ITAL409

ITAL409

The Strongman, the Latin Lover, and other Italian Masculinities

Cross-listed with RMST459

This course offers an overview of diverse Italian masculinities as they are represented in Italian literature and culture. What does it mean to be a man in Italy? How do diverse concepts of Italian manhood come into being? How are they constructed and circulated through literary and cinematic texts? What do these texts tell us about Italian society? And how are these male types challenged in the Italian cultural domain?

We will probe these questions by studying the depictions of Italian virilities in memoirs, novels, public speeches, news articles, films, and television programs from the 18th century to the present, with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries. Male types and ideals that we will examine include the self-made man, the strongman, the fascist new man, nationalist soldiers, the inetto (schlemiel), the Latin Lover, libertines, and gay men. To delve further into these texts, we will also study a selective number of influential theories from Masculinity and Gender Studies.

Through this course, we will gain a historical and critical understanding of men and gender dynamics in Italian culture. This course is designed to develop your critical thinking, as well as speaking and writing skills in the context of Italian masculinities. No prior knowledge of the Italian language or Italian culture is required.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Note: Credit will be granted for only one of ITAL 409 or ITST 419 or RMST 459. Students who plan to minor in Italian must take this course as ITAL and will be expected to do part of their reading and assignments in the Italian language. ITAL 409 may be taken twice, with different content, for a total of 6 credits.

Grading Breakdown

Critical essay 1: 25%
Critical essay 2: 25%
Final oral presentations: 20%
Two improvised oral presentations and written reports: 20%
Class participation, regular attendance, and professionalism: 10%

Readings

Coming soon

ITST413

[Cross-listed with Italian 403]

Dante and His World: The Divine Comedy in Translation

Undoubtedly the best-known among all poems written in the Italian language during the last seven hundred years, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy takes us on a most unusual journey. We begin our travels quivering with the wayfarer at the outskirts of a ghastly dark forest, and we end up basking in the blissful light of a cosmic embrace. What makes such a change of perspective possible? It is the journey itself, answers Dante, who in his visionary exploration of “the beyond” is taught by his teachers, Virgil and Beatrice, how fearlessly to plumb the abysses and expanse of the human psyche.

From exile to reintegration, from wretchedness to felicity, this is the story of a process of inner transmutation, whose liberating power has touched countless readers over the ages and across cultures. More than ever today Dante’s poem is apt to teach us, “on the wings of the night”, how progressively to uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self, and of the universe that surrounds us.

This course offers a close reading of Dante’s masterpiece through a large selection of excerpts from all of the canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), along with a reading of Dante’s earlier work Vita Nuova (The New Life) in its entirety.

Required Texts
— D. Alighieri, Vita nuova, tr. S. Applebaum. Dover, 2001.
— D. Alighieri, Inferno, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006.
— D. Alighieri, Purgatorio, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2007.
— D. Alighieri, Paradiso, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006.

Recommended Texts (also available at UBC Library Reserve Room)
— S. Bemrose, A New Life of Dante, revised and updated. U Exeter Press, 2010.
— R. Kirkpatrick, Dante, the Divine Comedy. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
— G. Raffa, The Complete Danteworlds. A Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy. The University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Prerequisite
At least 30 credits of lower division courses or permission of the instructor. Precludes credit for ITAL 403 and vice versa.

Note
Students who plan to minor in Italian must take this course as ITAL and will be expected to do part of their reading and assignments in the Italian language.

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

ITAL403

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

Cross-listed with RMST453

Dante con in mano la Divina Commedia by Domenico di Michelino (1465)

Undoubtedly the best-known of all poems written in the Italian language during the last seven hundred years, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy takes us on a most unusual journey. We begin our travels quivering with the wayfarer at the outskirts of a ghastly dark forest, and we end them basking in the blissful light of a cosmic embrace. What makes such a change of perspective possible? The journey itself, Dante maintains, having been taught by his teachers, Virgil and Beatrice, how fearlessly to approach the abysses of the human psyche during his visionary explorations of the “beyond.”

From exile to ecstasy, from wretchedness to reintegration, this is the story of a process of inner transmutation, whose liberating power has touched countless readers over the ages and across cultures. More than ever today Dante’s poem shows us how progressively to uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self, and of the universe that surrounds us.

In the words of Pope Francis (2014), Dante is «a prophet of hope, herald of the possibility of redemption, liberation and the profound transformation of every man and woman, of all humanity». As such, he «still has much to say and to offer through his immortal works to those who wish to follow the route of true knowledge and authentic discovery of the self, the world and the profound and transcendent meaning of existence». In order to do this, Dante walks a very thin line between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the path taken by visionaries of all times and spiritual traditions.

Dante’s cosmic perspective is powerfully inspiring to this day, witness the exemplary role his journey played in shaping the worldview of C. G. Jung, the father of analytical psychology, at the beginning of the 20th century, and at the other end of that same century, the “wild sacred” ecological visions of Thomas Berry, the father of ecophilosophy. It is indeed as a “wounded healer,” as a “modern shaman,” and even more compellingly perhaps as an ante litteram ecologist and activist of the world-soul that Dante asks to be understood today — beyond the boundaries of society’s self-serving needs for canonicity and legitimization.

This course offers a close reading of Dante’s masterpiece through a large selection of excerpts from all of the canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), along with a reading of Dante’s earlier work Vita Nuova (The New Life) in its entirety.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Note: Credit will be granted for only one of RMST 453, ITST 413 or ITAL 403

Grading Breakdown

35% 5 reading responses
25% Midterm
30% Final
10% Attendance and participation
100% Total

Readings

Required readings

Dante Alighieri, Dante Alighieri, Vita Nuova, tr. Virginia Jewiss. Penguin, 2022. (ISBN 978-0143106203) Please buy this book.

Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006-07, 3 vols. (ISBN Inferno: 978-01404489; Purgatorio: 978-0140448962; Paradiso: 978-0140448979

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, tr. Steve Ellis. Vintage Classics 2019. (ISBN 978-1784871987) Please buy this book.

Recommended readings

Guy P. Raffa, The Complete Dante Worlds. A Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy. Chicago UP, 2009. (ISBN 978-0226702704)

SPAN530

Salvador Dalí: un acercamiento interdisciplinar

DESCRIPCIÓN

Dalí fue un artista que se expresó a través de diferentes disciplinas, géneros y soportes. De hecho, la pintura fue para él solo uno de los instrumentos de que hace uso para expresar sus ideas. Pero fue también un escritor innovador de obras de teatro, ópera y guiones de cine; de diarios, autobiografías, novelas y poesía. Su interés por la fotografía y la performance es bien conocido; su dedicación al diseño, la publicidad y la moda también, así como a las artes aplicadas, la escultura y la arquitectura. Al contrario que otros surrealistas, fue evolucionando al ritmo de los tiempos y entendió como nadie, y antes que nadie, la importancia de los medios de masa y la publicidad en la vida del artista. Es, además, el teórico más importante de la vanguardia en España, y un espectador y pensador privilegiado que reflexiona, siempre con ironía, sobre la realidad artística, social y política de Cataluña, España, Europa y Norteamérica.

La compleja y diversa obra de Salvador Dalí muestra con claridad que la obra artística no nace aislada; forma parte de una compleja red de relaciones e influencias respecto a otras obras, géneros y disciplinas. Para ahondar en el pensamiento y la obra de Salvador Dalí y de la vanguardia, hay que adoptar necesariamente un acercamiento interdisciplinar y múltiple.

OBJETIVOS

El objetivo de este curso es doble:

  1. descubrir alguna de esas facetas poco conocidas de Salvador Dalí y ahondar en su concepción del arte, el hombre y la realidad, enmarcando su obra en el contexto cultural, social y político del siglo XX.
  2. acercar a los estudiantes al análisis de otras disciplinas hermanas de la literatura: la fotografía, la performance, el teatro, la pintura, el cine y la museografía fundamentalmente.

Al finalizar el semestre, el estudiante habrá profundizado en el conocimiento de la obra y el pensamiento de una de las principales figuras del surrealismo y la vanguardia; asimismo, se habrá iniciado en el análisis de textos culturales de tipo diverso; por último, se habrá familiarizado con un acercamiento de tipo interdisciplinar al abordar el estudio de la cultura española de vanguardia (o la cultura, en general).

Required readings:

Buñuel, Luis y Dalí, Salvador. Un perro andaluz (1929) [película]

Buñuel, Luis y Dalí, Salvador. La Edad de Oro (1930) [película]

Tristán Loco (1938), Trilogía Bacanal-Laberinto-Sacrificio (1941), Las nubes (1941) y Mártir: tragedia erótica en tres actos [teatro y ballet]  En Salvador Dalí.  Obra completa. Vol. 3. Barcelona: Destino, 2004. 947-1030

García Lorca, Federico, y Dalí, Salvador.  Querido Salvador, Querido Lorquito: Epistolario 1925-1936. Barcelona: Elba, 2013.[Epistolario].

Dalí, Salvador.  La vida secreta de Salvador Dalí. (1942)  [Autobiografía] En Dalí, Salvador.  Obra completa. Vol. 1. Textos Autobiográficos.  Barcelona: Destino, 2003. 7-923 + Notas (1231-1257).

Dalí, Salvador. Rostros ocultos (1944) [novela] En Salvador Dalí.  Obra completa. Vol. 3. Barcelona: Destino, 2004. 377-945.

Selección de performances y de fotografías de Dalí (filmadas o tomadas por Jonas Mekas, Averty, Ray, Schaal, Halsman, Casals, y otros (diversas fechas)

Dalí Teatre-Museu / written and directed by Toni Matas. (DVD) o Pitxot, Antoni y Aguer, Montse. Teatro-Museo Dalí  de Figueres (1974). Fundación Salvador Dalí/ Triangle Postal, 2005.

Catherine Grenier, Salvador Dalí. The Making of an Artist. Paris: Flammarion, 2012. [1st. Edition en francés de 2011]

Recommended readings:

Descharnes, Robert, y Gilles Néret.  Dalí. The Paintings.  Köln: Taschen, 2001.

Booth, W.C.; Colomb, G.G., and Williams, J.M.  The Craft of Research.  Chicago and London: The U.of Chicago P. Last edition available.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Professor: María Soledad Fernández Utrera

ITAL304

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

This course will be an introduction to Italian history, literature, and culture from Risorgimento (1815-1860/70) to the Berlusconi Era (1994-2011). 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. During the first two thirds of the course, we will examine representative texts from our (too-often-disregarded) women writers and canonical writers, as well as several prominent films from Rossellini’s Roma, Città Aperta to Moretti’s Aprile to deepen our discussion and understanding of the shaping of contemporary Italian society. The last third of the course will concentrate on Post-Colonial Italy, with a segment on memory through architecture in Asmara (Eritrea), and in Rome and Affile (Italy); and a segment on Italianness through the texts of colonial-times writers, second-generation contemporary writers, New Italian Epic, and several documentaries and clips on citizenship, identity and migration. In February, during Black History Month, students will be required to participate in a guest-lecture on Zoom where Italo-Ghanaian activist and film director Fred Kuwornu will present his work on race, ethnicity, and national identity.

Required readings:

  1. Full texts available on-line from Koerner’s library:
    • Selected chapters from Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2013, June 2014 (online);
    • Selected chapters from Peter Brand, and Lino Pertile (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1997, March 2008 (online).
  2. All films and documentaries required for the course will be available for on-line free streaming either through Koerner’s library, Kanopy, and Netflix, or will be screened during class-time.
  3. Literary excerpts and critical articles.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Language of Instruction: English

ITST232

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

[Cross-listed with ITAL 304]

This course will be an introduction to Italian history, literature, and culture from Risorgimento (1815-1860/70) to the Berlusconi Era (1994-2011). 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. During the first two thirds of the course, we will examine representative texts from our (too-often-disregarded) women writers and canonical writers, as well as several prominent films from Rossellini’s Roma, Città Aperta to Moretti’s Aprile to deepen our discussion and understanding of the shaping of contemporary Italian society. The last third of the course will concentrate on Post-Colonial Italy, with a segment on memory through architecture in Asmara (Eritrea), and in Rome and Affile (Italy); and a segment on Italianness through the texts of colonial-times writers, second-generation contemporary writers, New Italian Epic, and several documentaries and clips on citizenship, identity and migration. In February, during Black History Month, students will be required to participate in a guest-lecture on Zoom where Italo-Ghanaian activist and film director Fred Kuwornu will present his work on race, ethnicity, and national identity.

Required readings:

  1. Full texts available on-line from Koerner’s library:
    • Selected chapters from Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2013, June 2014 (online);
    • Selected chapters from Peter Brand, and Lino Pertile (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1997, March 2008 (online).
  2. All films and documentaries required for the course will be available for on-line free streaming either through Koerner’s library, Kanopy, and Netflix, or will be screened during class-time.
  3. Literary excerpts and critical articles.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Language of Instruction: English

RMST221

The Art of Love in Occitan and Old French Literature

In the 12th century, Western Europe became passionate about love. Fine amor, or courtly love, was born in the Occitan regions with the songs of the troubadours. It migrated to the North of France and Langue d’oïl, where it gave birth to specific genres of narrative literature (lais and romances), before spreading throughout Western Europe under various guises. Courtoisie is both an aesthetic system and an ideology. It puts love and sensual desire at the top of its hierarchy of values, thus redefining and challenging several social and moral conventions – especially the sanctity of marriage. The aim of this course is to study this important cultural phenomenon across different spheres of the Romance world, beginning with troubadour poetry in Langue d’oc. We will then shift to courtly narratives in Langue d’oïl, specifically the legend of Tristan and Iseut (which depicts major courtly topics such as adultery, amour de loin and erotic longing), but also the courtly lais of Marie de France. The study of the Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and the latin De amore by André le Chaplain (Andreas Capellanus) will help us understand how clerical authors reinterpret courtly love at the dawn of the 13th century.

Required Texts
Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, with the ‘Tristran’ of Thomas (Penguin Classics, 1960)
The Lais of Marie de France (Penguin Classics, 1999)
The Romance of the Rose (Oxford World’s Classics, 2009)

Recommended Reading
Proensa: an Anthology of Troubadour Poetry (U. of California Press, 1978)
Andreas Capellanus, On Love (Duckworth, 1982)

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

 

 

SPAN527B

Travel Writing in the Hispanic World to 1550

This course is an exploration of travel writing during the Spanish Medieval period in which students will venture into diverse journey narratives such as travel journals, romance tales, pilgrim guides, mirabilia, autobiographies or diplomatic reports. Although transportation was not as developed as today, Spanish medieval travelers still managed to make their way not only around Europe but to more exotic places such as Jerusalem, the Maghreb, Turkey, Egypt, Central Asia (Samarkand) and India. The class will offer a cross-cultural study of Spanish travelers (including Muslims and Jews) and their different motivations (conquest, pilgrimage, personal quest, diplomatic mission, trade, tourism), the narrative techniques used to record their experiences, the material aspects of travelling (transportation, technology, food, lodging, diseases, dangers), the reception (readers expectations, impact of printing, translations), as well as the symbolic and metaphorical meaning of travelling. We will particularly focus on the role of travel writing in the emerging creation of the Orient and the utopia (Letter of Prester John), its importance in the construction of otherness and imperialism, the contribution to the incipient Spanish identity, and the influence on the representation of America. In keeping with a cultural studies oriented approach, we will use reproductions of old maps, illustrations of the early editions, movies, art and architecture to enhance our understanding of the texts.

CORPUS of primary texts
Egeria. Itinerario (finales del siglo IV).
Hamid al-Gharnati, Abu, Relación de viaje por tierras asiáticas (h. 1155).
Tudela, Benjamín de. Libro de viajes (h.1170).
Anónimo, Libro de Alexandre (h. 1200) (selections).
González de Clavijo, Ruy. Embajada a Tamorlán  (1406) (selections).
Díaz de Games, Gutierre. El Victorial. Crónica de don Pero Niño (h. 1436) (selections).
Tafur, Pero. Andanzas y viajes (1454) (selections).
Mártir de Anglería, Pedro. Legatio babilónica (1501).
Mérida, Fray Diego de. Viaje al Oriente (1512).
Villalón, Cristóbal. Viaje a Turquía (1557) (selections).
Colón, Cristóbal. Carta a Luis de Santángel (1493)

CRITICAL SOURCES
Campbell, Mary B. The witness and the other world: exotic European travel writing, 400-1600. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1988.
Dangler, Jean. Making Difference in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia. Notre Dame IN: U Notre Dame P, 2005.
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Before Columbus: exploration and colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1987.
Friedman, John B., Trade, travel, and exploration in the Middle Ages: an encyclopedia. New York : Garland Pub., 2000.
López Estrada, Francisco. Libros de viajeros hispánicos medievales. Madrid: Laberinto, 2003.
Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism: Asian peoples and cultures in European travel writing, 1245-1510.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
Phillips, J.R.S. The Medieval Expansion of Europe. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press, 1998.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Verdon, Jean. Travel in the middle ages. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Course Registration

SPAN411

Introducción a la Lingüística Hispánica

Este es un curso de introducción al estudio del español como sistema lingüístico.  Es importante para los estudiantes de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) y para quienes buscan especializarse, conocer más allá de las funciones comunicativas del idioma.

En este curso, los estudiantes aprenden acerca de la evolución histórica del español, la formación de las palabras y la estructura de las oraciones, al igual que las variedades dialectales de la lengua.  Cada tema está acompañado de variados ejercicios prácticos para que los estudiantes trabajen en forma individual y grupal.  Igualmente, el curso ofrece múltiples instancias para el desarrollo de trabajos de investigación individual sobre algunos de los temas estudiados durante el curso.

Por tratarse de un curso avanzado, se espera que los estudiantes demuestren un nivel intermedio-avanzado del español tanto a nivel receptivo (comprensión auditiva y lectora) como de producción (escrita y oral).  El curso es igualmente apropiado para estudiantes bilingües o heritage speakers que deseen ampliar y mejorar su conocimiento del español.  No se espera, sin embargo, que los estudiantes posean conocimiento previo sobre lingüística hispánica.

Required Texts
CoursePack disponible en versión impresa o electrónica. Detalles para la adquisición del material estará disponible más adelante.

Prerequisite: SPAN 302

Language of Instruction: Spanish

Course Registration

ITAL206

Conversational Italian I

Italian 206 is designed to enhance communication skills and provide additional practice to improve oral expression, interaction (spoken and written) and comprehension of both listening and reading authentic material, while also increasing awareness of Italian culture.

This course is geared towards students who already have a good general knowledge of fundamental grammatical concepts such as present and past tenses, imperative and conditional, and a certain ability to communicate orally and in writing, but want to improve (after Italian 201 or with instructor permission) overall and deepen their intercultural competence in particular. A range of activities in and outside class, individual and in groups, such as discussions, debates, interactive presentations, and blogs are used to increase students’ speaking skill. Some grammar topics will also be reviewed through oral practice exercises.

Evaluation is based on demonstrated proficiency in oral and written communication.

Some students register in this course concurrently with ITAL 202.

Textbook: TBA

Prerequisite: ITAL 201 or permission of the department

Language of instruction: Italian

Course Registration