Italian Studies Major Concentration (B.A.) (36 credits)
Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 36
Program Description
All students wishing to register for the Major Concentration Italian Studies are strongly urged to meet with a departmental adviser.
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Degree Requirements — B.A. & Sc. students
This program is offered as part of a Bachelor of Arts & Science (B.A. & Sc.) degree.
To graduate, students must satisfy both their program requirements and their degree requirements.
- The program requirements (i.e., the specific courses that make up this program) are listed under the Course Tab (above).
- The degree requirements—including the mandatory Foundation program, appropriate degree structure, and any additional components—are outlined on the Degree Requirements page.
Students are responsible for ensuring that this program fits within the overall structure of their degree and that all degree requirements are met. Consult the Degree Planning Guide on the SOUSA website for additional guidance.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Complementary Courses (36 credits)
36 credits selected from the three Italian course lists as follows:
Group A – Basic Language Courses (0-12 credits)
- Students with no knowledge of the Italian language must take 12 credits in language.
- Students with some knowledge of the language may take 6 credits only selected from ITAL 210D1 Italian for Advanced Beginners./ITAL 210D2 Italian for Advanced Beginners., ITAL 215D1 Intermediate Italian./ITAL 215D2 Intermediate Italian., or ITAL 216 Intermediate Italian Intensive..
- Students with competency in the language may substitute courses from Groups B and C for Group A - Basic Language courses.
ALL students with some background must consult with the Department for proper placement.
Group B – Courses Taught in Italian (a minimum of 12 credits, of which a maximum of 6 credits may be at the 200 level)
Group C – Courses Taught in English (0-12 credits)
Group A - Basic Language Courses
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ITAL 205D1 | Italian for Beginners. | 3 |
Italian for Beginners. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Grammar, reading, dictation. Intensive practice in speech patterns and written structures. Conversation and composition. Visual material and selected readings will be used in describing the making of contemporary Italy. | ||
| ITAL 205D2 | Italian for Beginners. | 3 |
Italian for Beginners. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See ITAL 205D1 for course description. | ||
| ITAL 206 | Beginners Italian Intensive. | 6 |
Beginners Italian Intensive. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Designed to cover in one term the same material as ITAL 205D1/ITAL 205D2. | ||
| ITAL 210D1 | Italian for Advanced Beginners. | 3 |
Italian for Advanced Beginners. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Intended for students who have never studied Italian, but who have had some informal exposure to the language. Grammar, reading, conversation and composition. An outline of Italian civilization, oral presentations and discussions. | ||
| ITAL 210D2 | Italian for Advanced Beginners. | 3 |
Italian for Advanced Beginners. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See ITAL 210D1 for course description. | ||
| ITAL 215D1 | Intermediate Italian. | 3 |
Intermediate Italian. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Direct continuation of ITAL 205D1/ITAL 205D2. Grammar, literary readings, conversation. Grammar exercises and composition. Reading of selected literary works, oral presentations and group discussion. | ||
| ITAL 215D2 | Intermediate Italian. | 3 |
Intermediate Italian. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See ITAL 215D1 for course description. | ||
| ITAL 216 | Intermediate Italian Intensive. | 6 |
Intermediate Italian Intensive. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Course designed to cover in one term the same material as ITAL 215D1/ITAL 215D2. Direct continuation of ITAL 206. | ||
Group B - Courses Taught in Italian
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ITAL 250 | Italian Literary Composition. 1 | 3 |
Italian Literary Composition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Analysis and discussion of selected 19th and 20th century literary texts with a view to improving language and composition skills. Review of major grammatical difficulties. | ||
| ITAL 255 | Advanced Reading and Composition. 1 | 6 |
Advanced Reading and Composition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The understanding of grammatical structures through a variety of exercises; paraphrasing, translating, composition and discussion. Particular emphasis will be placed on syntax through the study of contemporary texts. | ||
| ITAL 260 | Reading Italian Literature. | 3 |
Reading Italian Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A selection of poetic, narrative and theatrical texts from different historical periods, providing students with advanced tools in textual analysis and close reading of Italian literary texts. | ||
| ITAL 270 | Manzoni: Novel and Nationhood. | 3 |
Manzoni: Novel and Nationhood. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An analysis of the historical novel "I promessi sposi", by Alessandro Manzoni: its political, social and intellectual role in the evolution of Italy towards nationhood (Risorgimento). | ||
| ITAL 281 | Masterpieces of Italian Literature 2. | 3 |
Masterpieces of Italian Literature 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of Italian literature from Renaissance to the 20th century. Interdisciplinary approach. | ||
| ITAL 290 | Commedia Dell'Arte. | 3 |
Commedia Dell'Arte. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Playhouses, actors, stage techniques, masks and scenarios of the "Commedia dell'Arte". | ||
| ITAL 295 | Italian Cultural Studies. | 3 |
Italian Cultural Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A cultural studies approach to contemporary Italian society. Focus on distinctive traits of Italian popular culture through literature, film, television and other media. | ||
| ITAL 310 | The Invention of Italian Literature. | 3 |
The Invention of Italian Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course presents Italian's major texts and authors over the ages, by critically exploring how the invention of Italian literature impacts the formation of a national identity. | ||
| ITAL 329 | Italian Cinematic Tradition. | 3 |
Italian Cinematic Tradition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Italian films in original language. Films are examined from a wide historical and cultural perspective. Introduction to issues and preoccupations central to the Italian cultural tradition. | ||
| ITAL 332 | Italian Theatrical Traditions. | 3 |
Italian Theatrical Traditions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the major works and genres of Italian theatre from the Renaissance to the present, analyzing their reception and influence on Italian society. | ||
| ITAL 345 | Romanticism in Italy. | 3 |
Romanticism in Italy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course introduces key figures in early-19th century Italian culture (Leopardi, Foscolo, Manzoni), and problematizes both the notion of Romanticism in Italy, and its relationship to the movement for Italian unification. | ||
| ITAL 356 | Medieval Discourses on Love. | 3 |
Medieval Discourses on Love. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Medieval ideas, attitudes and behaviour surrounding love as represented in literature: readings will include excerpts from early Italian love lyrics, Dante's Vita Nuova, Petrarch's Canzoniere, Boccaccio's Decameron. | ||
| ITAL 360 | Contemporary Italian Prose. | 3 |
Contemporary Italian Prose. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of Italian fiction, docu-fiction and non-fiction published since 1990, examined in the context of the debates on post-modernism. | ||
| ITAL 362 | Post-World War 2 Literature and Society. | 3 |
Post-World War 2 Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of Italian prose fiction and non-fiction in the context of some of the events and issues that marked these years: the aftermath of Fascism, the economic boom, terrorism, the Mafia, the North-South question. | ||
| ITAL 371 | The Italian Baroque. | 3 |
The Italian Baroque. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An analysis of the Italian Baroque period through an interdisciplinary overview of its major figures (Caravaggio, Bernini, Galileo, Marino, Vico) and cultural genres (commedia dellâ•Žarte, opera, still life) | ||
| ITAL 383 | Women's Writing since 1880. | 3 |
Women's Writing since 1880. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of Italian women writers and their search for literary identity. | ||
| ITAL 400 | Italian Regional Identities. | 3 |
Italian Regional Identities. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course explores tensions between national and regional narratives in Italy's literature, culture, language, and society. | ||
| ITAL 410 | Italian Modernism. | 3 |
Italian Modernism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of representative works of major Italian authors from the fin-de-siècle to WWII. | ||
| ITAL 560 | Topics in 19th and 20th Century Literature. | 3 |
Topics in 19th and 20th Century Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of individual authors, genres, and literary or cultural movements that have marked Italian culture in the 19th and 20th century. | ||
- 1
Note: Only one of ITAL 250 Italian Literary Composition. or ITAL 255 Advanced Reading and Composition. can count toward the program.
Group C - Courses Taught in English
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ITAL 199 | FYS: Italy's Literature in Context. | 3 |
FYS: Italy's Literature in Context. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The purpose of this seminar is to re-visit, problematically, the commonsense notion that literature "reflects" reality (or society). Classics of twentieth-century Italian writing shall be analyzed as the response of that nation's literary imagination to the contradictions of its turbulent political and social history. | ||
| ITAL 230 | Understanding Italy. | 3 |
Understanding Italy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introductory critical perspective on a series of issues (North/South, Church/State, the family, regionalism, Fascism) related to contemporary Italy through novels, films and essays. | ||
| ITAL 307 | Topics in Italian Culture. | 3 |
Topics in Italian Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected topics in Italian culture (topics may vary and may concentrate on one or more of the following areas: geography, history, music, art history, political science, and/or literature). | ||
| ITAL 355 | Dante and the Middle Ages. | 3 |
Dante and the Middle Ages. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the work of Dante Alighieri, a pillar of medieval European literature. The times in which he lived, the institutions and cultural shifts of that era, the influence exercised by Dante's work, as well as how it has been perceived in our time. | ||
| ITAL 363 | Gender, Literature and Society. | 3 |
Gender, Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Questions of gender identity and literary representation as they emerge from women's texts or from comparisons of women's and men's texts, in relation to specific social and historical conditions. May focus on any time period in Italian history, from medieval to contemporary. | ||
| ITAL 365 | The Italian Renaissance. | 3 |
The Italian Renaissance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A presentation of the main ideas and literary masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance (13th-17thC), in the context of Italy's social, political, religious and cultural climate. Reading and discussion of selected literary texts and visual material. | ||
| ITAL 374 | Classics of Italian Cinema. | 3 |
Classics of Italian Cinema. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Key works in the history of Italian cinema; an in-depth analysis of a few exceptional works; emphasis on the complex web of relationship connecting each work to a wide range of cultural products and expressions, from literature to popular culture, in Italy and internationally. | ||
| ITAL 375 | Cinema and Society in Modern Italy. | 3 |
Cinema and Society in Modern Italy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the most important trends in post-war Italian cinema seen in the context of the rapidly and dramatically evolving society of modern Italy. | ||
| ITAL 450 | Italy and the Visual Age. | 3 |
Italy and the Visual Age. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the emergence of a mass culture industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, through the survey of a variety of visual sources. | ||
| ITAL 464 | Machiavelli. | 3 |
Machiavelli. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Machiavelli, the political thinker and man of letters. A portrait of Machiavelli as political strategist, playwright and observer of his times. Reading of The Prince as well as selected plays, letters and other writings. | ||
| ITAL 465 | Religious Identities in Italy. | 3 |
Religious Identities in Italy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the role played by religion in shaping Italian identities by looking at the works of Dante, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico, Galileo Galilei and other Early Modern authors in their cultural and institutional contexts. By looking at how these authors expressed their beliefs and interacted with religious institutions, students are invited to critically engage on the concept of "religion". | ||
| ITAL 477 | Italian Cinema and Video. | 3 |
Italian Cinema and Video. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Different Italian film maker or videomaker every year, presenting a selection of his/her significant works. Discussions will include script analysis, interviews, articles and books by the director in focus, in addition to theoretical and critical statements by scholars. Established and new directors will be considered alternately. | ||