Winter 2024 Courses

For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF SCHEDULE or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/ita

Language Courses

ITA 002: Elementary Italian

For instructor information, see https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm

ITA 022: Intermediate Italian

ITA 031: Beginning Italian for Spanish Speakers

Undergraduate Courses

ITA 120A: Italian Literature of the 20th Century: The Novel
Michael Subialka

"The Modern Italian Novel"

In the 20th century, the novel became one of the most important ways of reacting to, understanding, and challenging the conditions of the modern world. This course will examine some of the most impactful and important novels and writers from 20th-century Italy, from Luigi Pirandello to Natalia Ginzburg and Italo Calvino. This course will focus on closely reading some of the major works of fiction by these writers to ask questions about what it means to live as a human being in the modern world, in the face of suffocating social conventions, racial and religious prejudice, and the suffering of violence and war. Likewise, we will ask how art, and especially the novel, might allow us to respond to and even imagine other possibilities for our lives and world.

ITA 128: Topics in Italian Culture: Queer Italia! (ITA 128, inverno 2024)
Eric Russell

>Course Flyer

Class can be repeated for major/minor credit

MWF 10-10.50, Hunt Hall 110

In this class, we will explore the past and present of queer life in Italy – the ways that all sorts of people who don’t identify within gender and sexual conventions have contributed to and challenged Italophone communities, as well as how they have confronted challenges of cis- and heteronormativity. Through readings, film viewings and discussion, we will discover some of the variability of queer life and experience, understand how queer existence has and continues to challenge language and culture, and how these fit into broader experiences of gender and sexual identity in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere.

By the end of the quarter, students will:

-       Be exposed to important historical and present-day moments and movements relative to LGBTQ+ communities in Italy;
-       Come to understand different meanings of queer and question their linguistic and cultural applicability;
-       Explore contemporary queer theories and their application to different texts;
-       Examine discourses around social identity (l’identità sociale);
-       Compare and contrast approaches to queer life in the US, Italy and elsewhere;

The class is also a moment to expand linguistic knowledge and hone language practices: class discussion, reading and writing will all be in Italian, giving you a chance to do language and culture in new and interesting ways. Throughout the quarter, students will:

-       Learn and integrate new vocabulary relative to the goals above;
-       Continue to practice the use of pertinent grammatical and pragmatic structures;
-       Put these skills into practice through oral presentations and written work;
-       And gain more fluidity by participating in daily class discussions, lectures and small group work.