RMST302

Theatre and Poetry of the Romance World

This course explores the theatrical and poetic production of the Romance World in all its breadth and diversity, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. A particular emphasis will be put on the early modern and the modernist periods, that is, the 16th-17th and the late 19th and 20th centuries. We will inquire about the close relationship—as well as the crucial differences—between poetry and theatre and ask, among others, the following questions: what forms does the poetic and theatrical production take as it travels across the Romance World? How does it unfold and change across centuries? What tools do we have (or can we develop) to historicize and appreciate the poetic and performative production of cultures and times perhaps detached from our own experience(s)? 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? We will read and discuss, in English, classics as well as less-known authors, both male and female, who wrote in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. You are welcome to read the texts in the original languages or in the English translation. Authors and texts include: Isabella Andreini, Charles Baudelaire, Luís de Camões, La Celestina, Sigmund Freud, The Tales of Hoffmann, Sor Juana, Marie Krysinska, Louise Labé, Francis Petrarch, Salvatore Quasimodo, Gaspara Stampa, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Florian Zeller.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Katharina Piechocki

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Introduction to Romance Language Cinema: Film Adaptation

The history of cinema entails countless literary adaptations. This course will offer a study of films that have been adapted from literary works in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. We will explore cinematic productions based on visuality, sound, and text/context. We will have the opportunity to survey contexts for the development of Western Cinema, and to examine the variety of Romance World Cinema in diverse contexts. We will study general techniques of adaptation and film analyses in relation to global and social issues, identity, class, and gender. Questions to be examined: How does adaptation change genre? How does adaptation influence filmic form and language? How does cinema engage with canonical and obscure literature? What remains and what changes across artistic media?

Credit will be granted for only one of RMST 234 or RMST 305.

Primary film selection to be examined: 

• Federico Fellini – Nights of Cabiria (1957) – based on a short story by Fellini [1hr 49min]
• Luis Buñuel – Belle de Jour (1967) – based on Joseph Kessel’s novel [1hr 41min]
• Bernardo Bertolucci – The Conformist (1970) – based on Alberto Moravia’s novel [1hr 51min]
• Jean-Jacques Annaud – The Name of the Rose (1986) – based on Umberto Eco’s novel [2hr 10min]
• Stephen Frears – Dangerous Liaisons (1988) – based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ novel [1hr 59min]
• Alfonso Arau – Like Water for Chocolate (1992) – based on Laura Esquivel’s novel [2hr 03min]
• Bille August- The House of the Spirits (1993) – based on Isabel Allende’s novel [2hr 25min]
• Guel Arraes – Lisbela and the Prisoner (2003) based on a play by Osman Lins [1hr 46min]
• Walter Salles – The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) based on the travel diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara [2hr 06min]
• Juan José Campanella – The Secret in their Eyes (2009) based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri [2hr 09min]

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Alessandra Santos

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Corps, Passions, Emotions : Le Théâtre Français et Francophone du XVIIe Siècle

Ce cours se propose d’étudier les différentes articulations théâtrales et performatives françaises et francophones du XVII^e siècle. Souvent associé au classicisme, aux concepts de bienséance et de vraisemblance ainsi qu’aux « trois unités » (unité de lieu, unité d’action, unité de temps), le théâtre français et francophone fut un moyen important pour la propagation de nouvelles idées (politiques, morales, coloniales, raciales, philosophiques, esthétiques, stylistiques, cosmologiques, médicales, etc.). La production théâtrale du XVII^e siècle fut impressionnante : elle ne consistait pas seulement en pièces « classiques » (comédies, tragédies), composées par les trois dramaturges les plus célèbres du siècle associés à « l’âge classique » — Corneille, Molière, Racine —, mais aussi en une variété de genres nouveaux (pastorales, tragicomédies, ballets, entrées royales, comédies-ballets et opéras), jouées dans de multiples lieux de théâtre non seulement en France, mais aussi dans le « Nouveau Monde » (tels le Canada et St. Domingue). Nous allons explorer l’impact de la Poétique d’Aristote sur le « théâtre classique » et l’importance de la commedia dell’arte pour la production théâtrale et visuelle (Jacques Callot, Maurice Sand) à travers les siècles ; nous allons étudier l’interaction du corps humain et des machines théâtrales sur la scène française et francophone. Les thèmes récurrents comprennent la question des genres (gender), les relations raciales, les représentations spatiales, les théories du théâtre (« La querelle du Cid », les traités sur le théâtre), les articulations des passions (Descartes) et les pratiques performatives et poétiques d’inclusion et d’exclusion, en particulier dans le contexte colonial de la Nouvelle France (Canada) et des Caraïbes.

Required readings: To be announced.

Prerequisite: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 225, FREN 402.

Language of instruction: French

Translation and Romance Languages

Certain themes and challenges recur in translation, whatever the situation and whatever the language pair. This course examines translation in the framework of cross­-cultural and multi­disciplinary comparisons, with an emphasis on Romance languages. We will look at the history of translation, and analyze translators and interpreters as fictional characters in literature and film. We will also explore the practice of translation in a variety of media, including literary texts, news media, Internet, film, radio, TV, blogs, and video games. A wide variety of topics such as how translation and interpreting shape our lives and transform the world, what is lost and found in translation, translating literature and cultural cues, fluency and transparency, register and tone, the author-translator-reader triangle, translating humorous verses, puns and wordplays will be examined through a list of selected readings to provide a foundational understanding of the crucial role that translators and interpreters play in our lives.

Language of instruction: English

Recommended prerequisites: Second-year standing or higher.

Italian Fashion Cultures

Cross-listed with RMST100

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

In 2022, Italy’s newly-elected, right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, re-named a previous trade ministry as the “Ministry for Business and Made in Italy,” thereby invoking a key marker of Italian commercial, group, and cultural identity. Since the end of the WWII, the garment and accessories sector has been traditionally recognized as a pillar within the Made in Italy industries.

“Italian Fashion Cultures” examines both the national history of Italian fashion since the post-WWII period and its global dimensions. The course delineates the dynamics among the country’s fashion capitals (Florence, Rome, and Milan), with a focus on the apparel sector’s growth during the 1950s-1970s. We also probe how and why Italian fashion has developed in response to the clothing sector’s exigencies and creative tension with France, the United States, and China.

The course highlights ready-to-wear and fast fashion, the two most significant categories of the fashion world today. Cultural appropriation, decoloniality, and sustainability are examined throughout the course in relation to the course’s primary texts, including fashion journalism, websites, social media, advertising, literature, films, and artworks.

Students are encouraged to consider three central questions:

(1) how clothing is represented in the primary texts to influence the audience’s cognitive and affective knowledge;

(2) how fashion helps forge individual, brand, national, and other cultural identities;

(3) given the ubiquitous presence of fashion branding, how these narratives articulate the Made in Italy cachet to consumers?

The course does not assume student’s prior knowledge of Italy or Italian fashion. Oral presentations and a final project (in the format of a critical essay, a short film, a multimedia project, or creative writing) are the main tools of assessment of learning outcomes. Regular attendance in class lecturing and participation in group discussions and in-class activities are essential for developing critical and analytical skills for these assessment activities.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites