University of Calgary

Major in Italian Studies

Why Study Italian?

  • Since Roman times, Italy has been an exporter of civilization: knowing Italian allows you to appreciate a treasury of human expression
  • According to UNESCO, over 60% of the world's art treasures are found in Italy. Artists such as Giotto, Michelangelo and Artemisia Gentileschi, among many others, were Italian
  • Italian literature boasts some of the world's most famous writers-Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Gaspara Stampa, Vittoria Colonna, Machiavelli, Italo Calvino, Pier Paolo Pasolini, elsa Morante and Umberto Eco, to name a few
  • Italy has been a pioneer in many scientific fields -think of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Guglielmo Marconi, Maria Montessori and Rita Levi-Montalcini
  • The performing arts have received significant contributions from Italian musicians, playwrights and directors, e.g. Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Verdi, Dario Fo, Luigi Pirandello, Eleonora Duse and Tina Modotti
  • Italy has produced adventurous explorers like Marco Polo, Columbus, John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America was named
  • Italy was one of the founding members of the European Common Market (Treaty of Rome, 1957), which has developed into the European Union
  • Italy is one of the top five economies in the world and a member of the G7 group
  • Knowing Italian is very advantageous in several career fields-the culinary arts, music, design, fashion, manufacturing, electromechanical machinery, shipbuilding, space engineering, transportation equipment
  • Owing to the preeminence of Italy in many fields, Italian words-such as crescendo, pizza, fresco and studio-are present in numerous languages
  • Emigration has made Italian one of the languages most widely spoken outside Europe

A Major in Italian is a good options if you are specializing in a Romance language or disciplines for which knowledge about Italian language and culture is important.

We offer a comprehensive range of courses in Italian. Most of them have an interdisciplinary focus and draw on comparative literature, art, cinema, history, media and cultural studies. They have in common close, professional supervision; healthy instructor/student ratio; and the assurance that our students become proficient in the language and attain a thorough understanding of the culture it reflects.

Students admitted to the Major program are required to take at least 14 half-course equivalents to complete the program. They will take at least the following ten half courses in Italian:
- ITALIAN 201-203
- ITALIAN 301/303 and two of 305, 307 or 309
- ITALIAN 401/403
- ITALIAN 501/503

The remaining four half-course equivalents can be taken in Romance Studies courses (to a maximum of two half-course equivalents), or in courses offered by other Departments (to a maximum of two half-course equivalents) with the previous approval of the Department of French, Italian and Spanish.

- Romance Studies
ROST 299, 341, 399, 409

- Other Courses
*Art History (ARHI 327, 329, 357) ; Greek and Roman Studies (GRST 209, 315, 327, 345); Music History and Literature (MUHL 209, 211); Religious Studies (RELS 383)

*Courses fulfilling this requirement must be approved by the Department. Please consult with the Undergraduate Advisor for Italian, Dr. Kenneth Brown.

Note: A student with advanced placement is required to begin with a higher level course, and must substitute approved courses for those language courses not required. At least half of the minimum requirements must be completed at the University of Calgary.

Reading list
Majors in italian will have read at least one (selected readings) Italian classic, these among others:
Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Gaspara Stampa, Rime
Sibilla Aleramo, Una donna
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi
Italo Calvino, Marcovaldo
Elsa Morante, L'isola di Arturo
Gianni Rodari, Favole al telefono
Leonardo Sciascia, Una storia semplice

 

Did you know...?

According to Statistics Canada, Italian is the fourth most widely spoken language in this country after English, French and Chinese