ISBN: PB: 9780300124958

Yale University Press

April 2009

288 pp.

25,4x17,8 cm

PB:
£36.00
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Trame

A Contemporary Italian Reader

"Trame: A Contemporary Italian Reader" brings together short stories, poems, interviews, excerpts from movie scripts and novels, and other works by 33 renowned authors. The readings cover familiar themes – youth, family, immigration, politics, women's voices, identity – from the fresh perspective of a new generation of Italian writers. By presenting a rich array of materials and many points of view, "Trame" highlights the cultural complexity of contemporary Italy. Each text is accompanied by a diverse selection of activities and exercises that help students read authentic texts and build their language skills. These include: pre-reading activities that introduce important themes; vocabulary lists with definitions in Italian; writing exercises; and, post-reading activities in discussion and analysis. With its range of readings and exercises, "Trame" is designed to be easily adaptable to instructors' different needs and class levels. It is ideally suited to high-intermediate and advanced Italian language and culture courses.

About the author

Cristina Abbona-Sneider is lecturer and director of Italian Language Studies at Brown University.

Antonello Borra is associate professor of Italian at University of Vermont.

Cristina Pausini is lecturer at Wellesley College.

Reviews

"I have really enjoyed teaching third-year Italian students with 'Trame: A Contemporary Italian Reader'. The short stories, passages from novels, films scripts, poems, and journalistic pieces anthologized here offer a wide array of themes and levels of linguistic sophistication. The pre-reading activities are engaging, and the post-reading questions are really well done and provoke good discussions. I expect to teach with Trame for years to come" – Jonathan Druker, Illinois State University

"The use of the ACTFL standards in designing the reader was a welcome one...The choice of purely modern Italian readings fills a void... [I]t would be well suited to courses in composition and grammar as well as in advanced conversation courses. In terms of using the reader as a standalone text, there is plenty of material for it to be used in that capacity with grammatical points being addressed by the instructor as they arise... One of the strongest features of Trame is the inclusion of the note culturali ('cultural notes') which help students frame the text by including the context. It is clear that the editors took great care in the organization of the reader, the exercises, and their suggestions for pedagogical considerations... The editors also choose an excellent variety of issues to address in terms of content and genre, e.g., short stories, interviews, and poems. Perhaps the strongest aspect of the text is the overall pedagogy of the presentation that allows for in-depth coverage, higher-order thinking skills, and opportunities for instructors to evaluate" – Christopher D. Sams