Antonello Borra – författare

This supplementary text for elementary to intermediate courses in Italian is structured around stimulating discussions of ten contemporary Italian films, among them Cinema Paradiso, La vita e bella, Mediterraneo, and Il postino. With a chapter devoted to each movie, the book effectively fosters a deeper understanding of both Italian language and culture, and it is adaptable for any level of language instruction.Italian Through Film features: Films that are easily available from school video libraries or from video stores;Pre-viewing, viewing, and post-viewing activities appropriate to the various films in each chapter;Grammar review, vocabulary in context, listening comprehension, cultural and historical background, and discussion questions for language practice;Exercises ranging in difficulty from elementary to highly sophisticated that are designed to enhance students’ vocabulary and cultural awareness as well as oral and written skills;Boxed sections that provide information about the movie, director, plot, and certain cultural aspects specific to each movie;Lists of Internet-based activities that expand aspects of each movie by exploring Italian websites.

Guittone d’Arezzo (ca. 1230-1294) was the most important, prolific, and influential poet and prose writer of the thirteenth century. Unfortunately, his work has been overshadowed by his successor; the more learned and gifted Dante Alighieri. The poems and prose included in this volume are emblematic of the two phases of Guittone’s career: he first achieved fame as a secular love poet but following his conversion in the 1260s he became a renowned religious poet. Guittone’s artistic reputation commanded the highest respect. Even Dante’s beloved Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti never enjoyed any such fame in their lifetime. Antonello Borra presents a critical introduction to Guittone’s works with a selection of his poems and letters in facing-page Italian and English translation. While Dante repeatedly condemned Guittone, recent scholarship has re-evaluated his importance and placed his work in the context of his predecessors, the Provençal troubadours and the poets of the Sicilian school. This latest volume in the Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library contains the first significant edition of Guittone’s works available in English translation.