Introductory description

N/A not running in 2020/21
This module explores the shaping of Italian intellectuals as well as the shaping of Italian culture and politics within and across the national borders, in relation to the main transnational political and literary movements of the 20th century.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Introduction
Drawing on a historical and sociological perspective, the first session will introduce students to the notion of ‘intellectual’, and raise their awareness how a transnational, rather than strictly national, perspective can further illuminate the history of intellectuals in Italy.

Week 2: Futurism and European avant-gardes
This session will discuss the relationships between Italian Futurism and the European, mainly French, avantgardes and will look more specifically at the case-studies of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Ardengo Soffici.
Week 3: Fascism and the decennio delle traduzioni
The lecture and seminar will look at role of translations and translators during Fascism and will critically discuss the so called ‘decennio delle traduzioni’ by looking at the translation work of Elio Vittorini and Cesare Pavese.
Week 4: Impegno, Translations and Post-War Journals
This session will discuss the role of post-war journals, and particularly Il Politecnico (1945-47), in shaping the notion of impegno through their dialogue with foreign intellectuals.
Week 5: Italian culture and the Cold War
The lecture and seminar will examine how Italian culture was shaped in relation to the dynamics of the Cold War. It will explore in detail the role of the Italian Communist Party and its relationship with publishers (i.e. Feltrinelli and Einaudi) and journal editors, and to what extent it influenced the reception of foreign culture in Italy.
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: Intellectuals and Mass-culture
The session will look in detail at how intellectuals dealt with mass-culture phenomena by investigating more closely the intellectual and editorial work of Pier Paolo Pasolini and Italo Calvino.
Week 8: 1968 and the neoavanguardia
By looking at the less explored transnational connections of the neoavanguardia, the lecture and seminar will explore the role of Gruppo 63 in relation to the 1968 political and literary turmoil.
Week 9: Post-modern impegno
This session will reconsider the notion of impegno within a post-ideological framework and discuss it in relation to diverse cultural forms, including literary works as well as movies.
Week 10: Final session
This session will critically review the role and developments of Italian intellectuals in shaping the Italian culture from 1910 to 1990s.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• An appreciation of internal diversity and transcultural connectedness in relation to target language culture
• Knowledge of the cultures, communities and societies of the country of the target language(s) gained through the study of written texts and other cultural products in the target language.
• Ability to access, read and critically analyse primary and secondary source materials in target language
• Knowledge and understanding of one or more aspects of the literatures, cultures, linguistic contexts, history, politics, social and economic structures of the country or countries of the target language.

Indicative reading list

Antonello, Pierpaolo and Florian Mussgnug, eds. 2009. Postmodern Impegno: Ethics and
Commitment in Contemporary Italian Culture. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Baranski, Z. G., and R. J. West. 2001. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Bonsaver, Guido. 2000. Elio Vittorini: the Writer and the Written. Leeds: Northern Universities Press.
Bosworth, R. J. B. 2010. The Oxford handbook of fascism. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Brogi, Alessandro. 2011. Confronting America: The Cold War Between the States and the Communists in France and Italy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
Burns, Jennifer. 2000. Fragments of impegno. Interpretations of Commitment in Contemporary Italian Narrative, 1980-2000. Leeds: Northern Universities Press.
Collini, Stefan. 2010. Absent Minds. Intellectuals in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Forgacs, D., 1986. Rethinking Italian fascism: capitalism, populism and culture. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Francese, Joseph. 2008. ‘The Engaged Intellectual: Calvino’s Public Self-Image in the 1960s’ Romance Studies 26 (2): 163-179.
Gentile, Emilio. 1990. ‘Fascism as Political Religion.’ Journal of Contemporary History, 25, 229–251
Gundle, Stephen. 2000. Between Hollywood and Moscow: the Italian Communists and the Challenges of Mass Culture, 1943-91. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press
Gundle, Stephen and David Forgacs. 2007. Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold War. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Ialongo, Enerst. 2015. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Artist and His Politics. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Körner, A., 2009. Politics of culture in liberal Italy: from unification to fascism. New York: Routledge
Morton, A. D., 2003. ‘Historicizing Gramsci: situating ideas in and beyond their context.’ Review of International Political Economy, 10, 118–146
Picchione, John. 2004. The New Avant-Garde in Italy: Theoretical Debate and Poetic Practices. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Rundle, Christopher. 2010. Publishing Translations in Fascist Italy. Bern: Peter Lang
Solovieva, Olga. ‘The Intellectual Embodied in His Medium, or the Cinematic Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini.’ Italian Culture 29: 52-68
Ward, D. 2001/2. ‘Intellectuals, culture and power in postwar Italy.’ The Italianist 21/22: 291-318.
White, John J., 2010 ‘Futurism in Europe.’ In The Oxford Handbooks of Modernisms, ed. by Peter Brooker et al, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Italian culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of modern Italian culture in dialogue with Europe will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.