Courses

French 821: Issues in Methods of Teaching French and Italian

Credits: 1-3

Requisite: Graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Heather Allen

Schedule: Tuesdays, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Description: Do you want to learn how to teach and plan advanced undergraduate second language (L2) courses? Are you eager to grow your understanding of the current state of the language teaching profession? Are you looking to deepen your pedagogical training before entering today’s competitive job market? This graduate seminar provides a forum for developing knowledge and expertise regarding the teaching of language, literature, and culture at the collegiate level. Topics addressed include collegiate language enrollment trends and challenges in the profession, the concepts of literacy and multiliteracies, multiliteracies pedagogy, scaffolding L2 reading, integrating focus on form in literary-cultural courses, teaching L2 writing and grappling with generative AI, teaching L2 cultures, multimodality, and inclusive pedagogy and instructional design. Note: This course is NOT French-focused. Recent course participants have included graduate students teaching Italian, Russian, Spanish, German, and Japanese as well as students from the School of Education. Course readings and class discussions in English; instructional and assessment examples relate to a variety of L2s. Course assignments: reading reactions (weekly), discussion leading (once), final project of creating a syllabus for an advanced undergraduate L2 course and sample materials for that course.

French 947: Seminar: Literature Questions

Credits: 3 credits

Requisite: Graduate/professional standing

Instructor:  Joshua Armstrong

Schedule: Thursdays, 2:25 pm to 4:25 pm

Description: L’exceptionnalisme humain veut que le monde—l’environnement, les animaux, tout ce qui n’est pas humain—soit au service de l’homme, que l’homme seul soit une présence, et que tout le reste serve de fond ou de support. Mais parfois, le non-humain devient présence en soi et semble posséder une agentivité propre, ce qui peut le rendre « étrange ». L’objectif de ce cours sera d’examiner, à travers la littérature, et à l’appui d’essais philosophiques, le rapport entre l’humain et le non-humain du XXe siècle à l’ère contemporaine. Nous lirons un échantillon de romans français et francophones des XXe et XXIe siècles où ce rapport est défamiliarisé (étrange) pour essayer de saisir les effets des turbulences écologiques sur l’expression artistique. Nous analyserons ensemble ces textes pour en dégager leurs significations plus profondes pour une planète en mal d’écologie.

Objectifs d’apprentissage
• Dégager la signification plus profonde des oeuvres littéraires à travers des analyses originales
• Mettre en dialogue les oeuvres littéraires et certaines idées philosophiques liées à l’écologie
• Présenter oralement et de manière convaincante une analyse originale
• Composer un travail de recherche écrit de haut niveau
• Participer activement à des discussions en offrant des idées originales sur les oeuvres

Textes littéraires (sujet à de potentiels changements):
• Marie Ndiaye, Rosie Carpe
• Antoine Volodine, Dondog
• Marie Redonnet, Splendid Hôtel
• Éric Chevillard, Sans l’orang-outan
• Patrick Chamoiseau, L’esclave vieil homme et le molosse
• Albert Camus, La peste
• Jean-Christophe Chauzy, Le reste du monde, tome 1

French 948: Seminar: Literature Questions

Topic: Study of literature and culture organized thematically or by time period. Theme: “Tyrannie, résistance, et subversion de Corneille à Olympe de Gouges”

Credits: 3 credits

Requisite: Graduate/professional standing

Instructor:  Anne Vila

Schedule: Mondays, 2:25 pm to 4:25 pm

Description: « Je n’ai point de sceptre, mais j’ai une plume » (Voltaire à Mme Denis, 1752)
This seminar will explore the concepts of tyranny and resistance to tyranny as represented by selected literary writers in 17th- and 18th-century France. Our readings and discussions, framed by theoretical reflections on tyranny from this period (and by critical studies), will revolve around the following topics:
• The forms of tyranny (political, religious, socio-cultural, domestic, affective) depicted by these authors–and the structural, psychological, and discursive mechanisms they attribute to them.
• The tyrant as a literary figure: for example, the “Oriental” despot; European embodiments of absolute political or religious authority; the domestic tyrant; the libertine; the slaveholder.
• Literary models of resistance or subversion in the face of tyranny; the ties between resistance/subversion and gender, class, or other forms of marginality.
• The powers and limits of writing in the face of tyranny—and the genres used to do so.

Texts (the books have been selected to feature works that appear on the MA reading list. Other texts will be provided via Canvas. * = a book that must be read in the print edition ordered for the course)
* Corneille, Horace (1640)
* Molière, L’Ecole des femmes (1662)
* Racine, Andromaque (1667)
* Montesquieu, Les lettres persanes (1721) & excerpts from De l’esprit des lois
L’Encyclopédie (1751-1772): Diderot, « Autorité politique »; Jaucourt, “Tyrannie”; etc.
Rousseau, excerpts from his discourses, Le Contrat social, & l’Emile
* Voltaire, Candide (1761); « Convulsion », « Fanatisme », « Superstition » & « Tyrannie » in Dictionnaire philosophique
* Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782)
* Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro (1784)
Excerpts from [anon.], Les soupirs de la France esclave, qui aspire après la liberté (1689) & Revolutionary-era works by Staël, Olympe de Gouges, Condorcet

Graduate students in French may satisfy their coverage requirements in area 1 (Middle Ages-16th-17th c.) OR area 2 (18th-19th- c.).

Graduate students from outside of the French MA/Ph.D. program are welcome to take this seminar if they have advanced reading knowledge and aural comprehension of French.

Download Spring 2026 Graduate Course Descriptions – French

Foundational Italian Language Courses

101 – 102 – 203 – 204

Credits: 4 each

Requisite: Follows the sequence (101, 102, 203, 204). Students must complete the previous course in the sequence to move onto the next course or must place into a course.

(Note: IT 201 is a combination of IT 101 and 102. Students who have completed 101 only can still take IT 201, however IT 201 is not open to students who have completed IT 102.)

Instructor: TBD

Language of Instruction: Italian

Italian 150: Race, Ethnicity, and the Italian Americans

Credits: 3

Requisite: None

Instructor: Ernesto Livorni

Language of Instruction: English ◊

Italian 201: Accelerated First Year Italian

Credits: 4

Requisite: Not open to students with credit for Italian 102

Instructor:  Loren Eadie

Language of Instruction: Italian

(Note: IT 201 is a combination of IT 101 and 102. Students who have completed 101 only can still take IT 201, however IT 201 is not open to students who have completed IT 102.)

Italian 312: Writing Workshop

Credits: 3

Requisite: Italian 204 or Italian 205 (or Italian 202 prior to Summer 2025)

Instructor: Loren Eadie

Language of Instruction: Italian

Italian 322: Studies in Italian Literature and Culture II

Credits: 3

Requisite: Italian 204 or Italian 205

Instructor: Grazia Menechella

Language of Instruction: Italian

Italian 452: TOPIC – Critical Theory, Aesthetics, and New Critical Paradigms

Credits: 3

Requisite: One of: (Italian 230, 301, 310, 311, 312, 321, 322, 340, 350, or 365) or graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Patrick Rumble

Language of Instruction: English ◊

Italian 460: Italian Film*

Credits: 3

Requisite: Sophomore Standing or graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Patrick Rumble

Language of Instruction: English ◊

*Cross listed with Communication Arts 460

Description: This course offers a survey of the history of Italian cinema from the Second World War up to today, examining the work of key filmmakers in the Italian art cinema tradition, including Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Pasolini, Cavani, Bertolucci, Fellini, Moretti, and Gioli. Students will be introduced to important film movements and trends including Futurism, Neorealism, the Commedia all’italiana, Auteurist cinema, Feminist filmmaking, Avant-Garde film and Environmental cinema.

Italian 621: The 18th Century

Credits: 3

Requisite: Italian 321, 322, or graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Stefania Buccini

Language of Instruction: Italian

Description: This course offers a comprehensive survey of early eighteenth-century Italian literature, focusing on the period from 1690 to 1750, immediately preceding the Enlightenment. It examines the evolution of major literary genres within their broader cultural and intellectual contexts, equipping students with the methodological and philological tools necessary for the critical analysis of both narrative and poetic texts. Emphasis will be placed on poetic production, theories of poetry, especially those of Gian Vincenzo Gravina—and the philosophy of history as articulated by Giambattista Vico. As in Italian 741, students will engage in close textual analysis, including occasional work with eighteenth-century printed editions, to develop familiarity with the typographic and material features of early modern books. Graduate students are expected to contribute through an oral presentation and a final paper. This course is designed to complement Italian 622, which covers the second half of the eighteenth century.

Lit Trans 253: Of Demons and Angels.*

Credits: 3

Requisite: Sophomore standing

Instructor: Jelena Todorovic

Language of Instruction: English ◊

*Cross listed with Literature in Translations, Medieval, and Religious Studies 253

Lit Trans 410: Special Topics in Italian Literature (see topics below by section)

Credits: 3

Requisite: Sophomore standing

Language of Instruction: English ◊

Instructor / Topic:

Section 001 – Stefania Buccini – TOPIC: Secrets and Legends of Florence

Section 002– Grazia Menechella – TOPIC: Italian Mafias: Lit/Film/Hist

Description: This course investigates the representation of mafia in Italian literature in 20th and 21stcenturies in the larger context of the history of Italy. Learn about the history of the mafia in Italy and the representation of the Italian mafia in Italy and in North America, as seen in literature, cinema, and popular culture. Course material includes novels, poems, short-stories, testimonies, essays, films and TV episodes. FLYER

Section 003- Ernesto Livorni – HONORS ONLY – TOPIC: The Grand Tour and the Romantic Myth of Italy

Italian 460: Italian Film*

Credits: 3

Requisite: Sophomore Standing or graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Patrick Rumble

Language of Instruction: English ◊

*Cross listed with Communication Arts 460

Description: This course offers a survey of the history of Italian cinema from the Second World War up to today, examining the work of key filmmakers in the Italian art cinema tradition, including Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Pasolini, Cavani, Bertolucci, Fellini, Moretti, and Gioli. Students will be introduced to important film movements and trends including Futurism, Neorealism, the Commedia all’italiana, Auteurist cinema, Feminist filmmaking, Avant-Garde film and Environmental cinema.

Italian 621: The 18th Century

Credits: 3

Requisite: Italian 321, 322, or graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Stefania Buccini

Language of Instruction: Italian

Schedule: Mondays, 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Description: This course offers a comprehensive survey of early eighteenth-century Italian literature, focusing on the period from 1690 to 1750, immediately preceding the Enlightenment. It examines the evolution of major literary genres within their broader cultural and intellectual contexts, equipping students with the methodological and philological tools necessary for the critical analysis of both narrative and poetic texts. Emphasis will be placed on poetic production, theories of poetry, especially those of Gian Vincenzo Gravina—and the philosophy of history as articulated by Giambattista Vico. As in Italian 741, students will engage in close textual analysis, including occasional work with eighteenth-century printed editions, to develop familiarity with the typographic and material features of early modern books. Graduate students are expected to contribute through an oral presentation and a final paper. This course is designed to complement Italian 622, which covers the second half of the eighteenth century.

Italian 952: Seminar-Studies in Italian Literature

Credits: 3

Requisite: Graduate/professional standing

Instructor: Jelena Todorovic

Schedule: Tuesdays, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Topic: “Transmission and Reception of Dante’s Texts”

Description: This discussion-based course investigates the most salient episodes of circulation and reception of Dante’s works, and especially of the Commedia, the Vita Nova, and the Convivio.

Download Spring 2026 Graduate Course Descriptions – Italian