Period
   The rebuilding of the political parties. Post-war hope and frustrations. Monarchy and the Republic. The 1948 general elections. Women’s place in society. Cinema, mass-media, mass consumerism, popular culture before and after.
10. The "Economic Miracle"
    Social and economic transformations. The economic boom. Italian emigration. The situation of Southern Italy and its need for reform. Organized crime. Sports: soccer and cycling. The European perspective.

REQUIRED READINGS

RECOMMENDED READING

Fulvio Cammarano is Full Professor of Storia Contemporanea at the Facoltà of Scienze Politiche of the Università di Bologna. His research interests range from Italian to European Cultural and Political History. Professor Cammarano is a contributor to the cultural section of the widely read daily newspaper Il Messaggero and Director of the quarterly journal Ricerche di Storia Politica, published by Il Mulino. Among his most recent publications: Storia politica dell’Italia liberale, Laterza, 1999 and the recently released Alle origini del moderno occidente tra XIX e XX secolo, Rubbettino, 2003. He has also published some of his work in English, under the title of To save England from Decline: the National Party of Common Sense. British Conservatism and the Challenge of Democracy (1885-1892) in 2001. Currently he is preparing his next new project, which will be focusing on the birth of the Anglo-American cultural and political relations at the end of the XIX century.

DESCRIPTION This course is designed as a survey on the rebirth and expansion of Italian democracy after the fall of Fascism. Special consideration will be given to the history and the formation of Italian political parties and to the social movements of the 1943-1998 period.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Tiziano Bonazzi

PREREQUISITES A general knowledge of contemporary Italian and European history

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Lectures, readings, discussions.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance (25%); Participation (25%); Final written examination (50%).

CONTENT

• Introduction to the current Italian political situation
• From Fascism to Democracy: the rebirth of political parties during World War II and the CLN (National Liberation Committee); Monarchy, the revolution and the future of Italy; The first post-war elections and the institutional referendum
• The role of Alcide De Gasperi in post-war Italy; the expulsion of communists from the government, the 1948 elections and reconstruction
• Political culture and ideology during the Cold War
• The hopes and the failures of the center-left government in the Sixties
• The student revolution of 1968 and the political extremism/terrorism of the Seventies
• The assassination of Aldo Moro, the defeat of the Red Brigades and of the alliance between the Christian Democratic (DC) and the Communist (PCI) parties
• The Eighties and the rise and fall of Bettino Craxi
• Political corruption, the mafia and the collapse of the political parties system in the second half of the Eighties
• 1989 and the transformation of the Italian Communist party (PCI)
• The crisis of the political system at the beginning of the Nineties. The end of the Christian Democratic party (DC) and the Socialist party (PSI).
• The difficult transition to the Second Republic. The birth of Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale (AN) and the Lega.
• The first Berlusconi government, its fall and the elections of 1996

REQUIRED READINGS

Professor Tiziano Bonazzi is Chair of the Department of Politics, Institutions and History and Professor of History of the United States at the University of Bologna. He is member of the Board of the European Association of American Studies. He is Past President of the Italian Association of American Studies. His research interests range from Political and Intellectual History of the United States to European Political History. He has published extensively on all these subjects.

DESCRIPTION: This course proposes an analysis of Italian prose and poetry as related to the places and the topics that they represent in a very wide range of examples: the concept of history and geography in literature; the concept of literary chronotope; the presence and the development of landscape and of artificial locations (the city, the street, etc.); a first overview of the “objects” in literature, will be examined. Through a choice of readings taken from Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, all the way to Montale ecc., the course will examine the main geographical and historical tendencies of Italian Literature and will often refer to other important works of European Literature.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Paola Vecchi Galli (Università di Bologna)

PREREQUISITES: General knowledge of European and Italian culture

METHOD OF PRESENTATION: Classroom lectures

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT: Attendance  and active participation in class discussions (25%), oral presentations (25 %), final exam (oral and written) (25+25 % = 50%).

CONTENT:

Professor Paola Vecchi Galli is a Faculty member of the University of Bologna in the Department of Italianistica - Lettere e Filosofia. Her field of interests mainly covers Italian Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She wrote numerous essays on Dante, Petrarch, poetry and prose of the period between XIV and XVI century. She is also a member of the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Petrarch Centenary in 2004, in which occasion she will work on the edition of “Rime Disperse.” With Bruno Bentivogli, she has recently published the volume “Filologia italiana” (Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2004).

See Fall description.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Michela Versari

Course attendance is mandatory. To each missed class a grade decrease will correspond. If you absolutely cannot be present to one class meeting, contact your classmates about assignments and be prepared for the following meeting.

Plagiarism: when you write your papers, pay attention to cite all the sources you are using or you take your ideas from. Sentences directly transferred from a book will be judge as plagiarism and will bring to the void of your work and other unpleasant disciplinary consequences.

1 paper Your paper should consist of a careful analysis of selected episodes, images, or themes of one or more Italian movies with an eye to attaining a better understanding and appreciation of the movie(s). You should not critique the film or its director; instead, you should try to shed light on the movie’s meaning and on how the director’s cinematic techniques convey that meaning. In other words, do not tell me why you liked or disliked the movie, or why you thought it was a good or bad movie; you will get a lower grade if the main thrust of your paper is simply to pass judgment on the movie. If you have strong feelings about scenes or aspects of the film that you think are worth mentioning in your paper, assume that the director meant to create that emotional response in his audience, and try to propose some reasons why s/he did this. In other words, instead of responding negatively to an emotionally charged scene in the movie, try to understand its purpose for being there.

When you write your paper, you are encouraged to make use of any historical, philosophical, cultural, critical, or cinematic knowledge you have, to the extent that it genuinely bears on your topic. Be sure to support your statements by referring to specific episodes, moments, or images in the movies; and be sure to indicate how the director’s choice of cinematic techniques allows him/her to create the desired effects. Please exert some effort (1) not to compile a mere catalogue of instances, but to emphasize what you consider important and to come to some general conclusions; (2) to avoid unfounded generalization, and needless retelling or summarizing of the films and episodes which you may assume I have seen; and (3) to avoid falling into a recitation of what I have said in class or of what you have read elsewhere except when it is pertinent to the essay you are constructing, in which case you should quote your sources.

When you write your paper, try to integrate your personal and original views, analyses, and interpretations of the films, episodes, themes, and/or images you choose to discuss with some of the criticism and scholarship that has already been done on the subject. The best way of doing this is to begin your paper with a summary of what others have written on the subject, and indicate how your contribution to that subject differs from theirs. Do not use secondary sources from the Internet.

             Grammar: grammatical accuracy in your paper is very important. Use the necessary time to write a paper with the least number of mistakes possible. Use Microsoft Word’s spelling-check and double-check your use of grammar and syntax. Bad use of the Italian language will result in a bad grade.

1 oral exam The oral exam will be partly based on discussion of your paper’s arguments and partly on subjects treated during the course (class notes, readings).

DESCRIPTION This course aims at improving the students’ writing skills. The students will be using texts taken from a wide variety of sources (short stories, newspaper articles, passages from Italian history texts or from literary essays, cartoon strips), and will be required to produce their own version of these examples. Through the rewrite of their own work and the constant focus on grammar and form, the students are expected to widen not only their use of vocabulary and structures, but also get in touch with cultural aspects suggested by the texts provided by the instructor.

INSTRUCTOR Adriano Colombo.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian.

METHOD OF PRESENTATION

• writing from texts: Italian narrative texts will be used as a starting point. The students will absorb the many idiomatic expressions by the utilization of words and structures provided by the text itself;
• re-writing: writing will be improved through the process of re-writing each student’s texts. The instructor will provide the adequate hints towards the correction of such texts;
• grammatical explanations: they won’t be provided systematically, but as a commentary to the most common difficulties met by the students in their compositions.

REQUIRED WORK In each lesson students will be assigned a composition, partly to be written in the classroom, mostly to be written or completed at home.

ASSESSMENT the last three compositions, each different from the others in organization and structure (see below), will be the basis of the final assessment (40%). The average grade may be partly corrected by factors as attendance (20%), participation and improvement (20%), homework (20%).

CONTENT The Italian texts that will be used as a reference in this course, will be of the following kinds:

• short articles from, or letters to, newspapers;
• short stories;
• short passages from texts on Italian history or literary history;
• short selections of statistical data on the Italian society.

• "creative" type:
  • writing a short story inspired by a cartoon strip;
  • writing about personal matters, either keeping some compositions written by Italian students as a model, or without any source to compare;

• "academic" type:
  • summarizing a text or passage, and/or answering questions on it;
  • writing single paragraphs on the basis of statistical data.

The difficulty of exercises and source texts will gradually increase through the semester. The order in which the exercises and compositions will be organized is thought to achieve some variety and to allow students to understand the instructor’s correction of their previous work.

Each text used as a source will be first read in class with the instructor’s help to overcome the main lexical or syntactical difficulties. Some of the proposed questions will be discussed orally in class, in order to suggest and share ideas and to achieve improvement not only in writing, but also in speech.

Each composition will be carefully corrected and commented. Students will be frequently asked to re-write them. In addition to each individual written commentary, there will be general oral explanations on the main points of Italian grammar, language and phraseology which will emerge from recurrent errors.

A packet of photocopies with required and recommended readings, including exercises and reference texts will be supplied by the instructor.

Adriano Colombo, a former teacher of Italian language and literature in secondary schools, is now "contract professor" in the Bologna "Scuola di specializzazione per l'insegnamento secondario." He also worked for ten years in the Emilia-Romagna Regional Institute for Educational Research and Teachers' Training (IRRSAE). He is the author of many articles and editor of many readers on mother-language teaching. His last book is Leggere. Capire e non capire (Zanichelli, Bologna, 2002).

DESCRIPTION The purpose of this course is to introduce some of the most important aspects of the Italian cultural life (mainly those aspects that are connected with popular culture, such as behaviors, traditions, sport, show business, etc.) through their integration with the actual Italian history that goes from the foundation of the nation in 1861 to the post World War II era and the fifties. Thus, while the main points of the national history (the unification of Italy, the issue of Catholicism, the Southern Italy problem, the "trasformismo," the origins and character of Italian capitalism, the birth of Socialism, the Giolittian system, World War I, the origins and rise of Italian fascism, the Resistance, World War II, hopes and frustrations of the post-war period) will be taken into consideration, the cultural roots of some aspects that tend to be considered “peculiarly and strictly Italian” will be analyzed. This will be achieved through the use of a comparative approach that will entail the comparison with other European countries such as France, United Kingdom and Germany.

INSTRUCTOR Fulvio Cammarano

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Classroom lectures

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance and participation (20%), mid-term exam (20%), oral presentation (20%), final paper (40%).

CONTENT

1. The Unification of Italy
   The culture deriving from the French Revolution. The political, social and economic situation of the Italian provinces and states before unification. The price of unification. Southern Italy. The social and civil conditions of the new state. Culture and tradition of Italian Catholicism.
2. "Historic Right" and "Young Left"
   The "Historic Right" and the "Roman Question." The economic policy of the government of the Right. The rise to the power of the Left. The “Trasformismo.” Rome becomes the nation capital. The birth of the German empire. The liberal culture and the British paradigm. The Cairoli alternative. National identity and literature: from De Amicis and Carducci to D’Annunzio.
3. Origins and Character of Italian Capitalism
   The agricultural crisis. Life in rural areas. Italian emigration. Capitalist development and statalism.
4. The End-of-Century Crisis
   Francesco Crispi. Domestic and foreign policy. Catholic and Socialist movements. 1898 and public reaction.
5. Beginning of the New century
   The Giolittian system. Anti-Giolittism of the Left and of the Right. The Libyan War and universal suffrage. Bureaucracy. Mass-society and the birth of the free time question.
6. From the War to Fascism
   The problem of peace: intervention and neutrality. Italy at war: the myth of the mutilated victory. The mass political parties. The aftermath of WWI: economic crisis and origins of Italian fascism.
7. Fascist Italy
   Fascism's rise to power: from government to regime. Mussolini and the mass-media. The myth of ancient Rome. Folklore: traditions and popular feasts. The economic crisis and corporate economy. Mussolini's foreign policy: the Ethiopian War and the Empire, the axis Rome- Berlin. Antifascism.
8. World War II and the Fall of Fascism
   Italy in the Second World War. The collapse of fascism. The Forty-five days and the Armistice. The Resistance.
9. The Post-war Period
   The rebuilding of the political parties. Post-war hope and frustrations. Monarchy and the Republic. The 1948 general elections. Women’s place in society. Cinema, mass-media, mass consumerism, popular culture before and after.
10. The "Economic Miracle"
    Social and economic transformations. The economic boom. Italian emigration. The situation of Southern Italy and its need for reform. Organized crime. Sports: soccer and cycling. The European perspective.

REQUIRED READINGS

RECOMMENDED READING

Fulvio Cammarano is Full Professor of Storia Contemporanea at the Facoltà of Scienze Politiche of the Università di Bologna. His research interests range from Italian to European Cultural and Political History. Professor Cammarano is a contributor to the cultural section of the widely read daily newspaper Il Messaggero and Director of the quarterly journal Ricerche di Storia Politica, published by Il Mulino. Among his most recent publications: Storia politica dell’Italia liberale, Laterza, 1999 and the just released Alle origini del moderno occidente tra XIX e XX secolo, Rubbettino, 2003. He has also published some of his work in English, under the title of To save England from Decline: the National Party of Common Sense. British Conservatism and the Challenge of Democracy (1885-1892) in 2001. Currently he is preparing his next new project, which will be focusing on the birth of the Anglo-American cultural and political relations at the end of the XIX century.

DESCRIPTION The analysis of the most complex structures of grammar and syntax will be performed through reading a selection of contemporary Italian literature and by writing a short story in different controlled stages. This course aims at developing a better knowledge and understanding of the Italian language and at building a competence on basic narrative techniques towards the creation of a "personal" style. Grammar topics include: the structure of transitivity and intransitivity signalled in the relationship between prepositions and verbs, subtle features of the subjunctive, temporal shifts in modal auxiliaries, phraseology and conjunctions in compound constructions.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Michela Versari

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

METHOD OF PRESENTATION All activities, oral and written, are based on a communicative approach and they will be tailored according to students’ levels and compliance through constant interaction with the instructor.

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSSESSMENT Class attendance (20%), participation (20%), homework and class activities (20%). A complete short story written by the student will represent the final paper required by the course (40%). It will be written and evaluated in 4 parts at specific times.

CONTENT

• Building characters (lexicon, semantic fields, registers)
• The narrator’s point of view (descriptions, personal, 3rd person, etc.)
• Building the story (times, tenses, and the problems of syntax)
• How to begin: the importance of a reader-capturing first paragraph.
• Building dialogues
• Revision

Grammatical content:

• Revision of forms, functions and use of articles and adjectives,
• Preposition, pronouns.
• Verb types, forms and tenses. Verb usage (in/transitive, reflexive, impersonal, etc.- Review of Indicative, Subjunctive, Infinitive, Gerund, Participle and Imperative)
• Direct and indirect speech

Syntax:

• Towards a better understanding of the consecutio temporum

Activities:

• Grammar exercises (performed both in class and as homework)
• Conversation
• Oral presentations on given subjects
• Readings from contemporary novels and short stories
• Creative writing

REQUIRED READINGS Course material provided by the instructor. Excerpts from the following books will be used as introductory readings and creative guidelines throughout the semester:

• G. D’Annunzio: Il piacere - 1889
• V. Brancati: Don Giovanni in Sicilia - 1941
• A. Moravia: La disubbidienza - 1948
• G. Tomasi di Lampedusa: Il gattopardo - 1958
• I. Calvino: I racconti - 1958
• G. Bassani: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini - 1962
• N. Ginzburg: Lessico famigliare - 1963
• I. Calvino: Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore.... - 1979
• L. Macchiavelli: I sotterranei di Bologna - 1980
• A. De Carlo: Due di due - 1989
• A. Baricco: Castelli di rabbia - 1991
• E. Brizzi: Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo - 1994
• A. Baricco: Seta - 1996
• C. Lucarelli: Almost blue - 1997
• D. De Silva: La donna di scorta - 1999
• A. Nove: Amore mio infinito - 2000
• P. Veronesi: Superalbo - 2000
• V. Cerami: Fantasmi - 2001
• P. Citati: Storia prima felice, poi dolentissima e funesta - 2002

Michela Versari has a Master of Art in Applied Linguistic and a Bachelor of Art degree in Biomedical Illustration both received from Bologna University. She taught Italian and English in several institutions in Bologna since 1993. She has been teaching at BCSP since 1996. She also works as a free-lance translator and she cultivates her research interests in Italian as second language, creative writing,conversational analysis, pragmatics, visual perception, scientific communication/illustration, and public understanding of science.

DESCRIPTION This course is designed as a survey on the rebirth and expansion of Italian democracy after the fall of Fascism. Special consideration will be given to the history and the formation of Italian political parties and to the social movements of the 1943-1996 period.

INSTRUCTOR Prof. Tiziano Bonazzi

PREREQUISITES A general knowledge of contemporary Italian and European history

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Lectures, readings, discussions.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance (20%); Participation (20%); Oral presentations (20%), Final written examination (40%).

CONTENT

• Introduction to the current Italian political situation
• From Fascism to Democracy: the rebirth of political parties during World War II and the CLN (National Liberation Committee); Monarchy, the revolution and the future of Italy; The first post-war elections and the institutional referendum
• The role of Alcide De Gasperi in post-war Italy; the expulsion of communists from the government, the 1948 elections and reconstruction
• Political culture and ideology during the Cold War
• The hopes and the failures of the center-left government in the Sixties
• The student revolution of 1968 and the political extremism/terrorism of the Seventies
• The assassination of Aldo Moro, the defeat of the Red Brigades and of the alliance between the Christian Democratic (DC) and the Communist (PCI) parties
• The Eighties and the rise and fall of Bettino Craxi
• Political corruption, the mafia and the collapse of the political parties system in the second half of the Eighties
• 1989 and the transformation of the Italian Communist party (PCI)
• The crisis of the political system at the beginning of the Nineties. The end of the Christian Democratic party (DC) and the Socialist party (PSI).
• The difficult transition to the Second Republic. The birth of Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale (AN) and the Lega.
• The first Berlusconi government, its fall and the elections of 1996

REQUIRED READINGS

Professor Tiziano Bonazzi is Chair of the Department of Politics, Institutions and History and Professor of History of the United States at the University of Bologna. He is member of the Board of the European Association of American Studies. He is Past President of the Italian Association of American Studies. His research interests range from Political and Intellectual History of the United States to European Political History. He has published extensively on all these subjects.

DESCRIPTION This decade (even though it is obvious that such subdivisions are completely arbitrary) represents one of the most prolific ones in the entire history of Italian cinema. Some very important directors reach the peak of their creative career and become consecrated as “authors” (Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti), some directors of the neo-realist period find new strength and new motivations (Rossellini, De Sica) and a new generation of directors come to the fore (Vancini, Zurlini, Bertolucci, Taviani, Petri, Bellocchio, Wertmüller, Cavani) or reaches its maturity (Pontecorvo, Rosi, Maselli, Olmi, Ferreri). It is a phase of both narrative and linguistic change, strongly influenced by the French Nouvelle Vague and by the impact of such a great outsider like Pasolini. It is also a season of great vitality in the genre system, where the new Italian (and European) Western is placed next to the already famous Comedy Italian Style and “Peplum” films. The political turmoil of 1968 and the intense social transformation following it also introduce further elements of complexity.

INSTRUCTOR Leonardo Quaresima

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Lectures, class discussion, film screenings

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance (20%); Midterm paper (30%); Oral presentation (20%); Final oral exam (30%). The subject of the midterm paper and of the oral presentation will be discussed with the instructor.

CONTENT The course is designed to trace a comprehensive map of the whole decade of Italian cinema and it will also examine more closely some of its most significant films. During class time, some basic notions related to film analysis will be discussed. For each programmed film a handout with criticism and general information will be supplied.

SCREENINGS (Aula 5, Via Mascarella 86)

LECTURES (Aula 5, Via Mascarella 86)

REQUIRED READINGS

SUGGESTED READINGS

Leonardo Quaresima, Ph.D., is Professor of Cinema History at Udine University and D.A.M.S. at the University of Bologna. His research interests range from German to Italian cinema and he has published extensively on both these subjects and the History of Silent Film.

DESCRIPTION This course proposes a series of readings taken from a wide range of choices, from the medieval to the modern. Starting from the classic "Geografia e storia della letteratura italiana, Torino, Einaudi, 1967" by the acclaimed critic Carlo Dionisotti, the lectures will introduce the themes of presence and visibility of history and geography in literature, the concept of literary chronotope, and the presence and development of landscape in space and time. Through a choice of readings taken from Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, all the way to Montale, the course will examine the main geographical and historical tendencies of Italian Literature and will often refer to other important works of European Literature.

INSTRUCTOR Paola Vecchi Galli

PREREQUISITES General knowledge of European and Italian culture

METHOD OF PRESENTATION Classroom lectures

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION Italian

REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT Attendance and active participation in class discussions (25%), oral presentation (25 %), final exam (oral and written) (25+25 % = 50%).

CONTENT

EASTER BREAK

REQUIRED READINGS

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Professor Paola Vecchi Galli is a Faculty member of the University of Bologna in the Department of Lettere e Filosofia. Her field of interests mainly covers Italian Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She wrote numerous essays on Dante, Petrarch, poetry and prose of the period between XIV and XVI century. She is also a member of the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Petrarch Centenary in 2004, in which occasion she will work on the edition of "Rime Disperse." With Bruno Bentivogli, she has recently published the volume "Filologia italiana" (Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2004).