Courses

• MIT 1301-1302. First-Year Italian I and II. The foundation for the study of Italian. Students acquire a basic vocabulary and an understanding of fundamental linguistic structures with emphasis on reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The complexity of material increases in Elementary II. Fall and Spring.
• MIT 2311. Second-Year Italian I. Review and further study of grammar, together with intensive oral and written practice. Study of different aspects of Italian culture. Three contact hours per week. Fall.
• MIT 2312. Second-Year Italian II. Essential components of this course will be intensive practice of writing and conversational skills through written and oral presentations on contemporary Italian topics and on Italian literary material. The course prepares students for advanced study of Italian and literature through a panoramic overview of the history, literature and art of Italy. Spring.
• MIT 3316 Advanced Grammar and Composition. Objective is to develop a sense of style and structure in writing Italian on various levels. Close reading and detailed analysis of modern Italian authors in both literary and journalistic fields, in conjunction with intensive practice in the art of writing for specific and varying purposes. Offered in spring of even-numbered years.
• MIT 3321. Italian Literary Tradition I (13th-16th centuries). An introduction to the genres, movements and chronological development of Italian literature from its origins to the Renaissance. Authors include San Francesco d’Assisi, Giacomo da Lentini, Guittone d’Arezzo, Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti, Brunetto Latini, Cecco Angiolieri, Jacopone da Todi, Bonvesin de la Riva, Marco Polo, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, St. Catherine of Siena, Leonardo, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Poliziano. Offered in fall of odd-numbered years.
• MIT 3322. Italian Literary Tradition II (17th-19th centuries). A continuation of Literary Tradition I. Features selected works by Marino, Tassoni, Basile, Bruno, Andreini, Accetto, Galileo, Tesauro, Goldoni, Manzoni, Foscolo, Parini, Alfieri, Lampedusa, Collodi. Offered in spring of even-numbered years.
• MIT 3323. Advanced Communication in Italian. Emphasis on increasing both oral and written skills so that students can articulate, in an accurate and mature way, ideas of interest to the educated person in the contemporary world. Grammar review, extensive reading of contemporary texts and writing essays that reflect on current events. Offered in fall of even-numbered years.
• MIT 3333 History of the Italian Language. An inquiry into the origins and historical development of Italian from its earliest vernacular examples (c. 961) to today. Examines the historical, social, and cultural context that shaped the Italian language and its many dialects. Offered as needed.
• MIT 3343 Literary Tradition III (19th-21st centuries). A continuation of Literary Tradition I and II with special emphasis on 1861-1945. Features selected works by Carducci, Pascoli, D’Annunzio, Gozzano, Marinetti, Ungaretti, Saba, Montale, Verga, Svevo, Pirandello, Levi, Calvino, Buzzati. Offered in fall of even-numbered years.
• MIT 3350 Italian Film. This course plumbs Italy’s penchant for the visual and its relationship to film. Explores Italian cinema from early silent films such as Inferno (1911) and the Fascist-era telefono bianco, to neorealism, Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, Antonioni, and contemporary film. Offered in spring of odd-numbered years.
• MIT 3351 Italian Poetics and Poetry. Studies of Italian poetry from the Medieval period on up through the twenty-first century. Offered as needed.
• MIT 3355 Italian Theater. Introduction to Italian theater ranging from Boccaccio and the Renaissance commedia dell’arte, to the sacred theater of the Baroque, the 18th-century comic theater of Goldoni and Gozzi, and the twentieth-century theater of Pirandello and De Filippo. Offered as needed.
• MIT 3356 The Italian Novel. Traces the origins and development of the Italian novel, from its medieval antecedents on up through the 21st century. Authors include Boccaccio, Renaissance-era authors of long-form writing, Foscolo, Manzoni, Fogazzaro, Verga, Svevo, Pirandello, Bassani, Lampedusa, Moravia, Gadda, Calvino, Eco, Ferrante. Offered spring of odd-numbered years.
• MIT 3360 Italy and Contemporary Society. Designed to explore Italian society thematically and organized around a specific feature of contemporary Italian life. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, Italian political writing and campaigning, emigration and immigration in Italy, the family and demographics, the university system, contemporary language debates, science in Italy and right-to-life issues, and the role of faith and the Church. Offered as needed.
• MIT 4V51. Independent Research.
• MIT 4311 The Italian City. From Aristotle onward the polis, the city, as a coherent unit and an extension of the family, has been recognized as one of the foundational components of an education. Indeed, it has been said that the essence of a liberal education is an education in, and introduction to, the city. Examines an Italian region or city from multiple disciplinary perspectives, such as literature, art, history, theater, music, food, philosophy, science, and anthropology. Examples include Naples, Rome, Bologna, Florence, Venice, and Palermo. Offered in fall of odd-numbered years.
• MIT 4316 Italy and the Catholic Church. The history of Italy and the Catholic Church through literature, theology, historiography, and other readings. Offered as needed.
• MIT 4321 Italian Poetry and Philosophy. Explores the intersection of poetry and philosophy in the Italian tradition in authors such as Leopardi, Foscolo, Dante, et al. Offered as needed.
• MIT 4346 Dante. Discusses the beauty and depth of Dante’s Commedia, from the Inferno to the Paradiso. Addresses the cultural, religious, and political influences on Dante, along with analyses of significant cantos as interpreted by prominent Italian literary critics and study of Dante’s other works. Offered in spring of even-numbered years.
• MIT 5338 Italian for Reading Knowledge I (Foundations). Covers the entire Italian grammar with a focus on modern Italian and “old”, i.e., medieval Italian. We also study the syntax of the Italian language, both in its modern form and its earliest incarnations from the 1230s, in prose and poetry. Offered in the summer as needed.
• MIT 5339 Italian for Reading Knowledge II (Classics). Study of the complex and integral Italian texts that form an important part of the Western Intellectual Tradition, including, but not limited to, Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Foscolo, et. al. Consists of grammar review, student presentations on specific authors and texts, and translations of common readings. Each student also works independently on the translation of a text chosen in conjunction with the professor. Offered in the summer as needed.