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.

In the early months of 2020, Italy was one of the first countries to issue a stay-at-home order in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Soon videos of Italians making music on their balconies went viral and children across the world taped rainbows in their windows as a symbol of solidarity and connection. In this course we will consider the ways that literature and film in Italian and English have represented moments in history when people stayed home due to disease prior to coronavirus, beginning with Boccaccio’s representation of the plague in his Decameron to Katherine Anne Porter’s novella, “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” about the 1918 Influenza epidemic. We will read accounts of other types of enforced isolation as well: by those sent to confino (internal exile) in fascist Italy, and those who choose isolation as a way to protest or reflect on their role in their family and community. We will reflect on a variety of literary representations of domestic scenes and interiors, as well as the concept of "social distancing" and the ways that connections are forged during and despite moments of isolation. This is a writing-intensive course and fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition University Requirement. Since our focus in this class will be to hone our analytical reading and writing skills, assignments are designed to give students practice in developing their own interpretive claims about the meaning of a text in an engaged, creative, and productive way. Students will be asked to complete short writing assignments as well as one midterm essay and one longer research paper. Most all papers will be revised, and students will therefore be asked to regularly share their work and comment on the work of their fellow students to aid in the revision process Reading and viewing list will be selected from the following: Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” Katherine Anne Porter The Dry Heart, Natalia Ginzburg The Log of the S.S. The Ms.Ungetine, Stanley Crawford To The Lighthouse, Virgina Woolf Enormous Changes At The Last Minute, Grace Paley Christ Stopped At Eboli, Carlo Levi The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Saverio Costanza Poetry, essays, and short stories by Emily Dickinson, James Baldwin, Antonio Gramsci, Eudora Welty, Eula Biss, Eugenio Montale, Edgar Lee Masters, Alda Merini, Amelia Rosselli, Elisa Biagini.

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