Loyola University Chicago

Partially on-Site
Instructor: Prof.ssa Grazia Sotis

Meeting Days: Tuesday and Thursday

Meeting Times: 12:20 - 1:35 pm

Course Content
To talk about Italian Culture and Civilization starting from the differences between the North and South, or from the various regions, one might fall into triteness. Long ago Prezzolini in his book, The Legacy of Italy, has shown how the aspects of the highest Italian Civilization were universal and not only national, so that they were able to fulfill the yearnings of other peoples, not specifically only of the Italians.

The book by Enzo Biagi, L'Italia dei Peccatori, witnesses the changes that occurred in our country, which do not seem to find an equivalent in the official culture brought abroad. Luigi Barzini in his The Italians had already mentioned a discrepancy between the truthfulness and the image of the country. Sergio Travaglia in Maledetti Italiani moves from this position with details as to reach statements of an economic type: culture is treated like an item for sale and everything depends on how well it can be sold, production and national artistic patrimony are the strongholds of our mission. If Giuliano Procacci, Storia degli Italiani, talks of Italy and the history of Italians in relation to the European Culture, Travaglia broadens the view by going beyond Europe and relating Italy to non-western cultures, so placing the Italian "product" on a world scale and using not only the cultural past but also the present. In doing so he is able to establish the importance of the Italian culture so as to analyze all the aspects which are part of it, from the people to painting, architecture, literature; from philosophy to mathematics, religion, gastronomy, up to the point of taking into consideration the country's physical features, such as the city, for example.

These preliminary remarks do not mean that, during the course, the differences that exist within Italy, as in any other country, are not taken into consideration. The division into regions and their histories witness the cultural and folk variety.

Culture is also today's living. So, besides an outline of a culture historically meant, it will also consider present days. For this reason we can deal with usage and costumes of the life of modern Italians, whether by modern we mean either a break or continuity with the past. To all this we must add that the Italian Culture does not express itself at home or abroad, as it did in the past, only through literary texts, but also through other channels such as gastronomy, cinema, music, etc.

Course Objectives
The study of the country, its tradition as well, will be made from a synchronical presentation of selected topics also viewed within their historical development. A dynamic propulsion between past and present will help shape and define a picture of modern Italy.

The course will provide a unified picture of Italy but also its regional differences and varieties.

Students' active participation in the making and development of the course with their living experiences in the country will allow them to witness first hand and consequently to critique the many facets of Italian life.

Class material will also focus on the current semester activities. Students' travel and also trips organized by the Rome Center are taken into consideration in the development of the course content for each semester. The course material is a one-year program divided in two independent semesters for the fall and spring.

Requirements
The course includes on-site classes.
Students are asked to write two papers on a topic related to the country and people, the topic is to be agreed with the teacher (it shall include bibliography, foot notes, quotations, pages, etc.).
Class attendance is strongly recommended; students are allowed only three unexcused absences. Failure to take an exam or quiz, unless justified by real necessaity (e.g., illness; travel will never be accepted as a reason) brins an "F" in it. There will be no make-up exams.

Fall

• Introduction: the way Italian culture is perceived abroad; viewing of the film Pane e Cioccolata
• Gastronomy [Fall & Winter] food and festivities: optional on-site Sagra
• Artusi: visit to Museo Nazionale delle Arti e tradizioni popolari
• Commedia dell'arte (and Italian theater): masks; Goldoni and Venice - visit to the theater; Dario Fo (Nobel Prize for Literature 1997) and viewing one of his plays
• Fall Break
• Mid-term Exam
• Regions and Cities of Italy: oral presentations related to students' travel experiences in Italy
• Italian tales: Italo Calvino and Italian fairy-tales
• Christmas and Nativity Scenes: on-site
• Conclusion; research paper due
• Final Exam

Spring

• Introduction: the universal aspect of Italian culture and its folk and regional components; the way Italian culture is perceived abroad; viewing of the film Pane e Cioccolata; visit to Museo Nazionale delle Arti e tradizioni popolari
• Carnival and its celebration: documentary film on the Venetian Carnevale; optional visit to a carnival festival
• Puglia: optional school-sponsored trip to Puglia
• Gastronomy [Spring & Summer] food and festivities: optional on-site Sagra
• Mid-term Exam; first paper due
• Spring Break
• Opera: visit to the Opera House [Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni]
• Regions and Cities of Italy: oral presentations related to students' travel experiences in Italy
• Italian tales: Italo Calvino and Italian Folk-Tales
• Fairy-tales: reading of Pinocchio; viewing of film La Vita e bella
• Conclusion; second paper due
• Final Exam

Textbooks
Artusi, Pellegrino - L'Arte del Mangiar Bene
Calvino, Italo - Fiabe Italiane ... selections
Collodi, Carlo - Pinocchio
Duchartre, Pierre Louis - The Italian Comedy
Field, Carol - Celebrating Italy... Hill Towns of Italy... In Nonna's Kitchen
Forgacs, David & Lumley, Robert - Italian Cultural Studies: an Introduction ... selected chapters
Prezzolini, Giuseppe - The Legacy of Italy ... selected chapters
Rowen, Shirley and David - Carnival in Venice

Reading Assignments
Celebrating Italy : Introduction, pp 3-13; Part III -- Darkness, p 219, Epifania, p 298, Saint'Antonio Abate, p 310; Part IV -- Rebirth, p 329, Carnevale, p 343, Venerdì Gnoccolar, p 369, Pranzo del Purgatorio, p 377 (Ash Wednesday Purgatorio Lunch), Quaresima, p 384 (Lent), San Giuseppe, p 392 (Saint Joseph's Day), Pasqua, p 408 (Easter in Sicily)

Italian Cultural Studies : Cap I, Imagined Italies; Cap III, Anthropological Perspectives on Culture in Italy; Cap IV, Images of the South; Cap VII, Catholic Culture; Cap IX, Immigration and Social Identities

Selected folktales from Calvino's Italian Folktales
Liguria Money can do everything # 7
Piemonte The Little Girl Sold with the Pears # 11; The Snake # 12
Veneto The Crab Prince # 30; The King of Denmark's Son # 36
Friuli Petie Pete versus Witch Bea-Witch # 37; Quack Quack! Stick to my Back # 38; Jesus and S. Peter in Friuli # 41
Toscana Firenze The Apple Girl # 85; Prezzemolina # 86; The Fine Green Bird # 87;
Montale / Pistoiese The Son of the Merchant from Milan # 62; Buffalo Head # 67; Olive # 71
Lazio The Haughty Prince # 102; Wooden Maria, # 103; Nero and Berta # 106
Campania The Moor's Bones # 121; The Chicken Laundress # 122; First Sword and Last Broom # 124
Puglia The Five Scapegraces # 126; The Siren Wife # 132
Basilicata The Thirteen Bandits # 137
Calabria The Widow and the Brigand # 145
Sicilia Pippina the Serpent # 150; The Ismalian Merchant # 152; Giufà # 190; Fra Ignazio # 191
Sardegna Saint Anthony's Gift # 19

Students' work and performance are evaluated as follows:
10% Class participation; class attendance is strongly recommended (absences will be allowed only for serious reasons, such as illness)
15% 3 Quizzes
20% Mid-term Exam
25% Final Exam
20% 2 Research Papers (at least 4 pages each) 10% Oral Presentation

Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30-3:30 pm and by appointment