Courses » » Italian Studies 398. Experimental Courses

Food in the Italian Imagination

An interdisciplinary journey through Italian history, geography, literature and culture to uncover the paradox of Italy’s relationship with food, a paradox marked by hunger and abundance, simplicity and art. We will study food as culinary tradition, as political tool, as charged artistic and literary sign. Readings will be drawn from Artusi’s classic Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, as well as Boccaccio’s Decameron, Calvino’s Under the Jaguar Sun and Clara Sereni’s Keepin House: A Novel in Recipes. Discussions will include the “Slow Food” movement, the translation of the Italian culinary tradition into U.S. culture, and contemporary shifts in Italian eating patterns as a result of globalization.

Conducted in Italian.

Prerequisite: ITAS 200 or permission of the instructor.

Love and Marriage: Cultural and Gender Anxiety in Modern Italian Literature and Film

This course explores representations of love and marriage in modern Italian literature and cinema. Through a diverse sample of “high” and popular culture, from 19th century romantic novels to 20th century gothic films, we will examine the cultural and gender anxiety produced by the urbanization process, social change and women’s emancipation in modern Italy. (Taught in English and Italian).