French, Italian, and Spanish Placement Tests
If you are planning to take an elementary French, Italian, or Spanish class and you are a new student, freshman or transfer student, or you have not yet begun the elementary language sequence on the Ann Arbor campus, you must take the placement test in order to register for the correct course. You must register for the class into which you have been placed.
If you have registered for a class prior to taking the test, you will still be required to take the test in order to verify that you are in the appropriate level class.
If you have already taken French, Italian, or Spanish 101-232 on the Ann Arbor campus, or if you have already taken the placement test once, you are not eligible to take the test again. For questions regarding the LS&A language requirement, please see a general academic advisor or call POINT-10 (764-6810).
Please Note: With the reduction in the number of classrooms throughout LS&A, departments must limit the number of classes offered between 10 am and 4 pm. There will be more classes open before 10 am and after 4 pm. Please take advantage of the opportunity to register for these classes and avoid the "Lottery" (see 2b below).
Instructions for students requesting overrides for French or Spanish 101, 103, 231, or 232.
1. Try to find a section that will fit into your schedule, since the Department cannot guarantee every student a space in a section of his/her own choice.
However, do not register for a class that you cannot attend. You will not be eligible to override into the section of your choice if you are registered for any section of 101-232, even if you cannot attend that section.
2. As it states in the Time Schedule any registered student who misses one of the first four class meetings will be dropped from the course, thereby leaving some open spaces for those students who have been closed out.
If there is absolutely no section open which will fit your schedule, you should follow this procedure:
(a) Start attending the section you would like to get into on the first day of class. You will receive a Proof of Attendance form which must be signed by your instructor every day. You must attend a class every day, but it does not need to be the same section. All students must take action through T-T Registration to make sure their official schedule of courses matches the courses they are taking.
(b) On Tuesday, January 13 at 7:00 p.m., there will be a meeting in the basement of the MLB, rooms to be announced later, for each of the above courses. At these meetings, students will be assigned to remaining vacated spaces in the most fair and equitable manner possible, using a lottery system. At no time, however, will any class be allowed to exceed 25 students. Students must bring their printout of classes and the Proof of Attendance form to the meeting!
3. Please note that you will not be allowed to change sections at these meetings. Beginning Wednesday, January 14, Elementary French Language Supervisors will hear requests for section changes and fill those requests to whatever degree is possible.
4. Please ensure when adding with the override that you also add modifiers for pass/fail, etc.
Elementary Language
Courses
Students who intend to continue a language begun in high school
must take the Placement Test to determine the language course
in which they should enroll. Italian 102 is NOT open to students
who have begun instruction in high school. It is strongly recommended that students who began Italian at another college or university
also take the placement test. Students must check with the Course
Coordinator for any exceptions to the Placement Test level.
101. Elementary Italian. (4). (LR).
This course is task-
and content-based and incorporates grammar in a functional use
of language through listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Vocabulary and structures are practiced in class through communicative
activities. Cultural awareness and listening skills are further
developed through audio-visual materials. Evaluation criteria
include: regular attendance, oral participation, in-class work, homework assignments, quizzes, a midterm, and a final examination.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
102. Elementary Italian. Italian 101. No credit granted to those
who have completed or are enrolled in 103. Italian 102 is NOT
open to students who have begun instruction at the high school
level. Open only to students who have completed 101 at the University
of Michigan. College or university transfer students who have
received credit for one term are encouraged to enroll in Italian
103. (4). (LR).
This course continues the presentation of essential of the Italian language and attempts
to broaden the student's knowledge of Italian life and culture.
It is task- and content-based and incorporates grammar in a functional
use of language through listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Language use is encouraged through variety of communicative activities.
Instructional methods include authentic readings in Italian (short
articles from newspapers and magazines) and audio-visual materials.
Grading is based on regular attendance, oral participation, in
class-work, homework assignments, quizzes, a midterm, and a final
examination.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
206. Conversation for Non-concentrators.
Italian 102.
Italian 206 may be elected prior to Italian 205. (1). (Excl).
Offered mandatory credit/no credit.
Italian 206 emphasizes
fluency and self-expression in conversational Italian. This course
is designed for students who have had at least two terms of Italian
and are interested in acquiring a certain facility with the spoken
language. Class work consists of reading materials from various
sources (magazines, newspapers, short stories, etc.)
which will be discussed in class. Use of the language laboratory
will provide additional conversational material on various aspects
of Italian life. Classes will meet twice a week. There are no
examinations, and the grading in on a credit basis only. Success
in the course is determined on the basis of attendance, homework
and participation in the classroom activities.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
231. Second-Year Italian. Italian 102; or permission of course
supervisor. No credit granted to those who have completed 112
or 230. (4). (LR).
This course reviews
grammar, gives student an insight into standard modern Italian through the reading of articles, short stories, and literary excerpts, and increases student facility in speaking and writing Italian.
Content based themes further develop students' cultural awareness
and encourage him/her to formulate opinions on issues of interest.
Communicative skills are emphasized through class discussions
and oral reports based readings or current events. Compositions
are required. Audio-visual materials are incorporated. Grading
is based on regular attendance, class participation, oral reports, compositions, homework assignments, quizzes, a midterm, and a
final examination.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
232. Second-Year Italian, Continued.
Italian 231
or permission of course supervisor. No credit granted to those
who have completed 112. (4). (LR).
This course aims at
a further development of each student's speaking, reading, and writing knowledge of Italian, including increased facility in
both conversation and oral comprehension. There is a continuing
review of grammar within the functional use of language. Various
genres of literature and journalistic prose are read and discussed, and occasional short papers are required on these or other related
topics. Oral presentations on contemporary issues are also required.
Grading is based on regular attendance, class participation, oral
presentations, short papers, home assignments, quizzes, a midterm, and a final examination.
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
233. Accelerated Second Year Italian.
Italian 102
or 103. No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled
in Italian 112 or 232. (4). (Excl). This course does not satisfy the language requirement.
Equivalent of Italian
231 and 232 taught at an accelerated pace. This course is designed
to further develop the listening, speaking, reading and writing
skills of students and deepen their understanding of Italian culture.
The content of the course includes review of essential principles
of grammar and advanced training in. Evaluation criteria are based
on: regular attendance, oral class participation, home assignments, quizzes, a midterm, and a final examination.
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Times, Location, and Availability
Courses Taught in English Translation (without language prerequisites)
150. First Year Seminar in Italian Studies.
(3). (HU).
Section 001 – Witchcraft in Italian literature, theology, law, and art, 1450-1650.
Taught in English. No knowledge of Italian is required. In this
interdisciplinary course we will examine the phenomenon of witchcraft
in Italy in literature, theology, law, and art during the period
1450-1650. We will read plays, poetry, and short stories, as well
as primary sources such as Inquisition manuals and actual trial
transcripts. We will ask some general questions which have perplexed
scholars of European witchcraft: What was the difference between
witchcraft and magic? Why were women stereotypical witches? Did
mass hysteria lead to a witch hunt? We will use English and American
models (Salem) for comparative studies. We will conclude with
images of witches in the popular imagination, especially in Hollywood
films. (Gallucci)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
315(380). Italian Cinema and Society
Since 1945. A
knowledge of Italian is not required. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee
($15) required.
Section 001 – From the Novel to the Movie. This course, taught in English, traces the historical development of Italian cinema from the postwar
advent of neorealism to the mid 1980s. The course has several
aims: to understand the political, economic, and cultural contexts
which generated and supported neorealist movement; to explore
and analyze the theoretical bases of neorealism and its reception, both friendly and hostile, in Italian intellectual/political circles;
to examine various aspects of the movement beyond neorealism proper
in films of the 1950s and 1960s by Fellini, Visconti, Olmi, Bertolucci, and Bellocchio; and to expose the rethinking and reevaluation
of the neorealist aesthetic as carried out by Scola, the Taviani
Brothers, Nichetti, and Salvatores in the 1970s and 1980s. The
course requirements, beyond class participation, will be three
6-8 page papers. A knowledge of Italian is useful, but is not
required. (Frisch)
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Times, Location, and Availability
433/MARC 439. Dante's Divine Comedy.
A knowledge
of Italian is not required. (3). (HU).
Open to concentrators
and non-concentrators alike, this course is devoted to a reading
of one of the monuments of Western literature, Dante's Divine
Comedy. An exile from his native Florence, Dante levies an
intense critique of his own late medieval Italian society as well
as profound meditation European culture, broadly conceived, in
its merits and its failings. This narration of a journey through the many layers of the afterlife is both a personal testimony
and a public reckoning. From the clash between a recently rediscovered
pagan inheritance and the imperatives of a modern world view, Dante salvages what he can, in terms of science, ethics, poetry, and political thought, from the wreckage of past civilizations
as well as from the crisis of its own. The poem will be read in
all its three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso,
in facing-page translation in order to benefit those who know
some Italian as well as those who do not. Attention will paid therefore to the language of Dante's poetry, a revolution in its
own right, and to his manipulation of his numerous sources of
inspiration – Virgil, Ovid, Statius, Lucan, the Bible, Augustine
and other Church fathers, medieval romantic and lyric literature, scientific and theological treatises, and examples from ancient
history and contemporary society. The format of the course will
consist of lecture and discussion, and evaluation will be on the
basis of class participation, two short papers (4-5 pp.), a midterm, and final exam. (Cornish)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
Other Language and Literature Courses
300. Advanced Composition and Conversation.
Italian 232
and 235. (3). (Excl).
In this course students
will be presented with a variety of authentic written (literary
and journalistic), visual, and audio materials designed to stimulate
discussion, both oral and written. In addition to group discussion, debates, and oral presentation, students will practice writing
in various formats such as letters, book or film reviews, essays, etc. The goal of this course is to develop the skills
necessary for speaking and writing correct, fluent Italian. The
course is conducted in Italian. (Habekovic)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
374. Topics in Italian Literature. Italian 232. (3). (HU). May be repeated
for credit.
Section 001. The course
consists of a parallel study of differences and analogies between
literary and cinematic forms of narrative, its aim being a definition
of cinematic adaptation as a genre. We will study six examples
of transposition from fiction to film. Five of the offerings are
from novels, one is based on a play. Since the Italian intellectual
is traditionally involved in the politics of his/her country, the intertextual perspective of the course has as its main theme the political debate in 20th-century Italy. Works by a variety
of authors (C. Levi, G. Verga, L. Sciascia, L. Pirandello, A.
Moravia, and N. Ginzburg) and filmmakers (F. Rosi, L. Visconti, G. Amelio, M. Bellocchio, B. Bertolucci, and M. Monicelli) will
be examined. Additional photocopied material (on cinema theory, narratology, scriptwriting, etc.) will be distributed.
The course will be conducted in Italian.
Note: This section is incorrectly listed in the Time Schedule
as Italian 325. TTh 4-6 B116 MLB. (Santovetti)
Section 002- Race, Gender, and Power in Modern Italian Culture.
The course is intended to discuss issues which are very much present
in contemporary political, artistic, and critical discourse, and to consider under one heading the theme of diversity as reflected
in modern and contemporary Italian fiction and poetry (Morante, Levi, Banti, Penna, Cavalli, and Saba), non-fiction (Amendola, Falcone, Methnani, and Fortunato), the figurative arts (A. Gentileschi), and cinema (Visconti, Scola, Antonioni, and Amelio). This interdisciplinary
study of the motif of diversity will involve such often intersecting
topics as race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. The texts
will hence be roughly divided into four thematic sections: (1)
political persecution; (2) racism; (3) sexuality; (4) male-vision
and self-vision of woman. Additional photocopied material (on
narratology, history of ideas, gender studies, critical theory, etc.) will be distributed. The course will be conducted
in Italian. (Santovetti)
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Times, Location, and Availability
390(484). Medieval Italian Literature.
Italian 232.
(3). (Excl).
Open to concentrators
and non-concentrators and taught in Italian, this course will
focus on the literary works of the Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio. We will read selections from the Divina
Commedia, the Canzoniere, and the Decamerone
in addition to some minor works of theology, law, and medicine
in translation. We will examine the conditions of production (historical
and cultural contexts) which generated these works and analyze their literary forms, poetic conventions, and rhetorical strategies.
We will concentrate on an examination of such specific themes
as: power, gender, fortune, and love. We will conclude by exploring the cultural significance of the Three Crowns to writers
in other historical moments, from the English Renaissance (Shakespeare)
to modern England (T.S. Eliot) and post-modern Britain (Peter
Greenaway), in literature and cinema. The format of the course
will be lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be based on class
attendance and active participation, two short essays, a midterm, and a final exam. A course reader containing critical articles
will supplement the primary texts. (Gallucci)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
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