The UCLA Department of Italian offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in English and Italian. For information about specific section times and locations please view the UCLA Schedule of Classes.
For a complete listing and description of department courses visit the UCLA General Catalog.
Lecture, five hours. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours. Enforced requisite: course 1. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours. Enforced requisite: course 2. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours. Enforced requisite: course 3. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours. Enforced requisite: course 4. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 5. Advanced grammar and composition course with readings from select literary works. P/NP or letter grading.
With an eye to the interrelation of sexual and political desire in culture, this course engages in a detailed analysis of nine celebrated Italian films, subtitled in English and contextualized by readings in sociology, philosophy, psychology, and political history. Lecture/screenings, five hours; discussion, one hour. P/NP or letter grading.
This course focuses on Dante’s Divine Comedy – a classic masterpiece of world literature, a pinnacle of medieval philosophy and theology, and a crucial work in the development of Italian culture. We will consider the protagonist’s journey to “salvation” as a challenge to many of our most entrenched assumptions about the nature of good and evil. Lecture, three hours. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Novelty of Boccaccio’s witty and comic masterpiece, Decameron, analyzed within context of moral and social codes of culture of time. P/NP or letter grading.
How to Do Just About Everything: Serious and Satirical Wisdom from the Italian Renaissance
This course will explore a large sampling of advice writing from the Italian Renaissance. Topics include how to be/seem educated, make money, gain and keep power, find love, mix paint, fence, cook, write in code, strengthen one’s memory, see into the heavens, avoid depression, and more. Readings include Machiavelli’s Prince, Della Casa’s Galateo of Manners, Alberti’s On Family, Maestro Martino’s Art of Cooking, Cornaro’s Art of Living Long, Manciolino’s Guide to Swordsmanship, Cennini’s Craftsman’s Handbook, and selections from Della Porta’s Natural Magic, Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, Ficino’s Book of Life, humanist treatises on education, religious sermons, and lesser-known treatises and “books of secrets.” Secondary literature will provide historical context for the primary texts and tools for recognizing and unpacking the rhetorical devices commonly used in these early examples of self-help. The course will be conducted in English, although the readings will be provided both in Italian and in translation. Italian majors who have completed two years of language instruction (Italian 6 or equivalent) should read the assigned texts in the original language and write their papers in Italian.
Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 100. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 6. Taught in Italian. Development of writing techniques and proficiency in composition and style, with emphasis on editing for grammar and style. P/NP or letter grading.
Seminar, three hours. Research seminar with focus on themes and issues outside uniquely Italian literature topics covered in regular departmental undergraduate courses. Reading, discussion, and development of culminating project. May be repeated once for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. S/U or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Seminar focusing on themes and issues outside the uniquely Italian literature topics covered in regular departmental graduate courses.
