Taught In English

There is no language prerequisite for courses at this language level.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some of the most significant texts in Western civilization. The course spans from the Middle Ages to the age of Enlightenment. Dante stands as the last great voice of Medieval Italy. While reading about Dante's adventurous journey through Inferno students will gain a perspective on the political, literary, philosophical, and theological dimensions of the concept of love in medieval European culture. Petrarch, torn between earthly love (for his beloved Laura) and divine love (for God) leaves his inner conflict unresolved, as a precursor to the "modern man." Boccaccio links the medieval world to the age of Humanism. The reading the Decameron allows students to understand the literary traditions, which the text absorbs and manipulates, and the rapidly evolving intellectual debates in which Boccaccio engages, while extending and connecting the themes of divine and earthly love to those of “beffa”, satyre, anticlericalism, and misogyny. Then, through the reading of some Italian “quattrocento” writers, students will be introduced to the age of Humanism and Renaissance. Through the reading of Machiavelli’s Prince and Baldassarre Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier we will confront with a new idea of society as analyzed in the works of both the most controversial and the most widely read authors of the Renaissance. From there we will move to define Baroque culture and finally we will briefly outline the origins of Italian Theater and the work of Carlo Goldoni.