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This course is designed for both sociology and Italian studies students and will be divided into two parts: the modern Italian family and the historical development of the Italian family from Roman times to present. The course will give students the opportunity to have a greater understanding of the Italian people.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed for both sociology and Italian studies students and will be divided into two parts. The first part of the course will focus on the modern Italian family. The role of each member of the family will be explored in-depth. Topics of discussion will include the role of the mother and how it has changed over the last century; the roll that grandparents play in child rearing; the change from extended family to nuclear family; the declining birth rate and the effect it is having on family dynamic; regional as well as socioeconomic influences on the structure of the family nucleus will be studied. The second part will give background to the historical development of the Italian family from Roman Times to present. The Patriarchal system that began in Roman times and endured into the twentieth century will be explored. The course will give students the opportunity to have a greater understanding of the Italian people.
In addition, students compare and discuss how their family dynamics and structures differ from those of the Italian family. Students will interview native Italians to gain a greater more personal understanding of the subject. Videos and museum visits form an integral part of this course.
COURSE RATIONALE
The course is particularly recommended to all those students who want to understand in depth the Italian family in all its aspects and traditions. The subject of each class will be developed through the teacher’s explanations, readings, movies and several interviews with Italian people. Students will be frequently expected to take an active part in class, especially in the discussions, which follow readings or movies.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The course seeks to provide students a knowledge about life, traditions and customs of the typical Italian family.
REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS
The course has one mandatory course-package: “The Italian Family” edited by the instructor.
Other suggested readings:
- David Kertzer & Richard P. Saller The Family in Italy:from Antiquity to the Present, Yale Univ Press
- William Ward Getting it right in Italy: a manual for the 1990’s Bloom
- Paola Bono & Sandra Kemp Italian Feminist Thought, Blackwell
- Richard Charles, The New Italians,Penguin
- Mario B. Mignone, Italy today, Peter Lang Publishing
- Carolyn Pope Edwards, Lella Gandini - Bambini The Italian Approach to Infant Toddler/care Teachers College Columbia Univ New York and London
- Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler - The Italian American family Album
- Tim Parks An Italian Education Minerva
- Tim Parks Italian Neighbors, Minerva
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