Italian

Italy, as a geographic location, has the longest recorded history of espionage and intelligence practice in the Western world. A complete and comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the intelligence services of Italy, from its unification as a set of foreign-ruled city-states t…

All of the black images which I examine can best be explained in terms of their relationship to Italians' perception of their personal power or their power on a national level, for example I critique the use of Africa and Africans in Fascist films, especially with regard to the …

This study investigates language use, language acquisition, and identity construction among Senegalese immigrants in Paris and Rome. Whereas previous research in second language acquisition (SLA) has focused on the relationship between identity and language use in single sites, …

Imagination, love, reason: these three elements come together in a delicate balance to form the workings of the human mind. This dissertation explores these concepts and their intricate relationship as portrayed in key writings of Italian literature. I focus on authors of the It…

In this dissertation, adult learners' accessibility to Universal Grammar is tested by verifying knowledge of movement constraints in L2 English. We investigate the treatment of wh-questions in English by three groups of adult learners whose native languages vary in whether or no…

During the twelfth century, a group of poets at the Norman court in Sicily composed traditional Arabic panegyrics in praise of the kingdoms Christian monarchs. Less than a century later, at the court of Frederick II, Sicilian poets wrote the first lyric love poetry in an Italian…

Most of Dante's literary criticism has traditionally been rooted in the cultural fabric of Christian and Classical scholarship. Not enough has been said about non-Christian influences on Dante and more specifically, about his interaction with the deep and significant presence of…

This study deals with the works of F. T. Marinetti between 1898 and 1938, giving special emphasis to the years 1909 to 1920, covering the 'periods eroico' of Futurism. I seek to illuminate the special relationship between Marinetti and Futurism which is the central topic of this…

My dissertation examines, within Fascist propagandist literature and cinema of the 1930s, the hybrid figures of mulattoes--the offspring of interracial unions between Italian men and native women of Italy's African colonies--and Levantines--white Italian immigrant merchants and …

Later medieval university physicians in Italy enjoyed recognition and high esteem as intellectuals. Still we know little about their speculations on the soul and its relationship to the body. The dissertation examines how, in the period 1270--1400, medical theorists writing at u…

Italy's modern empire, a modest collection of colonies and concessions on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, lasted roughly from 1896 to 1949. The empire's character reflected problems Italy faced as a young nation, including high emigration, a weak military, and a disadvantageo…