Department of French and Italian

Prerequisite: FRIT-M 300 or FRIT-M 301; or consent of instructor

After the second world war and the subsequent economic miracle, a new wave of singer-songwriters emerged in Italy. Combining literary allusions with international music influences such as the French chansonniers and American singer-songwriters, the songs by the cantautori engaged with the contradictions of contemporary society, reflecting upon the meaning of art, human morality, and politics. This course offers an overview of the Italian cantautori and their production as a byproduct of and response to specific regional and historical contexts, paying particular attention to each song’s literary, social, and musical references. We will explore the social and political history of Italy in the 20th century and use the techniques of literary analysis to examine lyrics, while also considering the entire musical compositions. Each unit of the course will focus on a specific album, analyzed, like a medieval songbook, as a collection in which each song is simultaneously an individual unit and an essential part of a whole. Taught in Italian.

FRIT-M 322   #13622    12:45P-2:00P      MW           BH 214         Prof. Filippo Petricca

• A&H
• GCC
• What are CASE requirements?