105: History of Italian Culture: Italy and Its Others

TuTh 11-12:30 | 6331 Dwinelle | Instructor: Albert Ascoli

Units: 4 Satisfies L&S Historical Studies breadth requirement.

Taught in Italian.

This team-taught course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the field of Italian Studies from four distinct, historically-informed perspectives, emphasizing the critical analysis of a variety of “cultural texts,” with the ultimate goal of advancing students’ linguistic and analytical skills. Through four three-week modules taught by members of the IS faculty, we will look at the various ways in which the idea of a properly and centralized “Italian” identity–political, linguistic, religious, cultural and otherwise–has been imagined, shaped, contested, expanded and compromised in relation to internal and external “alterities.” Among the topics to be considered are the responses to conquest of the Italian peninsula by “foreigners” from the “barbarians” who toppled the Roman Empire to the Napoleonic invasions, to the “liberating” forces of the American army in the second World War (Ascoli); Italy as colonizer and colonized (Fuller); attempts both to shape a definitive Italian language out of the multiplicity of dialects and other languages and to resist linguistic centralization (Botterill); the presence of alternative religious identities within a predominantly Catholic culture (Pirillo).

Requirements: regular writing and reporting assignments; active participation; final project developed with primary instructor.

Required of Italian Studies majors and minors.

Prerequisite: Italian 101 or proficiency placement.