We've got lots of great offerings on the schedule this spring in addition to French and Italian language courses, several of which are conducted in English. Here are just a few highlights!

FRENCH 228: THE WATER CRISIS IN LITERATURE AND FILM (VLPA)
TTH 9:30-11:20, 5 cr., Richard Watts
Meets with LIT 228; conducted in English

We will interpret a variety of documents and objects--novels (e.g., Masters of the Dew), cinema (e.g., Even the Rain), architecture (the fountains of Versailles, etc.) that address the cultural significance of water with the aim of understanding how water’s meaning has changed as we have become more conscious of risks in supply (posed by pollution and natural/man-made scarcity) and as access to it is increasingly mediated (as a result of its privatization, commodification, etc.). While no ten-week course could pretend to give a comprehensive and global view of problem as complex as our relation to water, we will study novels, essays, films and other cultural documents from Western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and North America with a view to understanding the differential distribution of the water crisis and the variety of aesthetic responses to it.

FRENCH 390 B: SPECIAL TOPICS – NATIONAL IDENTITY AND IMMIGRATION IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH CULTURE
MW 11:30-1:20, 5 cr., Otilia Baraboi
Conducted in French

This course explores fundamental notions of race, religion, class, identity politics and immigration in contemporary France, from the dismantling of the French Colonial Empire through the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the creation of the European Union. A variety of visual resources will be used– newspapers, graphic novels, web pages, film - as well as literary texts, critical essays, memoirs and music.

Required Readings: Course Reader; Black-Blanc-Beur : Les folles années de l'intégration (Album), by Farid Boudjellal; Larbi Mechkour, André Igwal (BD); L'exil selon Julia , by Gisèle Pineau; Un aller simple - by Didier Van Cauwelaert

Films: Christophe Ruggia, Le Gone du chaâba (1998) ; Yamina Benguigui, Mémoires d'immigrés (1998) ; Mathieu Kassovitz, La Haine (1995); Claire Denis, J'ai pas sommeil (1994); Michael Haneke, Code Inconnu (2000), Tony Gatlif, Gadjo Dilo (1997) & Exils (2007), Paris, Je t’aime (2007)

Music (liste provisoire): Joséphine Baker, Radio Beur, Khaled, Faudel, Rachid Taha, Grand Corps Malade, Zebda, MC Solaar, Abd Al Malik, Jacques Brel, Noir Désir, diam's, Amel Bent, Kamini, Jazz Manouche, Tekameli, Les Voix Tziganes, etc…

FRENCH 441: PLACES/LIEUX IN QUEBECOIS LITERATURE AND CULTURE (VLPA)
TTH 1:30-3:20, 5 cr., Denyse Delcourt
Offered with JSIS A 441 A and FRENCH 590 B
Conducted in French 

From country to city to somewhere in between, Québec underwent a radical and at times, turbulent transformation during the 20^th century. This course will focus on how this transformation manifests itself in Québécois literature and culture from 1945 to the present. Special attention will be given to places/lieux as represented in the Québécois texts and films we will examine. 
Prerequisite: FRENCH 303; either FRENCH 304, FRENCH 305, FRENCH 306, or FRENCH 307. 

FRENCH 499B: SPECIAL TOPICS – FRANCE & ISLAM (VLPA)
MW 1:30-3:20, 5 cr., Douglas Collins
Conducted in French

Course description not yet available.
Prerequisite: FRENCH 303; either FRENCH 304, FRENCH 305, FRENCH 306, FRENCH 307.

FRENCH 590B: PLACES/LIEUX IN QUEBECOIS LITERATURE AND CULTURE
TTH 1:30-3:20, 5 cr., Denyse Delcourt
Offered with JSIS A 441 A and FRENCH 441 A
Conducted in French

From country to city to somewhere in between, Québec underwent a radical and at times, turbulent transformation during the 20^th century. This course will focus on how this transformation manifests itself in Québécois literature and culture from 1945 to the present. Special attention will be given to places/lieux as represented in the Québécois texts and films we will examine. Graduate students only.

FRENCH 590C: FROM SONG TO BOOK: TEXTUAL CULTURES IN EARLY ITALIAN LITERATURE
TH 3:30-6:20, 5 cr., Beatrice Arduini
Offered with ITAL 590 B
Conducted in English

While literary histories of early Italian literary culture tend to identify a straight-line trajectory from a Latin to an Italian vernacular tradition, this course will explore how Italy's linguistic, literary and documentary relations with other traditions, particularly Old French in the Veneto and Tuscany, and Old Occitan, reveal a far more diverse set of influences on the development of the local vernaculars, the choices of material support for the circulation of the poems, and the formation of a more acute sense of authorship that culminates in the composition of Petrarch's Canzoniere. Graduate students only. 

ITALIAN 341: ITALIAN AND AMERICAN POETRY IN TRANSLATION (VLPA)
TTH 10:30-12:20, 5 cr., Giuseppe Leporace
Conducted in Italian 

Introduction to basic concepts and skills required for Italian-to-English translation. Examines the main aspects of contrastive grammar and stylistics used in translation, providing practical opportunities to incorporate and apply the material. Exposure to a variety of types of translation.
Prerequisite: either ITAL 203 or ITAL 234. 

ITALIAN 366: HISTORY OF ITALIAN CINEMA FROM NEOREALISM TO THE PRESENT (I&S/VLPA)
T 2:30-5:20; TH 2:30-4:20, 5 cr., Albert Sbragia
Meets with ITAL 466 and C LIT 315 C

History of Italian Cinema from neorealism to the present.  We will examine the key periods, movements and filmmakers of Italian cinema from just before World War II until the present, although our focus will be on the earlier formative years including Italian neorealism and its aftermath, the modernist cinema of the 60s and genre films such as the Commedia all'italiana and the Spaghetti Western.  There will be class discussions, weekly position papers and analytical essays.  Course text: A History of Italian Cinema by Peter Bondanella, and a class reader. No knowledge of Italian is needed for this course.  All films will be screened with subtitles.

ITALIAN 466: HISTORY OF ITALIAN CINEMA FROM NEOREALISM TO THE PRESENT (I&S/VLPA)
T 2:30-5:20; TH 2:30-4:20, 5 cr., Albert Sbragia
Meets with ITAL 366 and C LIT 315 C

History of Italian Cinema from neorealism to the present.  We will examine the key periods, movements and filmmakers of Italian cinema from just before World War II until the present, although our focus will be on the earlier formative years including Italian neorealism and its aftermath, the modernist cinema of the 60s and genre films such as the Commedia all'italiana and the Spaghetti Western.  There will be class discussions, weekly position papers and analytical essays.  Course text: A History of Italian Cinema by Peter Bondanella, and a class reader. No knowledge of Italian is needed for this course.  All films will be screened with subtitles.
For students taking course as Italian 466 a portion of discussion, position papers and essays will be done in Italian.
Prerequisite: ITAL 302

ITALIAN 470: DANTE: DALLA VITA NUOVA ALLA COMMEDIA  (VLPA)
MW 12:30-2:20, 5 cr., Beatrice Arduini
Meets with ITAL 514

This course is devoted to Dante and his cultural significance through a critical reading of the Divine Comedy and the Vita nuova ("The New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who also served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy. The analysis of the Vita nuova establishes the poetic and political circumstances of the Comedy's composition. Readings of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso seek to situate Dante's work within the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages, with special attention to political, philosophical and theological concerns. Taught in Italian.
Prerequisite: ITAL 302

ITALIAN 514: DANTE: DALLA VITA NUOVA ALLA COMMEDIA
MW 12:30-2:20, 5 cr., Beatrice Arduini
Meets with ITAL 470
Conducted in Italian

This course is devoted to Dante and his cultural significance through a critical reading of the Divine Comedy and the Vita nuova ("The New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who also served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy. The analysis of the Vita nuova establishes the poetic and political circumstances of the Comedy's composition. Readings of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso seek to situate Dante's work within the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages, with special attention to political, philosophical and theological concerns. Graduate students only.

ITALIAN 590B: FROM SONG TO BOOK: TEXTUAL CULTURES IN EARLY ITALIAN LITERATURE
TH 2:30-5:20, 5 cr., Beatrice Arduini
Offered with FRENCH 590 C 
Conducted in English

While literary histories of early Italian literary culture tend to identify a straight-line trajectory from a Latin to an Italian vernacular tradition, this course will explore how Italy's linguistic, literary and documentary relations with other traditions, particularly Old French in the Veneto and Tuscany, and Old Occitan, reveal a far more diverse set of influences on the development of the local vernaculars, the choices of material support for the circulation of the poems, and the formation of a more acute sense of authorship that culminates in the composition of Petrarch's Canzoniere. Graduate students only.