English-taught courses at the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies (Winter Session 2022)



Did you know we offer many French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romance Studies courses that are taught in English, have no prerequisites, and are open to students from all backgrounds? Most of them even fulfill the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts!

Explore the following courses that will be offered during Winter Term 1 and 2. It’s not too late to register.


Winter Term 1

September to December 2022

RMST 301 | Speculative Fiction: Fantasy, Dystopia, and the Weird

Fulfills the Romance Studies major, minor, and honours requirement.

"Speculative fiction" is an umbrella term for genres such as science fiction, fantasy, gothic, steampunk, horror, and alternate histories. Study four major works of speculative fiction from France, Argentina, Italy, and Portugal, translated in English.


RMST 305 | Introduction to Romance Language Cinema: Film Adaptation

“Film is a form of writing that borrows from other forms of writing,” as Robert Stam observed. Examine films that have been adapted from literary works in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, using film analysis techniques in relation to global and social issues, identity, class, and gender.


Fascism parade (parata rischiarata)

RMST 345 | Types and Archetypes of Fascism in the Age of the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Cross-listed with ITAL 345

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Gain foundational knowledge about fascism, in its successive incarnations, as it arose and ran its course in the context of neo-Latin societies and cultures. Since the phenomenon originated in Italy, our primary focus will be the Italian peninsula.


Pina (played by Anna Magnani) in Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 Roma CIttà aperta/Rome Open City

RMST 355 | Neorealism in Italian Cinema—from Rossellini to Fellini and Beyond

Cross-listed with ITAL 385

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Explore Neorealist Italian cinema from the rubble-strewn world of the immediate post-WWII period, including masterly films by Rossellini, Visconti, De Santis, De Sica and Zavattini.


RMST 419 | Romance Linguistics

Examine linguistics with an emphasis on the contemporary varieties of the Romance language family, gaining a broad understanding of the major similarities and differences between the Romance languages. 6 main domains of linguistics will be covered: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, and sociolinguistics.


Dante Alioghieri, portrait reconstruction by Helios-rt

RMST 453 | Within the Universe/The Universe Within: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, A Visionary Journey into Medieval Eco-Cosmology

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self and of the universe that surrounds us, through a reading of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” —undoubtedly the best-known among all poems written in the Italian language during the last 700 years.

Giotto, Nativity, detail. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.

ITAL 303 | Shifting Perceptions in Medieval and Early Modern Italy

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

This course aims at blending the visual and the literary arts that flourished in the Italian peninsula from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. We will follow a chronological order, moving from Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio to Pico, Machiavelli and Castiglione, from Giotto to Leonardo.


 

Fascism parade (parata rischiarata)

ITAL 345 | Types and Archetypes of Fascism in the Age of the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Cross-listed with RMST 345

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Gain foundational knowledge about fascism, in its successive incarnations, as it arose and ran its course in the context of neo-Latin societies and cultures. Since the phenomenon originated in Italy, our primary focus will be the Italian peninsula.


Pina (played by Anna Magnani) in Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 Roma CIttà aperta/Rome Open City

ITAL 385  | Neorealism in Italian Cinema—from Rossellini to Fellini and Beyond

Cross-listed with RMST 355

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Explore Neorealist Italian cinema from the rubble-strewn world of the immediate post-WWII period, including masterly films by Rossellini, Visconti, De Santis, De Sica and Zavattini.


Dante Alioghieri, portrait reconstruction by Helios-rt

ITAL 403 | Within the Universe/The Universe Within: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, A Visionary Journey into Medieval Eco-Cosmology

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self and of the universe that surrounds us, through a reading of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” —undoubtedly the best-known among all poems written in the Italian language during the last 700 years.


Winter Term 2

January to April 2023

RMST 302 | Theatre and Poetry of the Romance World

Fulfills the Romance Studies major, minor, and honours requirement.

Why does theatre and poetry of the Romance World matter to us, and what can we learn from it? How are questions of gender, race, colonialism, and different power relations encapsulated in performative, poetic, and audiovisual documents from the Romance World? Explore these questions and more.


RMST 343 | Pinocchio & Everything Else

Cross-listed with ITAL 333

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts. 

Re-visit the children’s story of ‘Pinocchio’, along with other modern classics, in light of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s critical dictum: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Explore archetypes of education, social ambition, success, failure, responsibility, and compassion—and how the individual and society can be (mis)aligned.


RMST 361 | Introduction to Brazilian Literature

Cross-listed with PORT 392

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Are you curious about Brazilian cultural history? This course offers a panoramic introduction to Brazilian literature in English translation, with a focus on the modern and contemporary eras. We will approach literature in relation to history, social dynamics, difference and politics.


RMST 372 | Topics in Hispanic Literature

Cross-listed with SPAN 312C

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Explore Spain and Latin America's contributions to global culture through popular Hispanic literature in English translation.


Fellini INTERVISTA (1987) locandina official playbill

RMST 452 | Great Masters of Italian Cinema After the Neorealist Age

Explore the great masters of Italian cinema after the Neorealist Age—from the comic satire, the grotesque expressionist drama, the neo-neo-realist migration film, the metaphysical fable, the absurdist conte philosophique, to the cinema politico of the age of grand political larceny, to the great post-modern performance.

Milano Fashion Week & Design, 02/2011 | Source: Flickr (Mat's Eye)

ITAL 110 | Made in Italy

Where do Italy’s glamour, lifestyle, traditions come from? This course introduces Italy’s multifaceted ways of being and the cultural creations of the peninsula in their context.


ITAL 304 | Introduction to Italian Culture and Literature II: From the Modern to the Post-Colonial Age

After an introduction on Unification, the rise and fall of Fascism, WWI, and WWII, this course aims to familiarize students with major political and historical events, and cultural trends from the post-World War II period to the present moment.


ITAL 333 | Pinocchio & Everything Else

Cross-listed with RMST 343

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts. 

Re-visit the children’s story of ‘Pinocchio’, along with other modern classics, in light of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s critical dictum: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Explore archetypes of education, social ambition, success, failure, responsibility, and compassion—and how the individual and society can be (mis)aligned.


Fellini INTERVISTA (1987) locandina official playbill

ITAL 430 | Great Masters of Italian Cinema After the Neorealist Age

Explore the great masters of Italian cinema after the Neorealist Age—from the comic satire, the grotesque expressionist drama, the neo-neo-realist migration film, the metaphysical fable, the absurdist conte philosophique, to the cinema politico of the age of grand political larceny, to the great post-modern performance.

PORT  392 | Introduction to Brazilian Literature

Cross-listed with RMST 361

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Are you curious about Brazilian cultural history? This course offers a panoramic introduction to Brazilian literature in English translation, with a focus on the modern and contemporary eras. We will approach literature in relation to history, social dynamics, difference and politics.

SPAN 312C | Topics in Hispanic Literature

Cross-listed with RMST 372

Fulfills the literature requirement for the Bachelor of Arts.

Explore Spain and Latin America's contributions to global culture through popular Hispanic literature in English translation.