Take summer courses in Italian Studies at UC Berkeley!
Language courses in Italian, culture courses in English, for all skill levels!
To enroll, go to the Summer Sessions website: http://summer.berkeley.edu/registration
For further information, contact the instructors directly
ITALIAN STUDIES 12: Italian Conversation
Taught in Italian
Dates: June 23-Aug 15th
Time: Tu/Wed/Thu 6-8PM
Requirements: a course in intermediate spoken Italian or permission of instructor
Instructor: Chris Atwood (chris_atwood@berkeley.edu)
This fun conversation class will boost your spoken Italian through a mix of in-class debates, role-playing,
and team projects. You’ll deepen your command of spoken Italian while discussing short readings
(articles & stories) and Italian films (documentaries & fictional). Doing so will bolster your spoken Italian
and strengthen your listening- and reading- comprehension skills in italiano. Our subject is ITALIAN
FAMILIES – spanning topics like the nuclear family, motherhood, immigration in contemporary Italy,
chosen families, mammoni, and fictionaltakes on “la famiglia.” By the end of this class, you’ll be talking
— at length — about the many families that make up modern Italy.
ITALIAN STUDIES 30 - Dante's Divine Comedy
Dates: June 23-August 15
Requirements: none!
Taught in English
Time: Tues., Weds., Thurs., 10-12
Instructor: Marco Prina (prina@berkeley.edu)
The poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a Florentine citizen active in his city’s cultural and political
life up to about age 35. Political circumstances forced him to spend the second half of his life in exile. It
was during this tumultuous time that Dante wrote one of the most stunning and influential works of world
literature, the Commedia. From its beginning, Dante’s poem parallels the experience of exile from a
spiritual standpoint: the poet represents himself as exiled from God. Throughout the poem, the earthly and
otherworldly realms are presented as tightly interconnected. This class traces Dante’s footsteps as he
proceeds through his spiritual journey. Although the bulk of the course is dedicated to the Inferno, we will
survey the entire Commedia over the course of the semester.
ITALIAN STUDIES 70: Italian Cinema, 1945-1965
Dates: July 7-Aug 15th
Requirements: None!
Taught in English
Time: Mo/Tu/Wed/Thu 5-7 PM
Instructor: Sole Anatrone (sanatrone@berkeley.edu)
Spend the hot summer nights at the cinema!
“White Page to Silver Screen: Cinema italiano (1945 –1965)” is a U.C. Berkeley course open to everyone
interested in the great moment of Italian cinema. Stars like Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren will
grace our screen as we learn about the chaotic world of post-war Italy that produced some of the best
known and most powerful works of filmic art. We will also look at the writers that influenced and often
helped produce these films, reading novels like Alberto Moravia’s The Conformist and noticing the
difference in Bernardo Bertolucci’s cinematic remake of the text.