Italian Studies Minor
The Italian Studies minor is an interdisciplinary program managed by the Department of Foreign Languages. The courses involved in this minor are taught by the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of History, both housed in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, along with the Division of Art, housed in the College of Creative Arts. Students wishing to obtain an Italian Studies minor will be expected to complete course work focusing on the Italian language and on the rich heritage of literature, art history, and civilization created by Italians both on the peninsula and abroad. This minor provides an opportunity for students who have taken four semesters of Italian language courses to continue their study of Italian culture.
Students interested in the minor must take 15 credit hours of courses, including Italian 303 and 304 (Italian 204, or four semesters of Italian language, is a prerequisite for these two courses). Additional courses may be chosen from the following: ART 105, 106, 245, 246, 248, 249; CLAS 231, 232; HIST 201, 204, 205, 330, 331, 400, 480, 481, ITAL 293, 493, 496, FLIT 214; occasional special topic courses in various fields (upon approval of the coordinator). Of the 15 hours, at least 9 must be upper-division (300-400) level. Students must complete at least six of the upper division hours on campus.
Ital 303: Composition and Conversation
As a course leading to the Minor in Italian Studies, Italian 303 is designed to refine and apply skills in writing, speaking, reading and listening acquired at the requirement level (Italian 102-204), focus especially on writing and oral skills.
After a short review of the skills learned in Italian 101-204, students will learn how to speak in Italian about first impressions and stereotypes, their families, their town and their friends and passions. They will learn how to express opinions and advice, and how to describe and compare.
Students will learn about Italian regions, Italian artists and Italian writers.
ITALIAN 303 SYLLABUS
Ital 304: Advanced Conversation
As a course leading to the Minor in Italian Studies, Italian 304 is designed to refine and apply skills in writing, speaking, reading and listening acquired at the requirement level (Italian 102-204) and in Italian 303, focusing especially on the oral skills.
Students will learn how to speak in Italian about their jobs and how they spend their free time, about the society and its problems, and about hopes for the future. They will learn how to express opinions and advice, and how to describe and compare.
Students will learn about Italian regions, Italian artists and Italian writers.
ITALIAN 304 - Syllabus
ITAL 293: Special Topics
Consent
Investigation of topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses.
ITAL 493: Special Topics
Consent
Investigation of topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses.
FLIT 214: The Italian American Experience
This course will investigate literary and historical perspectives on the experience of Italians in the United States and their contribution to the U.S. culture. The approach will be multidisciplinary.
ART 105: Survey of Art History 1
The course examines the history of the visual arts in world cultures from prehistoric periods to the fourteenth century.
ART 106: Survey of Art History 2
The course examines the history of the visual arts in world cultures from the fourteenth century to the present.
ART 245: Greek and Roman.
The arts of the Aegean World, c.2000 BCE, Greece and Rome to 400 CE. are examined. Architecture, sculpture and painting will be included.
ART 246: Art History: Medieval
PR: ART 105 and ART 106
The arts of Europe from c.312 to c.1350 are examined. The theoretical, historical and literary context for the images will be established. Architecture, sculpture, painting and portable arts will be included.
ART 248: Art History: Italian Renaissance
PR: ART 105 and ART 106
Early Renaissance through Mannerism. The course will emphasize both the historical context and theoretical foundation of 15th and 16th-century Italian Art and architecture.
ART 249: Baroque
PR: ART 105 and ART 106
The course examines the art of the late 16th through 18th centuries of both Northern and Southern Europe. Issues of Historical context, and theoretical interpretation are emphasized.
CLAS 231: Greek and Roman Civilization and Culture
CLAS 232: Greek and Roman Myths
HIST 201: History of Ancient Times: Stone Age to the Fall of Rome Ancient civilizations of the Near East and the Mediterranean.
HIST 204: Renaissance and Reformation
Medieval antecedents; humanism and the new learning; Renaissance art; Machiavellian politics; demographic and social trends; Luther and Calvin, Radical Reformers, Council of Trent; popular culture; wars of religion.
HIST 205: Absolutism and Enlightenment
Europe from 1600-1800. End of religion wars; emergence of absolutism; nobility and court life; mercantilism; expansion; theological and philosophical crisis; empiricism and scientific revolution; philosophes and Enlightenment; French Revolution.
HIST 330: History of Italy, 1200-1800
Medieval communes and principalitits, humanism and the Renaissance, Habsburg-Valois wars on the peninsula, Baroque and scientific court culture, seventeenth-century crisis, state-building and absolutism, Enlightenment and Napoleonic invasion.
HIST 331: History of Italy, 1800-2000
Napoleonic occupation, regional states, Risorgimento, liberal democracy, emigration, industrialization, World War I, Mussolini and Fascism, postwar reconstruction, cinema, partyocracy, images of Italy, 1900s reforms.
HIST 400: Greece and Rome
Covers the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, Archaic and Classical Greece, Alexander the Great and the Hellenic Age, the Roman Republic, the Etruscan and Carthaginian states, and the rise of the Roman Empire.
HIST 480: History of the Alps
Examines the peoples, lands, culture and politics of the Alpine arc (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia) in comparative prospective. Mountain democracy, commerce, banditry, transportation, tourism, mining.
HIST 481: The Mediterranean: 1200-1800
Interaction between societies surrounding the Mediterranean (Christians, Muslims, and Jews from Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, the Maghrib) from the late Abbasids to Napoleon. Trade, warfare, family life, religion.