This textbook for intermediate to advanced level Italian courses employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore the culture of the southern Italian region from 1935 to the present. It is structured around Carlo Levi, a 20th century writer, painter and social activist, and it includes excerpts from his classic novel, “Christ Stopped at Eboli.” Historical and cultural information that pertain to the novel and images of Levi's paintings are interwoven to encourage students to connect literature, art, and film in ways that are designed to sharpen their critical thinking skills, as well as their language skills.

This textbook for intermediate to advanced level Italian courses employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore the culture of the southern Italian region from 1935 to the present. It is structured around Carlo Levi, a 20th-century writer, painter and social activist, and it includes excerpts from his classic novel, Christ Stopped at Eboli. Historical and cultural information that pertain to the novel and images of Levi's paintings are interwoven to encourage students to connect literature, art, and film in ways that are designed to sharpen their critical thinking skills, as well as their language skills.

Review
“This book”“is an advanced-level, Italian-language textbook based on the literary and visual artistic work of Carlo Levi, namely, that associated with his acclaimed novel, ”Christ Stopped at Eboli", and his ten-month exile to the southern Italian region of Basilicata (also known as Lucania) during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. . . . This book makes a valuable contribution for all advanced students of Italian in that it presents another side to the story of Italy's history and development, namely that of its southern region. This is especially important given the large percentage of Southern Italians who immigrated to America at the end of the nineteenth-early twentieth century, a theme also treated in the book./i>—John Ryan, University of Northern Colorado“eLanguage: Digital Publishing in Linguistics” (06/28/2012)

Daniela Bartalesi-Graf teaches courses in Italian language and culture at Tufts University.