ITL 375 (37035) SICILY IN LITERATURE AND FILM Spring 2012 Instructor: Daniela Bini Office Hours: HRH 3.112C: W 10:30-11:00 and by appointment e-mail:
[email protected]; phone: 471-5995 Class meetings: TTh: 11:00-12:30, HRH 2.112; Screenings TBA COURSE DESCRIPTION Sicily has always occupied a priviledged place in the Italian literary and cinematic imagination. While such writers as Pirandello, Sciascia, and Verga have created what can legitimately be called a distinctly Sicilian category of Italian literature, such filmmakers as Visconti, Rosi, Tornatore, Giordana have been drawn to the island as a space for cinematic experimentation and artistic self- discovery. From Visconti's 1948 neorealist masterpiece La terra trema to Tornatore's 1988 Oscar- winning Cinema Paradiso, from Verga's late nineteenth century short stories to Sciascia's Mafia-based thrillers, Sicily has become both a mythic space of the mind, as well as a signifier, in extremis for its own, and the rest of Italy's, social, political, and historical concerns. The course will involve close analysis of selected novels, short stories, and films with specific focus on such issues as unification history, the Mafia, and social/sexual mores. Attendance at the screenings is required. This course will be taught in Italian. There will be four short papers (2-3 pages) to be written in Italian, a midterm and a final. Since the course will be conducted as a seminar, a great deal of emphasis will be placed on active class participation. The final grade will be computed as follows: Papers: 40%; Midterm: 20%; Final: 30%; Class Participation: 10% This course carries the Global Cultures flag.