Amaryllis Rodriguez, Visiting Assistant Professor
Romance Studies

Italian 103 is devoted to the study of Italian comedy and the Italian sense of humor. During the Renaissance that Italian dramatists were able to establish a pioneering comic tradition that is still very much alive within the Italian society today, the Commedia dell’Arte. This comic style— and the masks that are integral to it, was studied and mastered by renowned actors such as Totu, Sordi and Benigni. It was designed through rules, which dictated particular and precise characteristics e.g. long and repetitive physical movement, language games and curious behaviors. These principles became important canons influencing the European concept of comedy with regards to both form and structure.

In contemporary drama, some of these rules have been enhanced to include movie special effects. As part of our exploration of this phenomenon, each student in the course will create short (2-4 minutes) video projects, each incorporating and demonstrating each one of these three elements: movement, behavior and the use of language. Students will produce these short films three times during the semester. Each exercise will provide the members of the class to provide peer feedback and comment on their own work, and to recognize— through a new and personal perspective — the challenges inherent in creating comedy in Italian.

Share This

Issues of education and immigration

Joan Clifford, Visiting Assistant Professor
Romance Studies

Project Description

In Fall 2006, students in Spanish 106C explored issues of cultural assimilation, literacy, and access to educational opportunities for the growing Latino community in the United States. They used iPods with microphone attachments to record observations from their service learning experiences. Students in this course were asked to listen to archived interviews with Spanish-speakers in the community, which facilitated listening comprehension practice, provided exposure to authentic speech patterns and accents, and also allowed the instructor to disseminate content to the students outside of class.

The project involved Duke students interviewing Latino/a students and parents at Jordan High School about their experiences within Durham Public Schools. These testimonials provided additional information to further the insights gained last year with a written survey. The video and audio components of the iPods were used in the production and editing of the interviews. Duke students also continued to use their iPods to record their own audio journals reflecting on their service at the high school.

Project start date: August 1, 2006

Share This