Italian Children’s Literature and Culture
F05
Roberto de Lucca
Filastrocche (nursery rhymes), ninne nanne (lullabies), indovinelli (riddles), and stories for children are subgenres that involve wordplay, experimentation, and fantasy. Italians use these forms to describe the universals of birth, parenthood, the seasons, holidays, and so on. In this course, we look at Italian culture—the family, children, and education —through these forms, developing practical speaking and writing needs with topics related to personal and familial experience. Students will write about the forms and their cultural meanings as well as produce their own short versions. This course requires individual projects in which students will produce and explain their own written works.