This course continues to develop students' communication competence in Italian through practice in the recognition, analysis and production - especially written - of formal registers and structures of the language. The course also outlines Italian linguistics history, Italy's dialects and today's neo-standard Italian. Texts will be studied in relation to their socio-cultural, historical and genre framework within thematic areas of inquiry. The course aims to refine students' analytical skills as well as their imaginative writing ability.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. Analyse different processes at work in imaginative texts.
2. Demonstrate different complex features of a text. 
3. Identify higher level structural patterns (e.g., grammar, lexicon, vocabulary) of a text. 
4. Demonstrate increasing grasp of the ‘invisible culture' or hidden meanings within words and grammatical structures.
5. Analyse and critique different types and versions of Italian texts to demonstrate increasing socio-historical and linguistic context  on Italian society.
6. Critically engage with the voice of the author or director of a text/film.
7. Construct creative or imaginative texts.
8. Construct imaginative or creative texts of your own, both individually and collectively.

Graduate students may attend joint classes with undergraduates. Assessment will include additional assignment work and a research essay.