ITL 312E — Modern Italian Theater
Taught in English, this course will engage students in reading, analyzing, and discussing selected Italian plays from the 18th to the 20th century, focusing on seminal authors, such as Goldoni, Marinetti, Pirandello, Ginzburg, Maraini and Fo. The aim is to provide an introduction to the history of Italian Theater, spanning from the decline of the Commedia dell’Arte to Naturalism and the questioning of the conventional stage. We will address some crucial cultural issues, such as the rural poetics of Verismo, the crisis of bourgeois values, the artistic avant-garde and the clutches of the Fascist censorship, up to the raise of female authorship and political theater in contemporary Italian theater.