LITR 269 Italy Culture & Context
Summer 2013 - Session I
LITR 268 Italy: Culture and Contexts
Prof. Antonio Romano – firstname.lastname@example.org
The course will provide an overview of the long cultural history of Italy from ancient times to the present. In the context of that overview, we will study the key elements of Italian cultural identity: traditional elements such story-telling, music and theater, cuisine and wine-making as well as contemporary cultural phenomena such as fashion, the culture of the coffee shop and of moto-scooters in a crowded urban setting.
In our historical overview, we will study the emergence in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance of a distinctly Italian culture reflected in the new Italian language and examine key texts by Dante and Machiavelli and artworks of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. We will also study later Italian political and cultural identity in the 19th century when Italy became a unified nation and new attempts were made to create a modern national Italian culture. Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio will be a central text in our examination of this new Italy and the problems it faced.
As we study various cultural phenomena, including the Italian Renaissance and its art, we will be interested in reflecting on how Italian art, literature and philosophy have transcended the strict confines of their political and historical origin to become a source of universal inspiration. In studying Italian music and theater, and cuisine and wine making, and fashion, we will attempt to identify distinctly Italian aspects as we also study common behaviors which are also recognizable in other cultural contexts.
1. Student will learn to understand the historical dimensions of Italian cultural phenomena and the importance of Italian culture history in determining contemporary Italian culture.
2. Students will understand that Italy can be studied as both a unified culture and also as a collection of regions with differing traditions and cultural perspectives.
3. Students will enhance their reading skill at analyzing complex literary texts
Students will develop their skills at analyzing visual phenomena (works of art, design etc) in relation to Italian culture.
• Students will learn to study that the differences between the Italian culture and American culture
• Students will consider the question of how to design a map of life’s universal themes as they reflect on universal cultural phenomena.
Core Program Writing Skills Outcomes
1) Write clearly and effectively through description, analysis, informal journals and discussion-point papers. This will include in-class writing essays or responses to specific reading questions.
2) Discuss and criticize the works studied and other students’ responses thereto.
3) Write clearly and honestly all the time, complying with academic criteria of integrity laid down in the syllabus.
The Course will comprise lectures, close textual analysis, discussion of student’s writings and general class discussion.
Students are expected to read the assignments contained in the syllabus and to come to class prepared as the grade for the course largely depends on attendance and participation.
Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli, Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, ISBN 9780374530099
Machiavelli, The Prince, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199535699
Mangione, Mount Allegro: Memoir of Italian American Life, Syracuse Univ Press, 1998
These books can be purchased at the bookstore beginning April 16 (or online at the bookstore website, www.luc-lsc.bkstr.com)
Additional material will be presented in class
• Participation in the class is vital in determining student’s performance
• The student can see the instructor by appointment when additional help is needed
• Students are encouraged to prepare all the readings before discussion in class.
• Topics must be discussed with instructor before writing
Attendance: 25 %
Classroom participation: 20%
Midterm exam: 20%
Final paper 20%
Explanation of Requirements
Students are asked to write a 4-5 page paper on a topic related to the course as their midterm exam and a final 6-8 page paper on any topics pertaining to the course.
Students will also write a weekly journal about topics discussed in class or any other subject related to their experience in Italy
Class attendance is required. Students are allowed only one unexcused absence. Failure to take an exam or turning papers after the due date, unless justified by real necessity (I.e.: illness) will result in a failing grade.
Students should account for 100 euro extra for activities required during the course of class.
Statement of Academic Honesty:
Each student must strive for absolute integrity in academic work and in exams rely exclusively on his knowledge. Failure to comply with such guidelines will result in failing grade.
Schedule of classes:
First Week: May 20
Introduction: The Roman Empire; decline and transition into the Dark Ages
Patriarchy and the erosion of the father figure: Augustus and Marc Antony, two worlds colliding.
Dante and the Medieval World, Dante and the universal values of the Divina Commedia: Dante’s theory of courtly love then and its transformation in contemporary Italy.
Courtly love : myth or reality? When love becomes an addiction.
Cuisine in the Middle Ages:
Gastronomic transitions from the ancient times to the Italian contemporary culinary tradition; synthesis versus analysis and the separation of tastes as a further attempt to promote individualism and identity versus communal and convivial values of the middle ages
How the Italian culinary tradition has changed the world.
Second Week : May 27
Humanism and Renaissance- -
Florence and the Renaissance- from Humanism to Renaissance, Lorenzo dei Medici, Machiavelli and il “Principe”: Italian politics today and the teachings of Machiavelli’.
Introduction to the Italian political scene, common-places and stereotypes about Italian politics and pop culture.
The Age of Exploration: Cristoforo Colombo, Amerigo Vespucci and the discovery of the Americas. Toughts and reflections on transitional issues from conqueror to immigrant. Traditions and new identity.
(Movies – excerpts from “New World “)
Third Week: June 3
Wine as culture;
The culture of wines: when drinking becomes a cultural experience.
Tuscany and its oenological supremacy.
“ Drinking” as misguided spirituality
( Guided wine tasting )
Culinary icons of Italy:
Buffalo Mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano
History and reflections on many internationally renowned D.O.P. products.
(Possible visit to a Buffalo Mozzarella factory near Rome).
Fourth Week : June 10
National Unity and the independence of Italy:the Soutehrn question
Italian Tales, Pinocchio. Universal typology and pedagogy: from Lorenzetti to Disney – lecture
The rising of Fascism and Nationalism : Southern Italy and immigration.
The Italian mafia and the organized crime overseas.
The Italian cuisine in America and the Italian American cuisine.
History of the Italian pizza (visit at an Italian pizza parlor and tasting)
(Movies- “Big Night”)
Fifth Week: June 17
Coffee house and teas when it all began.
The culture of the “coffee shop” in Italy and in the world.
Coffee talk and Starbucks: subtle plagiarism or explosive ingenuity?
Scooters technology and the generation of “Entitlement”
Final exam June 19th
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO John Felice Rome Center · Sullivan Center for Student Services· 6339 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660 Mailing Address: 1032 W. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60660 800.344.ROMA · email@example.com