QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

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1 QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES ITALIAN 45W: Italian Civilization Mondays and Thursday PM Kiely 323 Karina F. Attar Office hours: M/TH 1-2PM Office: King 205B This is a variable topics course. It fulfills the World Cultures and Global Issues Pathways requirement. Italy and its Others In this course we will (primarily) study the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Muslim individuals and cultures have been represented in Renaissance Italian literature (roughly ), as well as the history of encounters between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Italy and in the broader Mediterranean region during the period. We will consider the role that received and emerging ideas of religious, ethnic, and cultural difference have played in the development of a sense of Italian identity. We will discuss a wide array of topics, including interfaith and interracial marriage and miscegenation; the history of Mediterranean piracy and slavery; diplomacy and war between Christian and Muslim forces; the history of Italian Jewish communities; and the representation of Jews in Italian Renaissance art. Through these contexts, we will consider the cultural fantasies and anxieties Italians associated with cross-cultural contacts, and the ways in which they defined themselves against their others. Note: Some of our readings will include sensitive material. If you object to or are uncomfortable with depictions of sex and violence, you should drop the course. Your continued enrollment in this section indicates your comfort with and responsibility for reading these texts. Course requirements and policies: This is a writing-intensive course. Simply put, this means that you will be expected to do a lot of writing. You should approach the required readings not as books merely to be read through quickly for details of the plot or for historical facts, but as works emerging from and detailing specific cultural and historical contexts distant from our own and that therefore demand to be explored, puzzled over, and argued with. Attendance and participation 20% Attendance, punctuality, and participation are key in order for us to build productive discussions in which we all learn from each other. If you must miss a class, please inform me in advance. Students more than 5 minutes late to class are considered late. Three late arrivals equal one absence. More than two unexcused absences will adversely affect your participation grade. You are responsible for any work missed when absent. Exchange contact information with classmates in order to get information on work missed.

2 Presentations 10% Each student will make an in-class oral presentation of no more than ten minutes on a text on the syllabus. The dates and topics of presentations will be arranged during the first weeks of the semester. Your presentation should outline the main points of the reading, draw parallels and/or contrasts with earlier texts/contexts, and offer further questions and ideas for discussion. You may wish to do additional research into the text/topic in preparation. Reading responses 20% Throughout the semester, you will write several brief (one page) responses to readings. They should deal critically with an aspect of the text(s). For primary sources (literary works), analyze the characterization of protagonists, the setting, language, style, genre, etc. For secondary sources (history and criticism), think about the complexity and contingency inherent in historical events and themes, and in the writing of history and of literary or cultural criticism. By this I mean that discrete historical events have many different causes and consequences, and multiple meanings, both for those living trough them and for those looking back on them in their writing (as we will do). History is not predetermined. Rather, there usually exist inside each event multiple accidents and multiple possibilities. Learning to appreciate the complexities and contingencies that produced an event or a text is a continuous process that can help us to delve into questions about why certain circumstances and views came about rather than others. Papers - 30% There will be three major papers of varying page lengths. All your writing should be typed, double-spaced, using a standard 12-point font, with 1 margins. Please proofread carefully. Your essay should be polished and free of typographical errors. Submissions that do not meet these requirements will be handed back un-graded for revision. Do not supply a cover page. Do give every essay a title and include your name, and the course name and number. Use MLA guidelines for citing sources and in your works cited list. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is available for consultation in the QC library and for purchase online (see We will also discuss these guidelines in class. In terms of content, essays should reflect serious thought and analysis, not simply summary or description. Your essays should articulate clearly, concisely, and through engaging prose your original ideas about the texts and contexts. You should aim to both please and enlighten your readers, to communicate why what you are saying is important - why what you have to say needs to be said. I may occasionally photocopy and distribute your writing for class discussion, removing the author s name, and we will always focus on strengths of the writing as well as ideas for revision. For your second paper, you will exchange a first draft with a fellow student for peer review, discussion, and revision. This is a required part of the writing process; if you do not participate in the peer review, your essay grade will be dropped one letter grade. I will only accept late papers under the direst personal circumstances. Unexcused late papers will be dropped half a letter grade a day until received, even if you do well on assignment.

3 Below are the general standards to which I hold essays; I will provide more detailed explanation when I return graded assignments. An A range essay offers an original reading of the texts through clear, synthetic, and engaging prose. It develops a focused and compelling set of arguments with pertinent textual support. It is thought provoking, persuasive, and lucid. A B range essay contains largely focused arguments that address the expectations of the assignment but is only partially successful because the arguments are not developed thoroughly enough, and/or are not articulated or textually supported clearly or pertinently at every point. It integrates sources efficiently, if not always gracefully. A C range essay has significant problems in articulating and presenting its central ideas, and is somewhat unfocused and incoherent. It may lack clarity and use sources in simple ways, without significant analysis or insight. A D range essay does not grapple seriously with either ideas or texts, or fails to address the expectations of the assignment. It shows moments of promise, such as emerging but insufficiently developed or articulated ideas. It does not use sources well, though there be may some effort to do so. A failing essay does not grapple with either ideas or texts, and does not address the expectations of the assignment. It is unfocused or incoherent. Plagiarism is a serious offence. It is stealing the words and ideas of someone else. By submitting someone else s work as your own (whether purchased, copied, or written by a friend) or by failing to cite the source of ideas that are not your own, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarized papers are automatically graded F with no option for revision, and may lead to failure in the course and further disciplinary action by the college administration. If you need clarification about what plagiarism is, please speak to me before submitting your papers. The Writing Center. If you need help with your writing, The Writing Center (Kiely Hall 229) provides tutors specialized in helping writers at all stages of the writing process and from all disciplines. The Center offers one-on-one appointments or online tutoring. I encourage you to taking your writing there for valuable feedback on how to improve your skills as a writer. To make an appointment or learn more about the Writing Center, go to the web site: < In addition, you will find useful guidelines about paper writing through the Writing Across the Curriculum site, at Final exam - 20% The final exam (date TBA) will be cumulative and cover material from the entire semester. It will comprise both short response questions and longer essay questions in which you will be expected to discuss more than one text comparatively and contextually. I do not grant Incomplete grades (except in the event of a severe and verifiable medical or personal emergency), nor do I give extra credit assignments. No cell phone or beeper use during class. Please turn them off completely (no vibrate

4 or silent) beforehand. No Food. Drinks are ok. Readings: Primary (literature) and secondary (history & criticism) readings will be available at least one week in advance on Blackboard or as xeroxes at the Copy Center below Gino s Pizzeria. Some texts are easily available for purchase online, or for consultation/borrowing at the QC library, the library of the CUNY Graduate Center (34 th and 5 th ave), and the New York Public Library (42 nd and 5 th ave). If you would like to purchase a complete text from which we will read only excerpts, feel free to me for recommendations of editions. When you need a more extensive bibliography on any of the topics or texts covered for your presentation and papers, please consult the library catalogues; you may contact me for further guidance after some preliminary research. Blackboard Log in using your CUNY Portal Username and password. Italian Majors are required to read the texts in Italian where available, and to complete all written assignments in Italian. Novellas in Italian by Bandello, Boccaccio, and Salernitano are available online at Course outline: Monday, January 26 Introduction to the course Thursday, January From David Abulafia ed., Italy in the Central Middle Ages: , ch 10: The Italian Other: Greeks, Muslims, and Jews. 2. Boccaccio, Decameron I, 3 Monday, February 2 1. Boccaccio, Decameron I, 2; IV, 4; and X, 9 2. Janet Levarie Smarr, Other Races and Other Places in the Decameron in Studi sul Boccaccio 27 (1999), pp Thursday, February 5 1. Masuccio Salernitano, Il novellino 22, 24, and Iris Origo, The Domestic Enemy: The Eastern Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Speculum 30.3 (1955), pp Monday, February 9 1. Gloria Allaire, Portrayals of Muslims in Andrea da Barberino s Guerrino il

5 Meschino, in Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam, A Book of Essays, ed. John Victor Tolan (1996; New York: Routledge, 2000), pp Nancy Bisaha, New Barbarian or Worthy Adversary? Humanist Constructs of the Ottoman Turks in Fifteenth Century Italy, Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (New York: St. Martin s Press, 1999), pp Tuesday, February Masuccio Salernitano, Il novellino, 46 & Karina Attar, Muslim-Christian Encounters in Masuccio Salernitano s Novellino, in Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue Vol 11 #1-2 (2005), pp Thursday, February 12 Monday, February 16 No class, Lincoln s Bday No class, President s Day Thursday, February 19 Steven Epstein, Speaking of Slavery: Color Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy (Cornell UP, 2001), pp xi-102 FIRST PAPER DUE Monday, February 23 Steven Epstein, Speaking of Slavery: Color Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy (Cornell UP, 2001), pp Thursday, February 26 Matteo Bandello, Novelle III, 21 and IV, 12. Monday, March 2 1. Giambattista Giraldi, Hecatommithi Dedication to the third deca and novella III, 7 2. Jane Fair Bestor, Titian s Portrait of Laura Eustochia: the Decorum of Female Beauty and the Motif of the Black Page, Renaissance Studies 17.4 (2003), pp Karina Attar, Genealogy of a Character: A Reading of Giraldi s Moor, in Shakespeare in Venice (London: Ashgate, 2009) Thursday, March 5 1. Dorothee Metlitzki, The Matter of Araby in Medieval England (New Haven: Yale UP, 1977), sections in ch 6: History and Romance, on The Marriage Theme as a Portrayal of Christian-Muslim Relations, The Treatment of the Saracens in the English Medieval Romances, and The Converted Saracen, pp Jacqueline de Weever, Sheba s Daughters: Whitening and Demonizing the Saracen Woman in Medieval French Epic (London: Routledge, 1998), ch 3: Subversion of Treachery and the Beautiful Easterner, pp Sharon Kinoshita, Medieval Boundaries: Rethinking Difference in Old French Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), ch 6: The Romance of Miscegenation: Negotiating Identities in La filled du Comte de Ponthieu, pp Monday, March 9

6 1. Agnolo Firenzuola, Ragionamenti, first novella 2. Selections from Torquato Tasso s Gerusalemme Liberata: Clorinda and Erminia episodes 3. David Quint, Why is Clorinda an Ethiopian? from Epic and Empire (Princeton UP, 1993), pp Thursday, Match 12 SECOND PAPER DRAFT DUE Peer Review workshop Monday, March 16 SECOND PAPER FINAL VERSION DUE Thursday, March 19 Robert Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, trans. Anthony Oldcorn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. ix-98 Monday, March 23 Robert Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, pp Thursday, March Robert Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, pp Robert Melzi, The Flight of the Jews into Italy and the Testimony of Some Italian Renaissance Plays, Annali d italianistica 14 (1996), pp Monday, March Selections from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215AD) 2. Guido Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (Oxford UP, 1985), ch4: Sex Crimes Against God, pp Diane Owen-Hughes, Distinguishing Signs: Ear-rings, Jews, and Franciscan Rhetoric in the Italian Renaissance City, Past and Present 112 (1986), 3-59 Thursday, April 2 1. Pietro Fortini, Le giornate delle novelle de novizi, novella Karina Attar, Prohibited Discourse and Prohibitive Relations: Pietro Fortini s Novella of Christian-Jewish Love, in Sex Acts: Practice, Performance, Perversion and Punishment in Early Modern Europe, ed. Allison Levy (London: Ashgate, 2009). 3. Karina Attar, Discorso proibito e relazioni illecite: Pietro Fortini e la novella dell amore cristiano ebraico, in Sesso nel Rinascimento: pratica, perversione e punizione nell'italia rinascimentale (Florence: Le Lettere, 2009). Monday, April 6 1. Cesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus miraculorum, Ch 2, miracle Pietro Fortini, Le piacevoli e amorose notti de novizi, El nuovo messia Wednesday, April 8- Friday, April 17 Spring Break

7 Monday, April Sarah Copio Sullam, La bella ebrea (The beautiful Jewess) and Manifesto sull immortalità dell anima (Manifesto on the Immortality of the Soul) 2. Howard Tzvi Adelman, Jewish Women and Family Life, Inside and Outside the Ghetto, in The Jews of Early Modern Venice, eds. Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001), pp Thursday, April 23 Dana Katz, The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), pp Monday, April 27 Dana Katz, The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance, pp OUTLINE OF FINAL PAPER DUE Thursday, April 30 Selections from Are Italians White? How Race is Made in America, eds. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno (Routledge, 2003): Jennifer Guglielmo, Introduction, pp. 1-14; Gerald Meyer, When Frank Sinatra Came to Harlem: the 1945 Race Riot at Benjamin Franklin High School, pp ; Kym Ragusa, Sangu du Sangu Meu: Growing Up Black and Italian in a Time of White Flight, pp Monday, May 4 FINAL PAPER DUE Selections from Are Italians White? Edvige Giunta, Figuring Race, pp ; John Gennari, Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito: Life in the Borderlands, pp ; Ronnie Mae Painter and Rosette Capotorto, Italiani / Africani, pp Thursday, May 7 Immigration in present-day Italy: group research project Monday, May 11 Immigration in present-day Italy: group research project Thursday, May 14 Review for the final Saturday, May 16- Tuesday, May 26 Final exams