History of Ideas, of Culture and of Italian Literature: from the 19th century to the Present [ LROM1545 ]

Some of the needed documents will be shared on icampus.

LFLTR 1750 (Basic Modern Italian I) and LROM 1751 (Basic Modern Italian II) or similar.

- The Risorgimento: major events and ideologies;
- From the Risorgimento to Fascism: from the concept of nationality to nationalism;
- Fascism: interpretation of written and audiovisual documents of this era. Second World War, post war period;
- Risorgimento and Resistance: the debate around the birth of a popular democracy in Italy;
- The identity of Italians in literature (Calvino, Fenoglio, and others), and in visual arts (from the neorealism of postwarRossellini, De Sica, Visconti, to films of the 60s 70sTaviani, Vancini, Visconti, Lorenzini);
- The image of Italy and Italians in contemporary cultural expressions.

- should know the broad outlines of the cultural history of Italy from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries;
- have developed the ability to follow a course in Italian;
- should be able to understand Italian literary, philosophical, journalistic, cinematic texts;
- should be able to provide information on major events of the twentieth and twentyfirst century, by analyzing in parallel how they represent the different sources (written and audiovisual);
- have developed a high language proficiency in Italian and autonomy in research.

A written paper on a specific issue, respecting the professor indications.

1) Personal readings and personal works durint the all quadrimester.
2) Framing sessions with the professor.
 

 This course aims to present the Italian culture history, from the Risorgimento (19th century) to the rise of fascist ideology (20th century). Through a chronological perspective which links these two great moments of the Italian peninsula, students will learn the major dates, events and figures of the Italian history between the 19th and the 20th centuries. At the end of this course, students will have an overview 1) of the different ideological currents that have competed and/or followed each other in Italy, and 2) of the factors that have contributed to their emergence and/or their decline. So student will better understand some links within the literary history of these centuries, and the historical foundations of contemporary Italy.

Required readings

Manual of Italian history

BALBONI Paolo E. et SANTIPOLO Matteo, Profilo di storia italiana per stranieri, Nuova edizione riveduta e corretta, Perugia, Guerra Edizioni, 2004, ISBN: 88-7715-785-2.

 Additional teaching materials may be provided during the class.

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