Courses
The following course information serves to supplement official course information published in the Guide and Course, Search and Enroll.
Students are encouraged to explore these sites for the most up-to-date information.
For questions about undergraduate courses please contact Mandi Schoville and for graduate courses contact Shawn Ramer.
Undergraduate French Course Information
French Courses offered in spring 2027:
- French 101: First Semester French*
- French 102: Second Semester French*
- French 105: Accelerated Introductory French*
- French 203: Third Semester French*
- French 204: Fourth Semester French*
- French 205: Accelerated Intermediate French*
- French 228: Intermediate Language and Culture
- French 271: Literature, Comics, and Film in French
- French 280: Exploring Paris
- French 281: Exploring Montreal and Quebec
- French 312: Advanced Writing Workshop
- French/Int’l Bus 314: Professional Communication and Culture in the Francophone World
- French 321: Medieval and Early Modern French Literature
- French 322: Modern French and Francophone Literature
- French 345: French Fashion and Literature from the Middle Ages to Today
- French 462: French/Francophone Cultural Studies Across the Centuries
- French 591: Advanced Grammar and Style ➡️New course
- French 391: French for Reading Knowledge
French 228: Intermediate Language and Culture
Credits: 3
Schedule / Instructor:
- Section 001 – M/W/F, 9:55 am to 10:45 am – Instructor TBD
- Section 002 – T/R, 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm – Ritt Deitz
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 204, French 205 or placement into French 228
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Enhance writing and speaking proficiency through cultural readings on France and the francophone world. Review of grammar and focus on more complex grammatical structures.
French 271: Literature, Comics, and Film in French
Credits: 3
Schedule / Instructor:
- Section 001 – M/W/F, 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm – Instructor TBD
- Section 002 – M/W/F, 11:00 am to 11:50 am – Instructor TBD
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 228
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: An introduction to reading and analyzing literary works, comics, and film, with special emphasis on the development of writing skills in French.
French 280: Exploring Paris
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 11:00 am to 12:15 pm
Instructor: Joshua Armstrong
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Explore the city of Paris through the diverse, historical, creative, and anecdotal perspectives offered by writers, filmmakers, and other artists. Discuss how authors like Emile Zola, Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, and French Nobel Prize laureate Patrick Modiano introduce a range of voices and eras. Explore key neighborhoods, city maps, significant landmarks, and pivotal historical events, culminating in a nuanced appreciation of Paris’s spatial, historical, and literary complexity.
French 281: Exploring Montreal and Quebec
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 9:30 am to 10:45 am
Instructor: Ritt Deitz
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Examine Montreal and the province of Quebec through cinema, television, and literary texts. Explore historical and social themes central to Quebec identity, including evolving conceptions of French Canadian and Quebecois identity, particularly in intellectual and cultural life. Analyze how storytelling reflects and critiques cultural traditions rooted in France, as well as the impact of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s on national identity. Investigate cultural diversity in Quebec through the perspectives and voices of selected authors and filmmakers.
French 312: Advanced Writing Workshop
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm
Instructor: Heather Allen
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 228
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Develop writing and oral expression at an advanced level through writing and discussion of internet journalism, translation, or creative genres.
French/Int’l Bus 314: Professional Communication and Culture in the Francophone World
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 11:00 am to 12:15 pm
Instructor: Ritt Deitz
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 228, French 311, or French/Int’l Bus 313
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Cultural study of contemporary Francophone Africa, focusing on issues in government, organizations and enterprise. Exploration of cultural and professional relations between Francophone Africa and France, the European Union, and the United States.
French 321: Medieval and Early Modern French Literature
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 1:20 pm to 2:10 pm
Instructor: Anne Vila
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 271
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Introduction to important literary works from the medieval era to the French Revolution.
French 322: Modern French and Francophone Literature
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm
Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 271
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Introduction to important literary works of modernity (from the French Revolution to the twenty-first century).
French 345: French Fashion and Literature from the Middle Ages to Today
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 11:00 am to 11:50 am
Instructor: Anne Theobald
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore Standing
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Study of French literary texts embedded in their cultural contexts, with a focus on clothing and fashion. Chart the emergence and representation of sartorial taste in France through analysis and discussion of selected texts and other media that feature clothing as a reflection of aesthetic and social values. Rather than evidence for material and economic history, literature and the visual arts will be ways to touch on issues such as the evolution of the notion of human physical beauty, of taste, of gender differences and roles, of social status and stratification in different historical contexts.
French 462: French/Francophone Cultural Studies Across the Centuries*
Topic: The 20th- and 21st-Century French Novel
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm
Instructor: Joshua Armstrong
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 321 or 322 or 347 or 348 (Note: this is the new requisite which is not yet public. Contact Mandi Schoville if you have taken 347 or 348 and need permission enrolling.)
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Le roman français aux XXe et XXIe siècles
Dans ce cours, nous commencerons en lisant trois romans canoniques, représentant chacun un mouvement ou tendance important dans la littérature au XXe siècle : Du côté de chez Swann de Marcel Proust (1913, le modernisme), Nadja d’André Breton (1928, le surréalisme), et Le ravissement de Lol V. Stein de Marguerite Duras (1964, le nouveau roman). Ensuite, nous lirons un échantillon de romans qui ont fait du bruit dans le milieu littéraire dans les décennies et les années plus récentes, les comparant à ces précurseurs : La salle de bain de Jean-Philippe Toussaint (1985), Truismes de Marie Darrieussecq (1996), Ormuz de Jean Rolin(2013), et Les forces de Laura Vasquez (2025). Nous chercherons les traces du surréalisme, du modernisme, et du nouveau roman dans ces ouvrages plus récents. Nous dégagerons les thèmes qu’ils partagent en commun et analyseront le portrait de la société (en évolution) qu’ils dépeignent. On lira aussi des essais philosophiques et académiques pour augmenter notre capacité de comprendre leurs nuances. On regardera un ou deux films aussi pour les mettre en dialogue avec les romans.
*Meets-With French 672
French 591: Advanced Grammar and Style ➡️New course
➡️Note: This is a brand new course that will be finalized and scheduled before Thanksgiving. The course will not appear in Course, Search & Enroll or be open for enrollment until this time.
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W, 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm
Instructor: Anne Theobald
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 311, 312, 313, 314, 590, or graduate/professional standing
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Improve written expression in French while developing various skills to communicate more clearly, accurately, and effectively in the French language. The presented material and the intensive writing format aim to improve proficiency in nuanced discussions and the ability to analyze French literature and culture. Skills developed and practiced are applicable to the teaching of and/or working in the French language.
French 391: French for Reading Knowledgeℹ️
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm
Instructor: Anne Vila
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore Standing
Counts towards: Fulfills “Reading Knowledge” for certain programs. Check the Guide for more information.
Description: Intensive grammar and reading for those with little or no experience in French. Readings from appropriate texts in the humanities, sciences, social sciences.
ℹ️ Does not count towards the French Major or French Certificate. Typically taken by students who must fulfill a “Reading Knowledge” requirement.
French Courses offered in summer 2027:
- French 105: Accelerated Introductory French*
- French 205: Accelerated Intermediate French*
- Lit Trans 103: French Love – Topics in French Literature and Culture
French 105: Accelerated Introductory French
Credits: 4
Format: Online and Synchronous with some Asynchronous work
Dates: June 14, 2027 – August 8, 2027 (8 weeks – DHH)
Schedule: M/W/F, 10:00 am – 12:15 pm synchronous online
Instructor: Graduate TA
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: Not open to students with credit in French 102.*
Counts towards: Foreign Language level 2, Elementary level, L&S credit, Accelerated Honors, French Foundational Course
Description: Accelerated development of communicative literacy skills in French and exploration of the contemporary French-speaking world, equivalent to the completion of both FRENCH 101 and FRENCH 102.
*Upon completion of this course, students can enroll in French 203 or 205.
*After May 15th, some seats will open for graduate students. For information contact:
French 205: Accelerated Intermediate French
Credits: 4
Format: Online and Synchronous with some Asynchronous work
Dates: June 14, 2027 – August 8, 2027 (8 weeks – DHH)
Schedule: M/W/F, 10:00 am – 12:15 pm synchronous online
Instructor: Graduate TA
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 102 or 105 or placement into French 203. Not open to students with credit for French 204.*
Counts towards: Foreign Language level 4, Intermediate level, L&S credit, Accelerated Honors, French Foundational Course
Description: Develops communicative skills in relation to interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational speaking and writing and their understanding of the French-speaking world. Course topics include friendship and social media, scientific innovations, food cultures around the world, globalization, immigration, and language advocacy.
*Upon completion of this course, students can enroll in French 228.
*After May 15th, some seats will open for graduate students. For information contact:
Lit Trans 103: Topic – French Love
Credits: 3
Format: Online and Asynchronous
Dates: June 14, 2027 – August 8, 2027 (8 weeks – DHH)
Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Counts towards: Literature Breadth (counts towards the Humanities req.), Elementary level, LAS Credit
Description:
French language courses* are available for complete beginners through advanced students. Students who have any previous French language knowledge, study and/or credits, must take the French placement test. Visit French Placement for more information or questions.
- French 101: First Semester French (offered fall / spring)
- French 102: Second Semester French (offered fall / spring)
- French 105: Accelerated Introductory French (offered fall, spring, and summer)
- French 203: Third Semester French (offered fall / spring)
- French 204: Fourth Semester French (offered fall / spring)
- French 205: Accelerated Intermediate French (offered fall, spring, and summer)
Language courses beyond 4th semester French!
- French 228: Intermediate Language and Culture (offered fall / spring)
- French 311: Advanced Composition and Speaking (offered fall only)
- French 312: Advanced Writing Workshop (offered spring only)
- French/Int’l Bus 313: Professional Communication and Culture in the Francophone World (offered fall only)
- French/Int’l Bus 314: Contemporary Issues in Business, Government and NGOs (offered spring only)
- French 590: Introduction to Phonetics (offered occasionally)
- French 591: Advanced Grammar and Style ➡️New in spring 2027
- French 316: Study Abroad: Advanced French Language (only available to students on a UW–Madison study abroad program)
*Please note that the Department of French & Italian does not allow auditors in French language classes.
French Courses Taught in English:
- French 211: French Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies
- French 280: Exploring Paris
- French 281: Exploring Montreal and Quebec
- French/Gen&WS 285: Rebellious Women from the Global South
- French 288: Doctor’s without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières)
- French 345: French Fashion and Literature from the Middle Ages to Today
- Lit Trans 103: Topics in French Literature and Culture
- Lit Trans 209: Masterpieces of French Literature and Culture
- Lit Trans 249: Nineteenth-Century French Masterpieces
- Lit Trans 302: What is Life? Biological Life in Literature and Culture
- Lit Trans 303: Topics in French Literature and Culture
French 211: French Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies ℹ️
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary by content
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: An introductory, interdisciplinary area of French studies with a focus on French literary texts in English translation.
ℹ️Topics vary.
French 280: Exploring Paris
Credits: 3
Instructor: Joshua Armstrong
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Explore the city of Paris through the diverse, historical, creative, and anecdotal perspectives offered by writers, filmmakers, and other artists. Discuss how authors like Emile Zola, Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, and French Nobel Prize laureate Patrick Modiano introduce a range of voices and eras. Explore key neighborhoods, city maps, significant landmarks, and pivotal historical events, culminating in a nuanced appreciation of Paris’s spatial, historical, and literary complexity.
French 281: Exploring Montreal and Quebec
Credits: 3
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Examine Montreal and the province of Quebec through cinema, television, and literary texts. Explore historical and social themes central to Quebec identity, including evolving conceptions of French Canadian and Quebecois identity, particularly in intellectual and cultural life. Analyze how storytelling reflects and critiques cultural traditions rooted in France, as well as the impact of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s on national identity. Investigate cultural diversity in Quebec through the perspectives and voices of selected authors and filmmakers.
French/Gen&WS 285: Rebellious Women from the Global South
“Some classes end up sticking with you, and Rebellious Women was one of them. I can’t think of another course that tied together literature, history, and current events so seamlessly. Learning about the immense hardships women have faced, and the awe-inspiring ways they’ve overcome them, has shaped my academic and professional life.” – Lilah G. (Journalism and French Major)
Credits: 3
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts towards: African Studies Certificate – Arabic Language and Culture Certificate – French Certificate – French Major – Gender and Women’s Studies Certificate – Gender and Women’s Studies Major – International Studies Major – Middle East Studies Certificate
Description: Explores how women from different francophone regions (with a specific focus on North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East) gain agency through literature, movies, comics, and songs, contesting different forms of domination, exclusion, and injustice, based on gender, race, class, and religion.
French 288: Doctor’s without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières)
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ritt Deitz
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: None
Attributes: Breadth – Humanities, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Health Certificate – Global Health Major – Health and Humanities Certificate – International Studies Major
Description: An overview of the global humanitarian NGO, Doctors without Borders (or Médecins sans Frontières MSF) including its history, mission, organization, and the cultural, political, and ethical challenges it faces. Explores issues of global health, social justice, and humanitarian action. Features distinguished global practitioners with first-hand experience in health crisis situations.
French 345: French Fashion and Literature from the Middle Ages to Today
Credits: 3
Instructor: Anne Theobald
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore Standing
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Intermediate, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major
Description: Study of French literary texts embedded in their cultural contexts, with a focus on clothing and fashion. Chart the emergence and representation of sartorial taste in France through analysis and discussion of selected texts and other media that feature clothing as a reflection of aesthetic and social values. Rather than evidence for material and economic history, literature and the visual arts will be ways to touch on issues such as the evolution of the notion of human physical beauty, of taste, of gender differences and roles, of social status and stratification in different historical contexts.
Lit Trans 103: Topics in French Literature and Culture ℹ️
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary by content
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: none
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: European Studies Certificate – French Certificate – French Major
Description: Explores topics in French and Francophone cultures by examining their conceptualizations throughout history as well as their representations in literature and different media such as film and graphic novels. Studies the specificity of French and Francophone cultures and literatures, their contributions to the world’s multicultural heritage, and ponder the cultural traditions they claim their own. Possible topics: technology and culture, humanism and anti-humanism, gender relations, race and ethnicity, social justice, institutional forms of power, human emotions, immigration, colonization and its literary heritage, aesthetic ideals, historical memory and its repression, education and acculturation, social rituals, the cultural and political role of language, etc.
ℹ️Topics vary.
Lit Trans 209: Masterpieces of French Literature and Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: none
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Elementary, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: A study of representative masterpieces of French and Francophone literature drawn from at least four different centuries. Emphasis on the interpretation of texts, important themes, and the ways literature expresses psychological and sociocultural realities. May cover topics such as: tragedies by Jean Racine, comedies by Moliere, novels by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Honore de Balzac, Guy de Maupassant and Maryse Conde, and stories by Gustave Flaubert and Albert Camus.
Lit Trans 249: Nineteenth-Century French Masterpieces
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: sophomore standing
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Intermediate, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Read a series of extraordinary narrative texts from nineteenth-and early twentieth-century France.
Lit Trans 302: What is Life? Biological Life in Literature and Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: sophomore standing
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Intermediate, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Explores representations of biological life in literature, scientific discourse, film, and art. The symbolic representations (metaphors and similes used by scientists, fictions narrated by writers, and pictorial forms imagined by artists) allow students to analyze diverse conceptualizations of biological life: life as mechanism, rhythmic movement, balance of energy, inherent force, resistance to death, death’s complementary cycle. The exploration of biological life’s attributes, such as plasticity, limitedness, and self-consciousness, fosters interdisciplinary thinking bridging the humanities and life sciences. The symbolic representations of life are studied through different genres of texts and different media, and at different moments of cultural history. The texts and media will be from around the world (with a particular emphasis on French, francophone and Italian sources), but studied in English translation.
Lit Trans 303: Topics in French Literature and Culture ℹ️
Credits: 3
Instructor: vary
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: sophomore standing
Attributes: Breadth – Literature, Level – Intermediate, L&S Credit, Core GenEd – Humanities & Arts
Counts Towards: French Certificate – French Major – Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate
Description: Explores topics in French and Francophone cultures by examining their conceptualizations throughout history as well as their representations in literature and different media such as film and graphic novels. Understand the specificity of French and Francophone cultures and literatures, their contributions to the world’s multicultural heritage, and ponder the cultural traditions they claim their own. Possible topics: gender relations, race and ethnicity, social justice, institutional forms of power, human emotions, immigration, colonization and its literary heritage, aesthetic ideals, everyday forms of human interaction, historical memory and its repression, education and acculturation, social rituals, the cultural and political role of language, etc.
ℹ️Topics vary.
Undergraduate Italian Course Information
Italian Courses offered in spring 2027:
*Foundational Italian courses
- Italian 101: First Semester Italian*
- Italian 102: Second Semester Italian*
- Italian 105: Accelerated Introductory Italian*
- Note: IT 203 will not be offered in spring 2027. Students interested in IT 203 should instead take IT 205 which covers intermediate Italian language.
- Italian 204: Fourth Semester Italian*
- Italian 205: Accelerated Intermediate Italian*
- Italian 150: Race, Ethnicity, and the Italian Americans
- Italian 312: Writing Workshop
- Italian 322: Studies in Italian Literature and Culture II
- Italian/ILS 350: Rome: Lust for Glory
- Italian 632: Features in Italian Literature
- Littrans/Italian 225: Italian Mafias
- Lit Trans/Medieval 255: Black Death and Medieval Life through Boccaccio’s Decameron
- Lit Trans 410: In Translation: Special Topics in Italian Literature
- section 001: Secrets & Legends of Florence
- section 002: The Grand Tour and the Romantic Myth of Italy (Honors Only)
Italian 150: Race, Ethnicity, and the Italian Americans*
*Meets with ILS 109
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 9:30 am to 10:45 am
Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: none
Counts towards: Italian Certificate – Italian Major.
Description: What does it mean to be Italian American? Must those who identify as such choose one identity over the other? How are they viewed by society? As Italian, American, or some undefinable other? Explore the history of Italian immigration to the United States and its effects on both the ethnic group and the hosting country, as recounted in literature and film both by those who experienced it firsthand and their descendants. Italians fleeing from racism and poverty in Italy found racial, religious, and cultural discrimination. Working toward “whiteness,” Italian Americans traded off their own “Italian-ness” while clinging to aspects of it in the hope to preserve parts of their identity. They forged strong bonds with African American, Jewish, and other marginalized communities, in a relationship of understanding but also of tension and rivalry. Focuses on specific literary texts paired with textbook readings that provide their historical and social background.
Italian 312: Writing Workshop
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 9:55 am to 10:45 am
Instructor: Loren Eadie
Language of Instruction: Italian
Requisite: ITALIAN 204 or 205 (or ITALIAN 202 prior to Summer 2025)
Counts towards: Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate – Italian Certificate – Italian Major.
Description: Development of composition skills related to expository and other forms of writing, with focus on grammatical skills, conventions, rhetorical techniques for organizing information, presenting coherent arguments, and appropriateness of language to topic. Substantial work on the development of writing strategies for composing and editing.
Italian 322: Studies in Italian Literature and Culture II
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm
Instructor: Stefania Buccini
Language of Instruction: Italian
Requisite: ITALIAN 204 or 205 (or ITALIAN 202 prior to Summer 2025)
Counts towards: Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate – Italian Certificate – Italian Major.
Description: Focuses on a variety of genres and media (poetry, drama, novel, short story, cinema, television) and authors, with emphasis on the cultural and historical contexts from 1600 to the present.
Italian/ILS 350: Rome: Lust for Glory
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 1:20 pm to 2:10 pm
Instructor: Loren Eadie
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore Standing
Counts towards: Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate – Italian Certificate – Italian Major
Description: Examines the development of Rome, “the Eternal City,” and its continuing presence as both a metaphoric and physical focal point of Italian artistic and cultural sensibilities. Outline the development of Rome’s authoritative or “mythical” status in literature, art, architecture and film, beginning in the Augustan era and arriving to today, focusing on significant moments in the creation and expansion of the actual city and its cultural influence in the late-Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the era of the Risorgimento (Unification of Italy), and the rise of Fascism. Develop ability to think critically about how the diverse material productions of writers (historians, playwrights, poets), painters, sculptors, architects, philosophical thinkers, and later filmmakers of the periods covered reflect one another and reflect the ideas and ideologies of their age.
Italian 632: Features in Italian Literature
Theme: Making Boccaccio: Writing, Editing, and Interpretation
Credits: 3
Schedule: Thursdays, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Instructor: Jelena Todorović
Requisite: ITALIAN 321, 322, or graduate/professional standing
Description: This course explores Giovanni Boccaccio as both a literary author and an active participant in the material production, transmission, and interpretation of texts, chiefly as the “inventor” of the literary canon of the tre corone. A central component of the first part of the course will be Boccaccio’s scribal activity and his engagement with the written book. Through the study of manuscripts, scribal practices, and authorial revision, we will investigate how Boccaccio’s work as a copyist, editor, and compiler of texts informs our understanding of his literary production. The second part of the course will focus chiefly on the Decameron andwill examine how Boccaccio’s narrative art took shape through processes of composition, revision, compilation, and circulation. We will read the Decameron closely, focusing on its narrative structures, framing devices, generic experimentation, and representations of social and cultural life, while also considering how its meanings are shaped by the material forms in which it survives.
Italian/Littrans 225: Italian Mafias
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 11:00 am to 12:15 pm
Instructor: TBD
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: none
Counts towards: Italian Certificate – Italian Major
Description: Explore Italian Mafias (Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, etc.) by examining the representation of organized crime in Italian literature, cinema and popular culture.
Lit Trans/Medieval 255: Black Death and Medieval Life through Boccaccio’s Decameron
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm
Instructor: Jelena Todorović
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore standing
Counts towards: Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate – Italian Certificate – Italian Major – Health and Humanities Certificate.
Description: Have you ever wondered what it was like to live during the Black Death? Were our medieval and early-modern ancestors different from us, or are we challenged with similar problems? What can we learn from their lives? And, if we could, what could we teach each other? Discuss these topics while reading one of the world’s greatest literary classics, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, a text that will make us both laugh and cry. Through reading the Decameron, investigate medicine, art, culture, music, politics, religion, interpersonal and transcultural relations, warfare, fashion, gender and gender roles, as well as everyday life in the Middle Ages and early modernity. Also examines medieval written documents, twentieth-century feminist responses to the Decameron and filmic renditions of it, medieval frescoes, historical descriptions of the plague, and modern descriptions of, and reactions to, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lit Trans 410: In Translation: Special Topics in Italian Literature
Credits: 3
Schedule / Instructor:
- Secrets & Legends of Florence – Sec. 001, M/W/F, 11:00 am to 11:50 am – Stefania Buccini
- The Grand Tour and the Romantic Myth of Italy (Honors Only) – Sec. 002, T/R, 11:00 am to 12:15 pm – Ernesto Livorni
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore standing
Counts towards: Global Cultures, Languages, and Education Certificate – Italian Certificate – Italian Major.
Description: Treatment of a specific perific period, genre, theme or movement in Italian literature.
Italian Courses offered in summer 2027:
Italian 105: Accelerated Introductory Italian
Credits: 4
Format: Online and Synchronous
Dates: (8 weeks – DHH)
Schedule: M/T/W/R/F, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Instructor: Graduate TA
Language of Instruction: Italian
Requisite: Not open to students with credit in Italian 102.*
Counts towards: Foreign Language level 2, Elementary level, L&S credit, Accelerated Honors, and an Italian Foundational Course.
Equivalent to taking Italian 101 and 102.
*After May 15th, open to graduate students with permissions – contact frit@frit.wisc.edu.
Italian 205: Accelerated Intermediate Italian
Credits: 4
Format: Online and Synchronous
Dates: (8 weeks – DHH)
Schedule: M/T/W/R/F, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Instructor: Graduate TA
Language of Instruction: Italian
Requisite: Italian 102 or 105 or placement into Italian 203. Not open to students with credit for Italian 204.*
Counts towards: Foreign Language level 4, Intermediate level, L&S credit, Accelerated Honors, and an Italian Foundational Course.
Equivalent to taking Italian 203 and 204.
*After May 15th, open to graduate students with permissions – contact frit@frit.wisc.edu.
Italian language coursesℹ️ are available for complete beginners through advanced students. Students who have any previous Italian language knowledge, study and/or credits, must take the Italian placement test. Visit Italian Placement for more information or questions.
Foundational Italian Courses
- Italian 101: First Semester Italian (offered fall / spring)
- Italian 102: Second Semester Italian (offered fall / spring)
- Italian 105: Accelerated Introductory Italian (offered summer, fall, and spring)
- Italian 203: Third Semester Italian (sometimes offered fall / spring)
- Italian 204: Fourth Semester Italian (sometimes offered fall / spring)
- Italian 205: Accelerated Intermediate Italian (offered summer, fall, and spring)
Italian language beyond IT 204 or 205:
- Italian 311: Advanced Italian Language (sometimes offered, typically fall only)
- Italian 312: Writing Workshop (sometimes offered, typically spring only)
Students who have completed IT 204 and 205 can also take many other Italian courses besides language! Check the Guide for all Italian courses and the Guide for all Lit Trans courses.
ℹ️ Please note that the Department of French & Italian does not allow auditors in Italian language classes.
Italian Studies Courses:
- Italian 150: Race, Ethnicity, and the Italian Americans
- Italian/Lit Trans 225: Italian Mafias
- Italian 230: Italian Mafias
- Italian/Lit Trans 260: Italy and the Dream of America
- Italian 321: Studies in Italian Literature and Culture I
- Italian 322: Studies in Italian Literature and Culture II
- Italian 340: Structures of Italian
- Italian/ILS 350: Rome: Lust for Glory
- Italian/ILS/Lit Trans/Poli Sci 365: Machiavelli and his World
- Italian 400: Italian American Cinema and TV
- Italian 440: Poverty, Ecology and the Arts: St. Francis of Assisi
- Italian 450: Special Topics in Italian Literature
- Italian 452: Special Topics in Italian Studies: Culture, Film, Language
- Italian/Com Arts 460: Italian Film
- Italian 621: The 18th Century (1700-1750)
- Italian 622: The 18th Century (1750-1800)
- Italian 623: Italian Theatre
- Italian 631: Features in Italian Literature (Middle Ages to Baroque period)
- Italian 632: Features in Italian Literature (Mid-Modernity to the 21st century)
- Italian 636: The Italian Novel
- Italian/Medieval 659: Dante’s Divina Commedia
- Italian/Medieval 671: The 13th Century
- Lit Trans 200: Food Cultures in Italian Literature
- Lit Trans 213: Love and Sex in Italian Comedy
- Lit Trans 248: National Identity in the Global World: The Italian Case
- Lit Trans/Medieval/Relig St 253: Of Demons and Angels. Dante’s Divine Comedy
- Lit Trans 254: In Translation: Lit of Modern Italy-Existentialism, Fascism, Resistance
- Lit Trans/Medieval 255: Black Death and Medieval Life through Boccaccio’s Decameron
- Lit Trans/Italian 260: Italy and the Dream of America
- Lit Trans 410: In Translation: Special Topics in Italian Literature
Graduate Course Information
Spring 2027 Courses
French 391: French for Reading Knowledge
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W/F, 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm
Instructor: Anne Vila
Language of Instruction: English
Requisite: Sophomore Standing
Description: Intensive grammar and reading for those with little or no experience in French. Readings from appropriate texts in the humanities, sciences, social sciences.
Overview of Course Goals and Structure
French 591: Advanced Grammar and Style ➡️New course
➡️Note: This is a brand new course that will be finalized and scheduled before Thanksgiving. The course will not appear in Course, Search & Enroll or be open for enrollment until this time.
Credits: 3
Schedule: M/W, 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm
Instructor: Anne Theobald
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: French 311, 312, 313, 314, 590, or graduate/professional standing
Description: Improve written expression in French while developing various skills to communicate more clearly, accurately, and effectively in the French language. The presented material and the intensive writing format aim to improve proficiency in nuanced discussions and the ability to analyze French literature and culture. Skills developed and practiced are applicable to the teaching of and/or working in the French language.
French 672: Topics in Literature and Culture*
Topic: The 20th- and 21st-Century French Novel
Credits: 3
Schedule: T/R, 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm
Instructor: Joshua Armstrong
Language of Instruction: French
Requisite: Graduate/professional standing
Description: Le roman français aux XXe et XXIe siècles
Dans ce cours, nous commencerons en lisant trois romans canoniques, représentant chacun un mouvement ou tendance important dans la littérature au XXe siècle : Du côté de chez Swann de Marcel Proust (1913, le modernisme), Nadja d’André Breton (1928, le surréalisme), et Le ravissement de Lol V. Stein de Marguerite Duras (1964, le nouveau roman). Ensuite, nous lirons un échantillon de romans qui ont fait du bruit dans le milieu littéraire dans les décennies et les années plus récentes, les comparant à ces précurseurs : La salle de bain de Jean-Philippe Toussaint (1985), Truismes de Marie Darrieussecq (1996), Ormuz de Jean Rolin(2013), et Les forces de Laura Vasquez (2025). Nous chercherons les traces du surréalisme, du modernisme, et du nouveau roman dans ces ouvrages plus récents. Nous dégagerons les thèmes qu’ils partagent en commun et analyseront le portrait de la société (en évolution) qu’ils dépeignent. On lira aussi des essais philosophiques et académiques pour augmenter notre capacité de comprendre leurs nuances. On regardera un ou deux films aussi pour les mettre en dialogue avec les romans.
*Meets-With French 462
French 947: Seminar: Literature Questions
Theme: Trajectoires du rêve: de la rêverie romantique aux expérimentations surréalistes
Credits: 3
Schedule: Tuesdays, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Instructor: Florence Vatan
Requisite: Graduate/professional standing
Description:
Avant d’être célébré par Freud comme « voie royale » d’accès à l’inconscient, le rêve a longtemps fasciné les écrivains et les artistes comme mode d’accès privilégié aux gouffres de l’inconnu, menace redoutable et dévorante, puissance divinatoire échappant aux grilles de la raison, matrice féconde de l’activité créatrice, source d’exploration expérimentale et forme de connaissance. À l’appui d’un éventail de textes du 19ème et du 20ème siècle, nous examinerons comment des écrivains tels Hugo, Nodier, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Nerval, Maupassant, Valéry, Breton, Eluard et Desnos ont analysé, mis en scène et exploré l’univers du rêve et de la rêverie. Nos lectures se doubleront d’incursions dans le domaine des arts visuels et se feront à la lumière des réflexions médicales, psychologiques et philosophiques de l’époque sur le sommeil et le rêve.
Italian 632: Features in Italian Literature
Theme: Making Boccaccio: Writing, Editing, and Interpretation
Credits: 3
Schedule: Thursdays, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Instructor: Jelena Todorović
Requisite: Graduate/professional standing
Description: This course explores Giovanni Boccaccio as both a literary author and an active participant in the material production, transmission, and interpretation of texts, chiefly as the “inventor” of the literary canon of the tre corone. A central component of the first part of the course will be Boccaccio’s scribal activity and his engagement with the written book. Through the study of manuscripts, scribal practices, and authorial revision, we will investigate how Boccaccio’s work as a copyist, editor, and compiler of texts informs our understanding of his literary production. The second part of the course will focus chiefly on the Decameron andwill examine how Boccaccio’s narrative art took shape through processes of composition, revision, compilation, and circulation. We will read the Decameron closely, focusing on its narrative structures, framing devices, generic experimentation, and representations of social and cultural life, while also considering how its meanings are shaped by the material forms in which it survives.
Italian 731: Features of Italian Literature
Topic: Come in cielo così in terra: Literature and Art in the Age of Reform
Credits: 3
Schedule: Mondays, 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Instructor: Kristin Phillips-Court
Requisite: Graduate/professional standing
Description: Come in cielo così in terra: Literature and Art in the Age of Reform
This seminar will focus on literature and art as visio-devotional forms in the context of late-16th-century theological and aesthetic debates. With Church reform came the ‘age of criticism’ that valorized the individual maniera in arteven as orthodoxy bolstered corporate ideologies of state.
Keywords: Aretino, Michelangelo, Cellini, Vasari, Giovio, Varchi, Caro, Bandello, Tasso, Tiziano, Michelangelo, Bronzino, Pontormo, Salviati, Perino, Vasari, Correggio, Mannerism, mysticism, evangelism, orthodoxy, empire, language, naturalism, propaganda, censorship, self-censorship
Italian 952: Seminar-Studies in Italian Literature
Topic: Mimesis between Art and Life: D’Annunzio and Pirandello
Credits: 3
Schedule: Tuesdays, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Instructor: Ernesto Livorni
Requisite: Graduate/professional standing
Description: The 1946 book by Eric Auerbach is perhaps the most striking example of study focusing on mimesis as the representative strategy at the core of Western literature and arts in general. The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries marked the most important moment of reflection on mimesis in its relationship between art and life elaborated in modernity. At the same time, it may be said that that reflection, intersecting the beginning of abstract art, also marked the possible beginning of a decline of the concept and the reflection itself on it. The objections to that concept implicit in the avant-garde positions (from Futurism to any form of abstract art) and the challenge presented by technology may have been the driving force behind that decline.
The course will focus on some novels and plays by the two Italian writers Gabriele D’Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello. Their works will be considered as crucial examples of mimetic art in the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European literature, with its intersections with figurative arts. Some issues that will be discussed are the cultural shift from an objective to a symbolic representation of reality; the notion of decadence; the struggle between life and art; the resistance to relativity.
Italian Graduate Courses Offered in Previous Semesters
French Graduate Courses Offered in Previous Semesters