Hunter College

Department of Romance Languages

SPRING 2009

Italian 339 (W) section 051 (code #4250)

cross-listed with

WGS 300.24 section 051 (W) (code # 4292)

3 credits

Tue. & Thur. From 5:35pm to 6:50pm

room 707 B

Instructor: Carmelina Cartei [ccartei @hunter.cuny.edu]

Italian American Women Writers and Artists

Course description:

This course will engage students in a critical exploration of the work produced by a number of leading Italian American women writers, playwrights and visual artists from the 1970s to the present. Students will read works by Helen Barolini, Louise DeSalvo, Mary Cappello, Dodici Azpadu, Maria Laurino, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Julie Bovasso, Karen Malpede, Diana di Prima, and Daniela Gioseffi to mention a few. Students will also explore the poetics and politics of Kym Ragusa, Nancy Savoca and Ani di Franco, Italian American women who are active in the visual arts, cinema and music.

The course approaches the creative work of these authors and artists through a number of feminist concepts. We will analyze the ways the writers address identity formation, specifically how gender, ethnicity and class identity intersect in their work of fiction and non-fiction—how do individual writers negotiate their “Italian American” identity? How do they relate to their ethnic communities? What does it mean to identify or invent oneself as an Italian American woman? How do they resist gender and ethnic stereotypes, or the “controlling images” propagated by the dominant culture? Part of this exploration of identity formation also includes puncturing the illusion of the “ideal, nuclear, middle class, heterosexual family” that lives happily ever after. Some of the work we will read addresses sexual identity and the familial conflicts and alienation that may arise when “one comes out of the closet.” Rejection of one's sexual desires by one's family pushes the writers (and their characters) to reevaluate the meaning of community, and to envision new communities and relationships that are inclusive.

Finally, we will consider the work of these writers and artists as examples of cultural resistance, namely creative work that challenges all systems of domination—the intersections of -isms that impact our lives, destroy our planet, and prevent full human development. These authors not only question sexism, patriarchal gender roles, heterosexism, and homophobia in their families and communities, but also struggle against xenophobia (the fear of “the immigrant,” “the alien,” “The Other”), racism, militarism, war, colonialism, the spread of corporate capitalism, the mechanization of our lives, and the inequitable distribution of resources and wealth around the world .

Course requirements:

  • PORTFOLIO---Students will create a semester long project in the form of a portfolio. They will be required to write a ONE-PAGE journal per week based on a question or a number of questions posed in the syllabus. Students should have about 14 journals by the end of the semester as part of the portfolio. Rewrites of individual journals can be required when necessary.
  • RESEARCH PAPER (8-10 pages)—on some aspect of the topics, work and authors covered in class; or on one of the topics/subjects provided by instructor (which may be amplified). By the 5th week of classes, students should present a written paragraph on the subject of their papers. Only 1 INTERNET resource acceptable, the other 4 resources must be either books or academic journals (a bibliography is provided with the syllabus). Papers are due the first week of MAY, 2009. Late papers will lose a letter grade.
  • A MIDTERM exam—will be based on essay questions on work covered in class
  • A FINAL EXAM—will also be based on essay questions on work covered in class
  • ATTENDANCE—you are entitled to miss only 2 classes before your grade is affected. NO excused absences are accepted.
  • LATENESS—you are expected to come to class on time. Chronic lateness will affect your final grade. If you are late more than 30 minutes I will mark you absent for the day.
  • CLASS PARTICIPATION is required and encouraged.

Method of evaluation:

class participation & reading20 points

portfolio25 points

final paper25 points

Midterm15 points

Final exam 15 points

Readings (primary sources)

Julie Bovasso A selection from her plays

Karen Malpede A selection from her plays

Daniela Gioseffi A selection from her poetry, or Blood Autumn (2007)

Diana Di Prima, selection from “Recollections of My life as a Woman,” & Revolutionary Letters

Maria Mazziotti Gillan poetry selection from When I come from: New and Selected Poems

Louise DeSalvo Vertigo

Maria Laurino Were you always Italian?

Helen Barolini Chiaroscuro: Essays of Identity

Mary Cappello selection from Fuori: essays by Italian American Lesbians and Gays

Dodici Azpadu Saturday Night in the Prime of Life

Rita Ciresi Sometimes I dream in Italian

De Rosa, Tina Paper Fish

Suze Rotolo. A Freewheelin' Time

AND Some selections from the following anthologies (TBA):

Curaggia: Writing by Women of Italian Descent (1998)

Barolini, Helen, ed. The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writing by Italian American Women

Carol Bonomo Albright and Joanna Clapps Herman. Wild Dreams: the Best of Italian Americana

Statement on Academic Integrity

“Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantages, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity procedures.” If you commit plagiarism, you will receive zero for the assignment, and your paper will be sent to the Dean of Students of Hunter College.