Italian Cultural Studies

ITAL10300 Italian Cultural Studies 20 Full year Undergraduate Level 1 Francesca Billiani Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' First part HE study/Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 This course unit is designed to provide an introduction to the culture and society of contemporary Italy in the post-war period, with the particular aim of identifying and challenging traditional stereotypes. In Semester 1 the course identifies the major political, economic, and social changes which have affected Italy since the Second World War. In Semester 2 we begin to consider how we make sense of the process of Italian cultural production in multiple media and across multiple centuries, from the medieval and Renaissance period to the modern era, directing our attention towards the study and interpretation of different kinds texts (poetic, narrative, and filmic) created in this cultural context. Weekly lectures are accompanied by a fortnightly tutorial. Alternate tutorial hours, with associated formative assessment, will be devoted to (i) discussion of specific chapters of set texts and pre-circulated reading studied in connection with the themes of the course unit, and (ii) the rhetoric of everyday texts, designed to familiarize students with the way in which the Italian language operates at levels beyond the sentence.In Semester 1, Contemporary Italy, the course identifies the major political, economic, and social changes which have affected Italy since the Second World War, providing introductions to themes such as the problematic question of Italian national identity, the complexities of Italian politics, the family as a societal structure, issues of gender and regional diversity, and the cinema and culture industry. In Semester 2, Fictional Forms, the emphasis will move beyond the examination of the key social, political and cultural components which helped constitute, or question, the construction of an Italian national identity in the post-war period, to consider how we can best begin to make sense of the process of cultural production through multiple media and across multiple centuries, from the medieval to the modern era. In this context cultural production covers a whole variety of forms of making - textual, visual, filmic, architectural - which resulted in the production of epic poems, short stories, iconic paintings, buildings, films and photographs. Learning to analyse how they were constructed is the first step in trying to understand or interpret them. In order to make sense of these cultural ‘texts’, we need to develop strategies which enable us to read them in order to begin rendering them meaningful, in the literal sense of ‘full of meaning.’ Our aim in this unit is to further develop some of the critical tools needed to undertake this process of cultural criticism in relation to Italy’s cultural patrimony through examining a variety of such ‘texts’ and cultural forms.  The principal aims of the course unit are as follows:<ul> <li> To develop knowledge and understanding of post-war Italian culture and society, along with modern and premodern cultural production.</li> <li> To develop critical thinking and higher order conceptual reasoning and analytical skills</li> <li> To equip students with working definition for key concepts in the Italian context: ‘nation’, ‘ideology’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘canon’, etc.</li> <li> To enable to students to analyse and interrogate a variety of forms of cultural production.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> Apply their analytical skills to render Italian texts, films, and other forms of cultural representation meaningful</li> <li> Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of some of the major aspects of national and cultural identity in Italy in the modern period.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> Engage in independent reflection and enquiry.</li> <li> Engage in the discussion and critical evaluation of Italian cultural production</li> <li> Use empirical evidence to support synthetic conclusions and interpretations</li> <li> Analyse a body of data and provide a synthesis of the most relevant findings.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> Use library, electronic, and on-line research resources</li> <li> Follow correct citation procedure for the professional presentation of academic writing</li> <li> Build argumentative frameworks for the analysis of cultural artefacts</li> <li> Carry out individual research and select material judiciously</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> Engage in independent reflection and enquiry.</li> <li> Write a report on a piece of original research.</li> <li> Engage in group discussion (both in the class and online).</li> <li> Work as part of a team.</li></ul><div>  </div>  Other The course will have particular benefits for any student interested in pursuing a career in teaching and learning, diversity and identity management. The course enhances skills of analysis, synthesis, oral presentation, and written reporting. The course content also encourages students to reflect upon the world outside the University, thereby providing confidence in the use of academic research in a variety of non-academic environments.  Semester 1 <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Lecture</td> <td>Seminar</td> </tr> <tr> <td>‘Imagined Italies’: What is Italy? </td> <td>Each student should bring to class one or two examples of ‘imagined Italies’, i.e. any kind of representation of the nation (e.g.: newspapers articles, touristic advertisement, material taken from television, films, series etc.) the student find significant to discuss the particular narrative(s) surrounding the country. Proposed case studies will be examined and compared during the seminar. </td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Post-war settlement: Italy and the Cold War </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Terrorism and the ‘anni di piombo’ </td> <td>John Foot, “The Strategy of Tension and Terrorism”, in Italy’s Divided Memory, pp. 183-203 </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Mani Pulite and the Difficult Birth of the Second Republic </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Silvio Berlusconi: the Italian 1990s </td> <td>Screening: Bill Emmott’s Girlfriend in a Coma (2012) and seminar discussion </td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Mafia and Organised Crime </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Gender Relations in Italy </td> <td>Derek Duncan “‘Is It Because I’m a Wop?’: Queer Diaspora and Postcolonial Italy”, in New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies </td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Catholic Church and Liberal State </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Migration and subcultures </td> <td>Alessandro Dal Lago (Translated by Marie Orton) “Italy’s Unmentionable Racism: Reflections on the Image of Foreigners in Italian Culture”, in New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Popular Culture, Cinema and National Identity </td> <td> </td> </tr> </tbody></table>Semester 2 <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Lecture</td> <td>Seminar</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Mimesis, imitation and meaning making + Essay feedback   </td> <td>Medieval Lab (in computer cluster): Textual forms </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Medieval 1: Beginnings. Dante + Boccaccio </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Medieval 2: Dante’s Divina Commedia </td> <td>Medieval seminar Textual structures </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Medieval 3: Boccaccio’s Decameron </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Renaissance 1 What is a/the Renaissance?</td> <td>Renaissance seminar 1 The fiction of history: reading critically</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Renaissance 2 Representing ‘Renaissance Man’ (and Renaissance woman?) </td> 0 Other 100% <table aria-rowcount="4" border="1" data-tablelook="480" data-tablestyle="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody> <tr aria-rowindex="1" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Assessment task  </td> <td data-celllook="4369" role="columnheader">Formative or Summative </td> <td data-celllook="4369" role="columnheader">Weighting within unit (if summative) </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="2" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Semester 1 Literature review and referencing exercise  To be submitted Thursday Week 5 </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Formative </td> <td data-celllook="4369">0% </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="3" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Semester 1 Commentary To be submitted by Thursday Week 11 </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Summative </td> <td data-celllook="4369">40% </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="4" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Semester 2 Fictional Forms essay  To be submitted Thursday Week 12 (semester 2) </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Summative </td> <td data-celllook="4369">60% </td> </tr> </tbody></table> Resit Assessment<table aria-rowcount="2" border="1" data-tablelook="480" data-tablestyle="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody> <tr aria-rowindex="1" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Assessment task  </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="2" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Essay </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:662px;" width="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width:321px;"> Feedback method</td> <td style="width:340px;"> Formative or Summative</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:321px;"> Collective feedback in class for both formative and summative work</td> <td style="width:340px;"> Formative and Summative</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:321px;"> Individual written feedback in Bb9</td> <td style="width:340px;"> Formative and Summative</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:321px;height:7px;"> Additional one-to-one feedback available (during consultation hours or by appointment).</td> <td style="width:340px;height:7px;"> Formative and Summative</td> </tr> </tbody></table>  <table aria-rowcount="1" border="1" data-tablelook="0" data-tablestyle="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody> <tr aria-rowindex="1" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369">Available on which programme(s)? </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Italian Studies Single Hons; Italian Joint Hons (both MFL and Joints); Post A- Level Flexible Hons </td> </tr> </tbody></table> Y - New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies, ed. by Graziella Parati (Madison – Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012) - John Foot, Italy’s Divided Memory (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Online access via Library ebook portal.  - Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-1988 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1990).  Further reading is recommended in CU Booklet (in Bb9) and in Reading Lists Online in which digital content is embedded and seminar readings available.  Lectures 22 Seminars 11 0 165