italy through italian film giuseppe (pino) losacco, ph.d duquesne university, rome campus

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Italy Through Italian FilmGiuseppe (Pino) Losacco, Ph.D

Duquesne University, Rome CampusEmail address: losacco@spbo.unibo.it

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Required book:Italian Cinema from Neorealism to the Present, Peter Bondanella. 1999. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company.

Suggested Reading:Italian National Cinema, Pierre Sorlin. 1996. New York: Routledge.

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paper: 400 words

Final evaluation: Movie quiz = 10%Papers = 20%Photographic project = 10%Midterm exam = 30%Final exam = 30%

Mid Term and Final : open-ended questions

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TAUTOLOGY – ANALOGY – METAPHOR - SYMBOL

Tautology: X = X (obvious meaning)

Analogy : Y mean X (suggested meaning)

Metaphor : Z = Y = X (suggested meaning)

Symbol : X =Y (well-known meaning)

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MARSHALL MCLUHAN(1911-1980)

MEDIUM IS MESSAGE

MEDIUM IS MASSAGE

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology is the study of individuals in group

circumstances.

You might chose to describe how individual in the film represent social groups, such as: social

class, family, friendship units, gangs, voluntary organizations, inmates of total institutions.

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology is the study of social rituals, which are usually thought in terms of

how they integrate social groups.

What ritual are portrayed in the film? How are they portrayed? What seems to be their social functions? How

are they different than similar rituals you have experienced?

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology is the study of social conflict.

What are the social rather than individual bases of conflicts? In other words, how di the conflict

represent struggles between groups rather than individuals? How are these conflicts resolved? What

new social configurations are created through the resolution of these conflicts?

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology is the study of roles and statuses and how they are played out in

the field of personality.

Many Italian films explore how social roles are in conflict with the inner qualities we call personalities. Social roles are social creations. We know how to act because our

social roles provide scripts. These scripts cause us anxiety as well as security. In times of crisis they might

cause us a great deal of discomfort. Resolving the tensions between these two dimensions of human

existence makes good film.

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology is the study of the social construction of reality

This perspective explores such themes as the social basis of perception and categorization; the social

construction of such taken for granted elements of life as time, gender, and age; the social nature of categorization

generally; and the quality of life in a post-modern age.

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How to write a sociology paper on a film: instructions, hints and suggestions

Sociology explores how communication is constructed and accomplished.

I encourage you to write about the film communicates: dissect scene; analyse camera work; discuss the impact

of the soundtrack; look for the way in which the latent message is expressed.