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Undergraduate Options
Here are some examples of the sort of options that would
be available to you during your studies at Reading. For detailed
information, see the Handbooks and
Module List
IT1001 Advanced Italian Language I
This module aims to develop the language skills of
students who have already achieved Advanced Level or equivalent in Italian, by
consolidating their knowledge of Italian grammar, broadening the registers of
their spoken and written language, extending their reading abilities, and
introducing translation techniques.
IT1002 Twentieth-Century Italian Culture
This module, for students
with Advanced Level or equivalent in Italian, aims at providing an introduction
to the study of modern and contemporary Italian literature and civilization, and
currently focuses on the period of Fascism, the Resistance, and the post-war
decades. Selected literary works and films are studied in the original language.
IT1003 Italian Language (Elementary) and Culture
This module aims to introduce students with no previous
knowledge of the subject to the study of Italian language and culture, and to
equip them to undertake a degree in Italian Studies. The module focuses on an
intensive introduction to the Italian language, which is extended in the second
term to the reading of literary texts in Italian. Other texts and topics in
Italian culture are studied in translation. The cultural component of the module
currently focuses on the period of Fascism and the Resistance.
IT1004
Italian Medieval and Renaissance Culture (in translation)
The module aims at providing an introduction to the study
of Italian Medieval and Renaissance literature and civilization: it is addressed
both to students intending to carry on with a degree in Italian Studies and to
students who wish to be introduced to the study of Italian civilization as part
of their general University education. While lectures paint a broad picture of
Italian culture from 1200 to1550, tutorials focus on the work of famous
Florentine writers: for example, a selection of cantos from Dante’s Divine
Comedy, selected stories from Boccaccio’s Decameron, Machiavelli’s
seminal work of political theory The Prince, and Vasari’s influential
work of art history Lives of the Artists.
IT201 Advanced Italian
Language II
This module aims to build on the work done in IT1001 to improve advanced
students’ knowledge of Italian, developing their comprehension skills and
increasing their fluency in both written and spoken Italian. Students develop an
understanding of a greater variety of different registers in written and spoken
Italian, learn to express themselves clearly and fluently in a wider variety of
situations, explore more complex syntactical and grammatical elements, and
further develop their translation abilities. They also prepare themselves for
their Year Abroad by familiarising themselves with elements of Italian politics,
culture and student life.
IT202 Intermediate Italian
Language
Building on the elementary Italian language module IT1003, this module aims to
improve students’ comprehension of Italian and their fluency in the written and
spoken language. Students develop an understanding of a variety of different
registers of written and spoken Italian, learn to express themselves confidently
in both everyday and more formal situations, deepen their understanding of the
basics of Italian grammar, so that they can speak and write with a fair degree
of accuracy, and acquire the techniques involved in translating from one
language to another. They also prepare themselves for their Year Abroad by
familiarising themselves with elements of Italian politics, culture and student
life.
IT205 Italian Cinema I
This module aims to introduce students to the study of film, the history of
Italian cinema, and the theories and works of Italian neorealist film directors
(Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, De Santis and others).
IT206 Italian Cinema II
This module aims to analyse the work of three
of the most revered and influential film directors in the world of post-war
cinema: Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Bernardo Bertolucci.
IT208
Italian Modernism
This module aims to explore some of the most significant and influential Italian
cultural responses to the far-reaching changes, in society and ideas, which took
place in the early twentieth century. All the works to be explored offer a
challenge to traditional certainties, in idea and form: the topics currently
studied include Pirandello’s play Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore, Svevo’s most
famous novel La coscienza di Zeno, and the ideology and experiments of the
avant-garde Futurist movement.
IT209
Italian Narrative and Poetry in the Nineteenth Century
This module aims to analyse the work of major literary figures in the Italian
literature of the nineteenth century both in the field of lyric poetry, where
Italian writers were able to draw on a very strong and distinguished Italian
tradition and an established linguistic corpus, and in the field of prose
narrative, which involved adopting and adapting foreign models and creating a
virtually new language. The module concentrates in particular on the work of
Manzoni and Verga, the two most representative novelists of the period and on
Leopardi, one of the major thinkers of the Italian Romantic movement and the
greatest Italian poet since the Renaissance.
IT2CON
Contemporary Italian Literature
This module aims to provide students with an understanding of some of the
principal developments in Italian fiction since the end of the Second World War.
Areas of particular interest will include the responses of novelists to the
process of industrialisation, which was perceived at times as an opportunity to
modernise and at others as a threat to idealised urban and rural cultures; the
representation of the working class and, most crucially, the representation of
working class speech over a period of significant change in attitudes to
socio-linguistic matters; the huge expansion, following the development of the
feminist movement in the 1970s, in the number of fictional works written by
women; and the range of social and theoretical issues raised by such works.
IT2WW
Writing Women in Early Modern Italy (1300-1650)
This module aims to explore various representations of women in fictional and
other works during the early modern period, both as objects and speaking
subjects. Different kinds of literary activities and general social conditions
are examined in order to identify why female cultural protagonism tended to be
less evident in the earlier half of the period, though writing women became more
visible later on. To gain a clearer picture of cultural practices, major works
by Boccaccio and Castiglione are analysed alongside examples by leading female
writers, including Vittoria Colonna and the commedia dell’arte actress Isabella
Andreini. These works reveal the increasingly adventurous ways in which women
managed to appropriate and adapt ‘male’ conventions, thus challenging received
perceptions of the literary canon.
IT301
Advanced Italian Language III
This aims to build on students’ previous knowledge of Italian, developing in
particular their skills in translating from and into Italian. Grammar revision
will also be undertaken.
IT303
Aspects of the Renaissance in France and Italy
This module enables students to understand some of the key aspects of one of the
most formative periods in Western European civilisation and of its impact on the
culture of later centuries. It will focus in particular on the influence of
Petrarch and the connections between French and Italian lyric traditions.
IT305 Dante
Dante’s Commedia (1306-21) is one of the most fascinating and
influential works of Western culture. Refashioning the conventions of epic
poetry, Dante used the account of his presumed journey through the three realms
of the Christian afterlife to explore the world at the close of the Middle Ages.
IT307
European Cinema I
The module aims to introduce students to the relationship between European
artistic films and popular film genres particularly in Italy, but also in
Hollywood and the rest of Europe. It also aims to analyse the work of
representative and influential film makers in these genres.
IT308
European Cinema II
This module aims to introduce a comparative exploration of political film
making in Italy and Europe. It aims to enable students to interpret the social
and political functions of the work of representative and influential film
makers in this field, and to analyse and compare the different procedures used
to achieve their goals.
IT309
Italian for Managers
This module aims to introduce students to the language of business in Italy.
IT312
Modern Movements in Italian Poetry 1900-1920
This module aims to explore the works of some of the most significant early
twentieth-century Italian poetic movements, which tried to challenge the power
of tradition and find a new poetic language which could express their new ideas
of the poet’s role in industrialised society.
IT314 The
South since 1860: Images and Reality
This module looks at the history of southern Italy since 1860, focusing in
particular on such problems as economic underdevelopment, emigration and
organised crime. Attempts will be made to assess the relationship between images
of the South and the underlying realities.
IT315
Umberto Eco: Fiction, Cultural Criticism and the Theory of Signs
Umberto Eco is probably the most influential intellectual in Italy, and the
best-known living Italian writer in the world at large. You will explore how
high-level conceptual issues inspire and guide Eco’s analysis of the
contemporary world as well as his fictional creations.
IT317
Fantastic Literature in Italy 1880-1980
This module explores literary texts in which the ‘fantastic mode’ is employed,
shows how such works differ from the dominant realist mode, and considers the
significance of the presence of strong foreign influences (German, French and
British) on such writing.
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Page last updated
February 07, 2008
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