OVERVIEW

Italian Literature and Culture from Italian Unification to Today

This course is reserved for foreign students who have no Italian high school diploma.  Students will read the prose and poetry of the most important Italian writers, and then will write a well-reasoned linguistic or lexical analysis.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

AIMS

This course is aimed at giving non-mother tongue Italian students with at least a sufficient command of Italian an introduction to Italian Literature and Culture (art, music, theatre) and to their own historical/geographical backgrounds.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

AIMS (FURTHER INFORMATION)

This course is meant to help foreign students acquire a B2 level of Italian by meeting literary texts that document the most significant moments in the development of Italian society and customs.  Special attention will be paid to grammatical and syntactic structures as well as vocabulary and the multiple meanings of words.

TEACHING METHODS

TEACHING METHODS

This 54 hour (9 CFU) course is taught in the I semester and includes participating in classroom lectures, and viewing images and film clips related to the literary subjects.  Students will be stimulated to do exercises, participate orally and engage in conversation.

As the course is intended to provide students with combined linguistic and cultural skills, attendance in at least half of the lessons is required and will be monitored. Those who do not attend the minimum number of lessons  will not be able to take the final exam in the session immediately following the end of the course (from 29/01/18 to 23/02/18) but will be allowed to take the exam as of the summer session beginning on 07/06/18.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

COURSE CONTENT

This course is focused on exploring the themes of World War I through some of the poetry of Giuseppe Ungaretti and some of the prose of Federico De Roberto. Students will also read and analyze nineteenth century poetry, which will provide the basis for discussion on the grammar and rich lexicon of the Italian language. Some of the major cities in Italy are the subject of the poetry and this will give the students a view into our culture and geography.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

M.T. Caprile, Attraversiamo l’Italia!, Brescia, Vannini, 2015.

Federico De Roberto, La paura e altri racconti della Grande Guerra Roma, edizioni e/o, 2014.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MARIA TERESA CAPRILE (President)

FRANCESCO DE NICOLA

STEFANO FERNANDO VERDINO

LESSONS

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The final exam will be a cloze test on grammatical issues from the A1 to the B2 level. Students must earn at least 65/100 points to be able to take the oral exam. The oral exam consists of 1) reading, paraphrasing and explaining one or two of the poems from the course, chosen by the instructor; 2) speaking about the subjects of Italian History and Culture dealt with in class and 3) summarizing and commenting on passages of the book, La paura e altri racconti della Grande Guerra.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam will be conducted by the head instructor and another teacher of a related subject. The evaluation criteria will be explained a number of times throughout the course.

Exam schedule