Italian Studies
Guide for summer reading and preparation
Language:
Students are not expected to do any language preparation, however students who wish to refresh their knowledge or familiarise themselves with the language are advised to look at:
Nocchi, Susanna, New Italian Grammar in Practice: Exercises, Tests, Games. Alma Edizioni 2015 (ISBN 9788861824287).
Lia Proietti & Cinzia Ciulli, Da zero a cento. Alma Edizioni, 2005 (ISBN 9788889237038)
Nanni-Tate, Paola, Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verb Tenses 2/E (EBOOK): With 300 Exercises + Free Flashcard App. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2013 (ISBN 9780071804509)
Free interactive exercises on:
Learning apps https://learningapps.org/index.php?category=89&subcategory=44230&s= (grammar, reading, vocabulary, listening and comprehension from level A2)
Casa delle Lingue https://www.cdl-edizioni.com/esercizi-interattivi/ (from A1 to B1)
Watch videos on ALMA TV https://www.almaedizioni.it/it/almatv/ to develop your listening and comprehension skills (in particular the series ‘In viaggio con Sara’; ‘Città Italiane nel mondo’)
TV Shows in Italian:
Watch news programmes on the Italian TV channel La 7 https://www.la7.it/dirette-tv
Music:
You can create your free account on https://lyricstraining.com/it/ and learn Italian through music and the lyrics of your favourite songs.
Some suggestions for reading:
Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words (London: Bloomsbury, 2007). How do you go from being a complete beginner to writing a national best-seller in Italian? This dual-language book (in English and Italian) tells of the author’s passion and determination to learn Italian. This book should give you lots of motivation as well as some useful tips for language learning.
The Penguin parallel texts books are also excellent for beginners of Italian. They include several short stories with the Italian on one page and the English translation on the opposite page. Highly recommended if you want an introduction to Italian language and literature without having to read an entire novel.
Keep up to date with Italian news:
Corriere della sera: www.corriere.it
La Repubblica: www.repubblica.it
Il Post: https://www.ilpost.it/
Internazionale: https://www.internazionale.it/
Preparation for Italian Cultural Module
Those of you taking an Italian single honours or joint degree will take IT116-30 Introducing Italy: Local and Global Perspectives. Those of you taking Italian as part of a 2 or 3-language degree can choose whether to take your cultural module in Italian or in one of your other language areas. IT116 looks at how we define Italy and what we mean by Italian culture and identity. It examines how Italian identities have been formed through interaction with other cultures through mobility and migration and how Italian thought and culture has shaped the world around us from medieval times to the present day. We trace the development of a standard Italian language and its relationship with dialects and local identities and examine the processes leading to the establishment of an Italian nation state. We will consider internal diversity within Italy (regional and linguistic diversity, ethnic diversity, gender and sexuality), before moving on to look at Italy's cultural influence globally, fro anglophone receptions of Dante's Divine Comedy and the influence of Renaissance thought in Europe, to stardom in Italian film.
You don’t have to do any preparation before you arrive, but if you would like to get a head-start or read around the subject, there are some suggestions below. If you have any questions, please email Jo.lee@warwick.ac.uk
General Reading: History, Politics and Literature
These two ‘Very Short Introduction’ books are a good place to start:
Anna Cento Bull, Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2016)
Peter Hainsworth and David Robey, Italian Literature: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012).
For an overview of modern Italian history:
Christopher Duggan The Force of Destiny: a History of Italy since 1796 (Penguin, 2008)
Fiction
Natalia Ginzburg, Le voci della sera [Voices in the evening] (1961). A novel by one of Italy's most celebrated writers, Le voci della sera explores family relationships and social change in a small town in post-war Italy. We will be studying this text in term 2.
Thea Lenarduzzi, Dandelions (London: Fitzcarraldo, 2022). A family memoir of migration between Italy and the UK. We'll be studying this novel in term 2, and it will be of particular interest to anyone with a family connection to Italy.
Amara Lahkous, Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Rome: Edizioni e/o, 2006). Translated into English as Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio. We won’t be studying this novel this year, but it is an entertaining work of detective fiction set in multicultural Rome.
Enrico Brizzi, Jack Frusciante e uscito dal gruppo (Transeuropa, 1994). Translated into English as Jack Frusciante has left the band. We won’t be studying this, but it is one of the most successful Italian novels of recent decades so you might be interested in reading it.
Suggested Films:
La dolce vita, Federico Fellini (1960)
Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese (2011)
I cento passi, Marco Tullio Giordano (2000)
Chiamami col tuo nome, Luca Guadagnino (2017)