Italian 508-457 Topics in Italian Literature and Culture in Translation: Seeing Italy through Italian Short Stories U/G 3 cr
Meetings: MW 12:30-1:45 CRT 221
Prof. Robin Pickering-Iazzi
Office: CRT 789 Phone: 229-4382/5897 E-mail:
Office Hours: MW 11:30-12:20, and by appointment
Course Description: Reading short stories by famed Italian authors, we will travel through different regions and historical times of Italy. Tales by such storytellers as Boccaccio, Verga, Deledda, Moravia, and Manzini conjure Florence, Sicily, Rome, and Milan, for instance, before our very eyes. We will discuss the rich variety of themes the authors raise in their stories, such as the features highlighted in certain cityscapes; the ingredients making life and culture in one city distinct; the ways historical events, regional location, class and gender influence the lived city and countryside.
Skills to be acquired: Abilities to perform close readings of texts and to employ different interpretative approaches. Refinement of analytical skills and expression in oral work and written papers.
Required Texts: Course Packet, available from Clark Graphics (about $15.00); short story collection Name and Tears & Other Stories: Forty Years of Italian Fiction, edited by Kathrine Jason. New and used copies are available on Amazon.com for as low as $1.00. Please order your text as soon as possible.
Student Work and Determination of Final Grade:
All members of the class are expected to complete the readings by the assigned dates, and to come to class prepared to raise issues and questions for discussion.
Undergraduate Work:
Topics and Participation 25%
One analytical paper (4-5 pages) 25% Due Wednesday, October 18
Final Research Paper, due by Monday, December 18, 4:00pm (10 double-spaced pages with one-inch margins, Endnotes, and Bibliography) 40%
Presentation on Research Paper Topic and arguments 10%
Graduate Work:
Topics and Participation 10%
One analytical paper (5 pages) on a literary text 20% (Due Wednesday, October 18)
One analytical paper (5 pages) examining a theory related to the short story genre, verismo, neorealism, or approved topic 20% (Due November 15)
Final Research Paper, due by Monday, December 18, 4:00pm (15-18 double-spaced pages with one-inch margins, Endnotes, and Bibliography) 40%
Presentation on Research Paper 10%
Reading and Discussion Schedule:
9/6 Introduction: Profile and Issues Related to the Italian Short Story
9/11 Novellino: About a great famine at Genoa; About Bito and Messer Frulli of San
Giorgio in Florence
Franco Sacchetti, The Three Hundred Tales: An Austin friar preaches a Lenten sermon in Genoa on how the Genoese should wage their war
9/13 Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron: First Day (Introduction) and Second Story
9/18 Boccaccio, Eighth Day, Tenth Story
9/20 Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Tale of Belfagor”
9/25 Giovanni Verga, “Rosso Malpelo”
9/27 Verga, “Freedom” and “The She-Wolf”
10/2 Giuseppe A. Borgese, “The Woman from Syracuse”
10/4 Gabriele D’Annunzio, “The Downfall of Candia”
10/9 Library Assignment
10/11 Luigi Pirandello, “Limes from Sicily” and Matilde Serao, “Donna Caterina and Donna
Concetta”
10/16 Giuseppe Marotta, “Don Vincenzo and Don Eligio”
10/18 Analytical paper due (undergraduate and graduate students)
Reading: Grazia Deledda, “Baptisms”
10/23 Ada Negri, “The Movies”; Carlo Cassola, “At the Station”
10/25 Gianna Manzini, “A White Cloud”; Italo Svevo, “Traitorously”
10/30 Dino Buzzati “Something That Begins with ‘L’”; Vasco Pratolini, “Vanda”
11/1 Primo Levi, “Iron”; Carlo Levi, “Massacre of Vallucciole”
11/6 Beppe Fenoglio, “One-Way Ticket”
11/8 Alberto Moravia, “Hot Weather Jokes”; Giuseppe Bonaviri, “The Tailor’s Son”
11/13 Anna Maria Ortese, “A Pair of Glasses”
11/15 Carlo Emilio Gadda, “The Thieving Magpie”; Leonardo Sciascia, “Parlor Game”
(graduate students—second paper due)
11/20 Natalia Ginzburg, “House at the Sea”; Vitaliano Brancati, “Arrival in the City”
11/22-26 Thanksgiving Break
11/27 Umberto Eco, “The Discovery of America”
11/29 Antonio Tabucchi, “Little Misunderstandings of No Importance”
12/4 Giovanni Arpino, “The Peacock”; Gesualdo Bufalino, “The Invaded Man”
12/6 Goffredo Parise, “Caress”; Tommaso Landolfi, “Words in Commotion”
12/11 Carmelo Quijada, ‘Vendettas” and “Back Alleys”
12/13 Student Presentations on Research Topics
12/18 Research Paper due Monday, December 18, by 4:00 pm, in my mailbox in Curtin Hall 772 (graduate and undergraduate students)
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