Self-isolation doesn't have to be boring! Get ready for first year study with these suggestions from our academics
Looking to get yourself ready for first year study? Have a look through the following list of recommendations of things to read, listen to and watch from the School of Cultures and Languages.
Taster lectures
- Dr Alvise Sforza Tarabochia, Lecturer in Italian and Head of the Department of Modern Languages, discusses how Pinocchio, a “champion of Italianness”, escaped the constraints of his own narrative frame to become a late addition to the pantheon of fairytale characters.
- Dr Alex Marlow-Mann, Lecturer in Italian, explores how film has been used to persuade, indoctrinate, and convey political messages.
Our favourites: TV SERIES on Netflix!
In 2008, a fight over land in a seaside town near Rome spirals into a deadly battle between organised crime, corrupt politicians and the Vatican.
Ciro disregards tradition in his attempt to become the next boss of his crime syndicate. The internal power struggle puts him and his entire family’s life at risk.
Story of Roman teenagers on their journey of self-discovery.
Our favourites: FILMS
La vita è bella (Nextflix DVD)
When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humour, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
La grande bellezza (Netflix DVD)
Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
A gangster known as “Samurai” wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.
Scampia Vele is the corbusian architecture which has become a stronghold for Mafia of Naples, Italy.
Two quite different women escape a mental institution to see Tuscany in a stolen car and get to know each other.
In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father’s research assistant.
A Mr. No One is mistakenly elected President of the Italian Republic.
The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
Podcasts and educational websites
Listen to free podcasts and learn or improve your Italian on the go, where and when it suits you.
Migliora il tuo italiano e scopri aspetti affascinanti della vita in Italia con La bottega di Babbel!
News in Slow Italian Learn Italian with streaming news, and culture!
Dr Wissia Fiorucci, Modern Languages Coordinator and Director of Education, talks about the challenges and rewards of learning languages:
Italian newspapers:
La Gazzetta dello Sport (news on sport from Italy and from the world)
Ansa.it (news from Italy and from the world)
Other reading:
Anna Cento Bull, Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction
Questions of Identity. Extract from John Hooper, The Italians (Penguin, 2015), pp.264-281.
Rose Smith, a student in Italian, talks about her experiences as a Kent student:
CANTANTI
Canonical Singers and songwriters: Giorgio Gaber, Francesco Guccini, Francesco De Gregori, Roberto Vecchioni, Simone Cristicchi, Zucchero.
Recent trends: Coez, Mahmood, Levante, Ghali, Thegiornalisti, Calcutta, Ultimo, Fedez, J-AX, Baby K, Sfera Ebbasta, Fabri Fibra, Carl Brave, Francesca Michielin, Gazzelle
And some of our favourites:
- Fabrizio De Andrè was an Italian singer-songwriter. Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, left-libertarianism and pacifism, his songs often featured marginalised and rebellious people, and attacked the Catholic Church hierarchy
- Mina combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her the most versatile pop singer in Italian music. Mina dominated the country’s charts for 15 years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity. She has scored 79 albums and 71 singles on the Italian charts.
- Negrita are one of the most influential bands in the Italian music panorama of the past decades.
- Subsonica is an Italian rock band that was formed in 1996 in Turin.Their eponymous debut album was released in the spring of 1997. The band gained significant success in 2000 by playing the Sanremo Music Festival. The first two singles from the album Microchip emozionale, “Tutti i miei sbagli” (“All my mistakes”) and “Discolabirinto” (“Discolabyrinth”) were hits. In their career, they have produced 8 studio albums and sold nearly around 400,000 CDs.
- Negroamaro is an Italian pop band formed in 1999 and successful since 2005. Their name stems from Negroamaro, a wine produced in their native district, Salento in Apulia.
- They became known more widely in 2005 thanks to the Festival di Sanremo.
- Sonohra is an Italian duo constituted by the brothers Diego and Luca Fainello, native to the city of Verona. They were winners of the edition 2008 of the Young section of Festival of Sanremo.
- Modà is an Italian pop band from Milan. Formed in 2002, the band currently consists of lead singer Kekko Silvestre, guitarists Diego Arrigoni and Enrico Zapparoli, bass guitarist Stefano Forcella and drummer Claudio Dirani.
- Lunapop was an Italian pop rock music group active between 1999 and 2001. Lùnapop released its lone full length Italian-language album, …Squérez?, in 1999. Lùnapop was also nominated for a 2000 MTV Europe Music Award, and won the 2000 Festivalbar award with their single “Qualcosa di grande”.
- Vasco Rossi (born 7 February 1952), also known as Vasco or with the nickname Il Blasco, is an Italian singer-songwriter. With more than 35 millions of copies sold, he is one of the best-selling Italian singers.
- During his career, he has published 30 albums (not including unofficial releases) and has written over 250 songs, as well as lyrics for other artists. He calls himself a provocautore (an Italian portmanteau for “provoking author”) as throughout his career he has been regularly criticised over his choice of lifestyle and the lyrics in his songs.
- Ligabue is a popular Italian singer and songwriter, one of the most successful Italian rock stars!
- Tiziano Ferro (Italian pronunciation: [titˈtsjaːno ˈfɛrro]; born 21 February 1980) is an Italian singer-songwriter, producer and author. He broke through in 2001 with his international hit single “Perdono“. Ferro has released a Spanish version of each of his albums, and has also sung in English, Portuguese, and French. Known as the modern face of Italian pop music, he frequently writes songs for other artists and has produced albums for Giusy Ferreri, Alessandra Amoroso and Baby K.
- Filippo Neviani (born 6 January 1972), known by his stage name Nek, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. Nek is popular in Italy and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and has performed and released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. Nek first gained international success in 1997, when he took part in the Sanremo Music Festival in the Big Artists section, and although he didn’t win, the song “Laura non-c’è” (in Spanish: “Laura no está”) went on to become his international breakthrough as it became a major hit in Europe and Latin America.
- Laura Pausini (Italian: [ˈlaura pauˈziːni]; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer-songwriter, record producer and television personality. As a child, she was encouraged by her father to join him during his performances in local piano bars. After competing in local singing contests, Pausini signed her first recording contract. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists’ section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single “La solitudine“, which became an Italian standard and an international hit, topping charts across Europe. She later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide
- Eros Ramazzotti (Italian: [ˈɛːroz ˈvalter luˈtʃaːno ramatˈtsɔtti]; born 28 October 1963) is an Italian musician, singer and songwriter. Ramazzotti is popular in Italy and most European countries, and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, as he has released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. He has sold over 60 million records in his 30-year career.
Orla Cura, a student in English and American Literature and Italian, talks about her experiences at Kent: