Fabio Girelli-Carasi
ITALIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND FILM |
CALENDAR OUTLINE
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Lectures | ASSIGNMENTS are to be COMPLETED BY THE LECTURE'S
DATE
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Week 1: Italian Americans as a Tribe (as per sociology and anthropology) | DUE: email acknowledging syllabus; assignment 0; preliminary requirements; must have purchased Son of ITALY. Sarducci video. | ||
Week 2: A brief history of Italy, Italians and Italian Americans | DUE: INTRO LECTURE; CARTOONS; NYTimes
articles on multiple identities.
Notes and writing assignment. |
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Week 3: Language and Dialects. Representation vs. Self Representation. Cartoons, silent movies, videos. Literary texts. | DUE: Lecture THE GREAT MIGRATIONS part 1 and
2; First films; The Black Hand; The Skyscrapers of New York. .
The Great Migration (African Americans). Notes and writing assignment. |
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Week 4: SON OF ITALY: Themes, theories, topics for reflection. The Italian, Birth of a Nation: film and racial politics. Semiotics. | DUE: Lecture History of Italians and
Italian language; Son of Italy pag. 98. Research NEW ORLEANS;
Salvetti caps 1 , 2.
Notes and writing assignment. |
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Week 5: L'emigrante, Sacco e Vanzetti, social history of Italian immigration in words and images. Giannitti. The anarchist movement in Paterson, NJ. | DUE: Son of Italy FINISH THE BOOK. | ||
Week 6: Self representation: immigrant songs, Gay
Talese on self-representation. Fred Gardaphe. |
Immigrant songs;
Essays by Gay Talese on self representation Prezzolini |
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Week 7: Chris in Concrete: avant garde, literature and textuality. | Book Christ in Concrete | ||
Week 8: Chris in Concrete; Give us This Day: from the page to the screen. Integration and its cost in human terms. Becoming working class. | Film Give
us Today Book Christ in Concrete |
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Week 9: The Godfather (Puzo): becoming the elite. The persistence of social marginality. Tamburri: "A Semiotic of Ethnicity" (excerpt) | Book The Godfather | ||
Week 10: The Godfather (Puzo & Coppola): The metaphysics of evil? The metaphor of class stuggle? An ethno-political manifesto? The ideology of meritocracy? | Film The
Godfather
Book The Godfather |
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Week 11:Excerpts from The Transplanted: Italian Americans as seen from Italians in America. | Book: Excerpts from The Transplanted; | ||
Week 12: True Love: being working class in contemporary America. Being a young American from an Italian American community. | Film True
Love Book: Excerpts from A Semiotic of Ethnicity |
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Week 13: The Feast of the Seven Fishes; Kiss me Guido: the persistence of kind and not so kind stereotypes. Nostalgia as ethos. The imperfect assimilation. | Film: Kiss
me, Guido Book: The Feast of the Seven Fishes |
CALENDAR: Lectures and AssignmentsI RESERVE THE RIGHT TO AMEND THE CALENDAR AS NEEDED |
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INTRO
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DUE the first day of class:
BLOG AND POLL |
WEEKLY QUIZ Either in class or via email. It will cover required reading/screening for that week. |
BLOG |
WEEK 1
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ASSIGNMENTS: TIME MANAGEMENT
CHART: Hand in page 2 of the chart. Ask your teachers how many hours of
out-of-class work they estimate their courses will require. |
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WEEK 2
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READING: Son of Italy 1-52. Take
telegraphic notes: turn notes in in class. SCREEN THE VIDEOS (Take notes, as usual.) 1) GUTENBERG 2) DID YOU KNOW? 3) HUMAN CAPITAL WEB RESEARCH: Wikipedia OK
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WEEK 3
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READING: Finish Son of
Italy (Take notes and turn them in in class.) SCREENING: The Italian. Take notes, turn them in in class. WEB RESEARCH: Wikipedia OK WHAT IS SEMIOTICS? WRITING: Task 1: go back to a previous topic and write a new short essay on "your sources of information about Italian Americans." Focus on how the nature of the sources (TV vs film vs literature vs family vs acquaintances etc.) SHAPED your perception. Focus on your self reflection, and the mental process that took you to a critical evaluation of the sources. Task 2: My Immigrant Experience. Are you an immigrant? Are your parents? Or grandparents? Relatives? Friends? Neighbors? The restaurant owner near your home? We all have immigrant experiences. Choose one that is significant enough to be mentioned here. Taks 3: explain in your own words what semiotics is. Make an effort to be concise and precise. No copy and paste and no rambling. Make sure you get the concept. BLOG and POLLS |
QUIZ 1: Thursday June
13, on materials up to June 10 QUIZ 2: June 17 cumulative |
cla |
WEEK 4
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SCREENING: L'EMIGRANTE Take notes and
turn them in in class. SCREENING: video on living conditions of Italian American immigrants notes on each slide in detail ========================================= WEB RESEARCH: Wikipedia OK SACCO and VANZETTI notes ============================== WEB MATERIAL: HISTORY OF ITALY AND ITALIAN LANGUAGE notes ============================= WRITING: comments about in-class discussion based on Son of Italy, The Italian, L'Emigrante WHAT DID YOU FIND IN THESE TEXTS THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU? Think about the arguments that explain why it is important. Let it come to you, go over it, turn it upside down until you really know why it matters so much. And be ready to let others know what you found. ==================================== BLOG and POLLS
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QUIZ 1: THU June 20, Christ to
page
QUIZ 2: June 23 cumulative |
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WEEK 5
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READING *TEXTS: READ ALL THE TEXTS * It looks like a lot of reading, but each text is rather short.
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QUIZ 1: THU June 27
Quiz 2: July 1, cumulative |
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WEEK 6 | READING: Christ in Concrete 1-61 Don't worry about remembering all the names of the minor characters. Read one chapter at a time taking notes. As soon as you finished reading a chapter write a coherent synopsis summarizing the events. WRITING ASSIGNMENT For each chapter describe your reactions: BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 7 | READING: CHRIST IN CONCRETE finish the
book Take notes. Here are two examples of good note-taking: VERY EFFICIENT NOTES on Christ in Concrete (thanks to Georgia Van Cooten - Spring 2013) Sample of my note taking (I take notes about every single book I read) ================================= WRITING TASK 1: What was your reaction to the chain of tragedies that befell Geremio's family? Did you maintain some distance ("resistance to the text") or did the text take over and you became emotionally involved? Did Di Donato's style contribute to your involvement with the text, or was it a barrier? TASK 2 Choose your most favorite and least favorite parts/scenes of the book. You don't need to write a summary, just explain WHY you made those choices. Do they say something about you, your personality, your approach to literature, art, or simply to school work? BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 8 | READING: SOCIAL JUSTICE SCREENING: GIVE US THIS DAY WEB RESEARCH:
BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 9 | READING: THE GODFATHER 1-87 (let's
see if you can put it down ...) SCREEN: The Real Godfather (youtube) BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 10 | READING: FINISH THE GODFATHER
WRITING BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 11 | SCREEN: THE GODFATHER WRITING TASK 2: The film more than the novel emphasizes in the subtext the theme of Evil, both visually and in the narration/dialogue. The genius of Puzo -- as one of you said in a blog comment -- was the ability to package evil in a the shiny logic of rational respectability and sense of honor. Do you agree with this perspective? Alternatively, taken as a political allegory, The Godfather is about the condemnation of our society and the revenge taken by one of its victims. Is this notion closer to your emotional reactions? BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 12 | CATCH UP WEEK: we will use this week to revisit
important issues we couldn't cover completely. The topics will be based on your preferences (blog discussion) TASK 1: Looking back at the various texts we have examined, how have your thoughts evolved over time? Don't make it an intellectual exercise. Try to recall how you responded to the information in the texts were and how those responses have become more (or less) nuanced. Are you surprised how far you have come, and how "differently" sophisticated your arguments are? TASK 2:What is the single text that "taught" you the most. I am referring to the depth of your emotional response and the thoughts that it triggered, rather than the mass of information you learned. BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 13 | SCREEN: TRUE LOVE READ:
FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES True Love represents a community of people living in cultural isolation, to the point where they are not even minimally self-conscious of their status. Feast of the Seven Fishes instead introduces the notion of
status consciousness. Italians are very aware where they stand on the
socio-economic latter. TASK 2: building on n. 1: how do you interpret your community in the light of the two representations above? TASK 3: in Feast the narrator inside the story is an artist-philosopher. Most likely this is a psychological autobiographical portrait of the author. Does that character resonate with you? Is your position in your environment similar to his? BLOG AND POLL |
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WEEK 14 | READ: "Breaking the Silence" Print it out and
bring it to class (CLICK THE LINK TO OPEN THE DOC.) SCREEEN: KISS ME
GUIDO BLOG AND POLL |
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FINAL EXAM | Check the Final Exam schedule for time and date. |