FABIO GIRELLI-CARASI
ITALIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND FILM

INTERCULTURAL LITERACY
 

FALL 2019  MLAN 2150 -

Prof. Fabio Girelli-Carasi
Boylan 4304

Office hours:
TUE  4.00 - 5.00 PM
WED: 12.00 - 3.30 PM (email ahead to confirm appointment.)

TUE  05:05 - 07:35 PM 4311 Boylan

 


Course email:

fall2019.it-am@oggi-domani.com

Use this email account for ALL course-related communications.

Personal email: carasi@brooklyn.cuny.edu
For NON-COURSE related communications. Use with discretion.

Blog: https://itamfall2019.blogspot.com/

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS
 

USE ONLY YOUR BROOKLYN COLLEGE EMAIL ACCOUNT FOR ALL COMMUNICATIONS
Syllabus: policies and calendar.

COLLEGE CALENDAR  (with conversion days, holidays etc.)


All assignments and lectures are listed on this page. A link to this page is also provided on Blackboard.

As Blackboard is rather unreliable, you are better off using this as the OFFICIAL SYLLABUS CALENDAR for the course.

 

 

 MLAN 2150

LECTURES

AUG 27. Lecture 0

Sept 3 Lecture 1

Sept 10 Lecture 2

Sept 17 Lecture 3

Sept 23 Lecture 4

Oct 15 Lecture 5

Oct 22 Lecture 6

Oct 29 Lecture 7

Nov 5 Lecture 8

Nov 12 Lecture 9

Nov 19 Lecture 10

Nov 26 Lecture 11

Dec 3  Lecture 12



 


 

ASSIGNMENTS

Sept 3  Assignment 1   QUIZ 1

Sept 10  Assignment 2  

Sept 17  Assignment 3

Sept 24 ASSIGNMENT 4 and QUIZ 2

Oct 1-8 ASSIGNMENT

OCT 15 ASSIGNMENT

Oct 22 ASSIGNMENT

Oct 29 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 5 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 12 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 19 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 26 ASSIGNMENT

====================================

All assignments up to NOV 5 were graded and returned. If you miss yours, let me know immediately.

NOV 12 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 19 ASSIGNMENT

NOV 26 ASSIGNMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Office Hours
by appointment via skype

COURSE EMAIL  core3103.summer17@oggi-domani.com

COURSE BLOG   http://itamsummer17.blogspot.com/

YOUR CLASSMATES coming soon

BEFORE CLASSES START

SYLLABUS open this document to read course policies

PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS
If you cannot follow the instructions and comply with the requirements, most likely you won't be able to complete the course.

  1. EMAIL
    Open this document and follow the instructions.
     
  2. Send an email message to the course email address (see cell above).

    Email subject: I RECEIVED THE SYLLABUS  (
    and don't misspell "receive," please).

    In the message body, ANSWER the following question in your own words (don't copy the
    question's wording.)


    Are you willing to comply with the provisions stated in the syllabus and the course homepage in order to get a final grade that will fully reflect your academic performance?

    Wait for my reply before moving to n. 3.
    I will ONLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND REPLY to messages that followed all the instructions.
     
  3. BLOG: see the link in the top cell. Open it and leave your COMMENTS to the postings.

    You must complete the blog assignment before moving on to the next task.
     
  4. DEADLINE, JUNE 5: TAKE A SELFIE with your copy Pascal D'Angelo: SON OF ITALY.  Attach it to a message: SUBJECT: Son of Italy.  The message MUST have your full signature
    (scroll below to see list of required texts)
    NOTICE:
    I did not order the books through the bookstore. You can find better deals online (new or used.) E-books are OK but there may be some differences with page numbers etc.
     
  5. DEADLINE, JUNE 5: access to FILMS. Some films area available on Youtube and similar services. Some are available on Netflix or pay-per-view online. If you don't find them anywhere, go to the LANGUAGE LAB in BOYLAN 4316.

REQUIRED BOOKS

  • Pascal D'Angelo
    SON OF ITALY

    Paperback: 180 pages
    Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc. (August 14, 2003)
    ISBN-13: 978-1550710984
     
  • Pietro Di Donato
    CHRIST IN CONCRETE

    Paperback: 240 pages
    Publisher: NAL Trade (September 7, 2004)
    ISBN: 0-451-21421-8
    ISBN-13: 978-0451214218


    YOU MUST BUY THE EDITION WITH THIS COVER. USE THE ISBN AS A REFERENCE


     
  • Mario Puzo
    THE GODFATHER

    Paperback: 448 pages
    Publisher: NAL Trade (March 1, 2002)
    ISBN-13: 9780451205766
    YOU MUST BUY THIS EDITION. USE THE ISBN N. AS A REFERENCE
     
  • DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK UNTIL I TELL YOU
    AVAILABLE ONLY ONLINE

    Robert Tinnell (Author) Alex Saviuk, Ed Piskor (Illustrators)
    FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES: The Collected Comic Strip and Italian Holiday Cookbook

    Publisher: Allegheny Image Factory (Nov 1, 2005)
    ISBN-10: 0976928809

REQUIRED FILM

I will make available ONLINE films that are not covered by copyright.

FOR ALL THE OTHER FILMS, YOU CAN OBTAIN THEM IN THE LANGUAGE LAB or USE ANY RENTAL/PURCHASE SERVICE. THE LANGUAGE LAB IS LOCATED IN BOYLAN 4316

  • The Black Hand (online, no copyright)

  • The Skyscrapers of New York (online,no copyright)

  • The Italian (online,no copyright)

  • L'emigrante (Language lab)

  • Sacco & Vanzetti (Language lab)

  • Marty (commercially available, Language Lab)

  • Moonstruck (commercially available, Language Lab)

  • The Godfather Part 1 (commercially available, Language Lab)

  • True Love (commercially available, Language Lab)

 

LECTURES and ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments instructions.


 

  1. Assignment due June 1 (pre-requisite) Returned
     
  2. LECTURE-ASSIGNMENT due June 8  Returned

    LECTURE June 8
     
  3. Lecture - Assignment due June 13 returned
  4. Lecture - Assignment due June 18 returned
  5. Lecture - Assignment due June 22 returned
  6. Lecture - Assignment due June 26 returned
  7. Lecture - Assignment due June 30 returned
  8. Lecture - Assignment due July 5 no writing assign.
  9. Lecture - Assignment due July 8 returned
  10. Lecture - Assignment due July 14

    PORTFOLIO: due JULY 14

    Create a new document (doc, docx, rtf)

    FILENAME: lastname.portfolio
    Email subject: portfolio

    Copy/Paste ALL the assignments I returned to you with GRADE AND COMMENTS.

    Put them in chronological order (oldest to most recent.)

DOWNLOAD THE TESTS due June 28, 8:00PM
Test 1     Test 2     Test 3  June 28 
GRADED AND RETURNED

Test 4 (July 9)  graded and returned



 

COURSE MATERIALS

 

USEFUL STUFF

1. Example of good note taking
2. This is how I take notes

3. More of my note-taking

4. More notes
 

 

 

ON WRITING

1) every text (book, article, photo, film, whatever) triggers FIRST an immediate emotional response.  Make a note of your FIRST IMMEDIATE emotional reaction. This is the raw material.
Write it down if it helps. EX: curious to find out more, intrigued, repulsed, fascinated and repulsed at the same time, bored, offended, pleased, tickled, annoyed etc. etc. etc.

2) At the end of reading/screening a text we are left with a DIFFUSED sensation: pleasure, anxiety, anger, pain, sympathy, empathy, antipathy, you name it. Make a note of the TONE of your emotional state.

3) Reflect back and report: what was your FIRST emotional response? What was the DIFFUSED sensation left?  In between FIRST and DIFFUSED there was some THINKING.  This thinking is MENTAL PROCESSING.

4) Last stage: THOUGHTS become IDEAS. Ideas are thoughts that are communicable, that you can translate into language that others can understand.  That requires ARGUMENTS. ARGUMENTS illustrate your ideas, ideas that derive from thoughts, which, in turn derive from the chaos of emotions.

5) You can describe the process, or you can focus on the thoughts, or the emotions. But in order to do so, you must have AN IDEA of what you are talking about.

6) It's very very simple. It's the simplest and best way to write, because you write about things you know, namely YOURSELF and the way your emotions become ideas. If you write FROM INSIDE OUT, you cannot go wrong. But you must start there.

READING

1. Get close to the text.

2. Read slowly at first. Sound the words in your mind. If necessary, "lip read" to slow yourself down.

3. Take notes of whatever strikes you. Make it a dialogue with yourself: a word you don't know; a sharp idea; a revealing detail; your mood; your guesses; a personal memory. Write down the page number.


 


 

Other Course Materials

Excerpts or Chapters
 

  • Patrizia Salvetti (translated by Fabio Girelli - Carasi)
    ROPE AND SOAP: Lynchings of Italians in the United States
    Available free online by permission of the author and translator for this course only.

  • Giuseppe Prezzolini (translated by Fabio Girelli - Carasi)
    The Transplanted
    Available free online by permission of the author and translator for this course only.

  • Anthony Tamburri
    A Semiotic of Ethnicity
    Available free online by permission of the author for this course only.

 

COURSE MATERIALS

Homepage

OTHER INTERESTING MATERIALS (contemporary)

THE GREAT MIGRATION
African Americans experienced a huge mass migration from the South to the North particularly before and after WWII. Given the enormous differences between North and South at that time, this was a true migration with many of the same features of migrations from abroad.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Isabel Wilkerson, talks about her book, now in paperback, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, as listeners share their families' stories of moving away from the Jim Crow south.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/171309-great-migration/

CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS
From the NYTIMES Sept.2014
Personal stories about growing up as immigrants in New York City today.

IMMIGRANT DEATHS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES (NYTIMES)

 

 

courses/000.FALL15.TEACHING/00.FILM.LIT.FALL.15/04.ITAM.COURSE.MATERIALS/VIDEOS-SOUND/FILM.PROTECTED/anarchy.mp4