Reading and composition course based on works by Italians and foreigners about Italy and its culture and by Italians about their distinctive experiences of other cultures as tourists and emigrants. Works studied will be primarily chosen from among fiction and non fiction narratives, both originally in English and translated into it. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement and R5B satisfies the second half.

This course examines twentieth- and twenty-first-century autobiographical narratives from Italy, France, and the United States. We will consider works such as Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man (1947), Nathalie Sarraute’s Childhood (1983), and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006) in light of the role that memory plays in the formation of personal and collective identities. Key theoretical questions include: In what ways do individuals construct themselves through words and images? What is the relationship between “truth” and imagination? Why are some memories vivid and distinct, while others resurface only involuntarily? Is there an ethics inherent in life-writing? What is at stake in autobiographical narratives that feature major historical and sometimes traumatic events? Do memories belong only to individuals or also to generations and social groups? What are the geographical, historical, and cultural sites of individual and collective recollections? This course is designed to fulfill the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Throughout the semester, we will master the skills of critical reading and writing. In addition to closely analyzing and discussing texts and films, we will focus on all the stages involved in writing a research paper, from developing a thesis statement and supporting your argument with appropriate evidence to polishing the final draft. Required Texts (updated 8/12/2020): Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston: Mariner Books, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0544709041 Ginzburg, Natalia. Family Lexicon, translated by Jenny McPhee. New York: New York Review Books, 2017. ISBN-13: 978-1590178386 Levi, Primo. If This Is a Man, translated by Stuart Woolf. London: Abacus, 2003. ISBN-13: 978-0349100135 Sarraute, Nathalie. Childhood, translated by Barbara Wright. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0226922317 Films Fellini, Federico. Amarcord. Varda, Agnès. The Beaches of Agnès. Additional Readings Short texts by Vladimir Nabokov, James Baldwin, Italo Calvino, Maxine Hong Kingston, Patricia Hampl, bell hooks, and Luisa Passerini are available through the course website on bCourses.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills