Introductory description

The module aims to enhance student’s understanding of how mobility and immigration have shaped identities in Italy in recent decades. Students will develop a detailed knowledge of Italy’s history as a former colonial power and explore the impact of postcoloniality on national cultures. These questions will be explored in relation to Italy’s identity as a destination country in global migratory flows through an analysis of four contemporary novels. The topics discussed will include the impact of displacement on subjectivity; the problematic notion of home; the memory of Italy’s colonial past; and motherhood and migration. The analysis of the texts will be informed by theories of personal, cultural, and national identity construction and students will develop an awareness of how terms such as transnationalism, post colonialism, hybridity and multiculturalism can be applied to the Italian case.

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 to transnational literature. Interrogating definitions and labels. The history of Italian immigration and the development of migrant writing.
Week 2: Migration Stories. Intercultural performances of identity. Pap Khouma, Io venditore di elefanti.
Week 3: Migration Stories 2. Questions of voice, authorship and translation. Pap Khouma, Io venditore di elefanti.
Week 4: Constructing the (trans)national subject. Lakhous, Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi.
Week 5: Islam in Italy. Lakhous, Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi.
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: ‘Talking back’, the history and legacy of Italian colonialism. Ghermandi’s Regina di fiori e di perle
Week 8: Transnational identities. Ghermandi’s Regina di fiori e di perle
Week 9: Hybridity and biracial identities. Questions of language and plurilingualism. Cristina Ali Farah, Madre piccola.
Week 10: Gender and migration, Cristina Ali Farah, Madre piccola. Conclusions

Learning outcomes

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

• The ability to critically analyse and evaluate transnational texts in the target language by applying key theoretical concepts of transnationalism, postcoloniality, hybridity and multiculturalism.
• To demonstrate a systematic understanding of the historical context of the novels, show an awareness of the development of transnational writing in Italy, reflect on important episodes in Italy’s colonial and postcolonial history and engage with contemporary debates on immigration in Italy.
• Build on the research skills, academic writing skills and communication skills and present ideas in a variety of forms to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Demonstrate an ethical awareness of internal diversity and transcultural connectedness in relation to the target language culture.
• Apply and extend their knowledge of transnational Italy to other contexts.

Indicative reading list

Core Texts
Mario Fortunato & Salah Methnani, Immigrato (1990)
Amara Lakhous, Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi (2010)
Gabriella Ghermandi, Regina di fiori e di perle (2011)
Cristina Ali Farah, Madre piccola (2007)

Secondary Reading
Jacqueline Andall and Derek Duncan, eds., Italian Colonialism: Legacy and Memory (Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang, 2005)
Jennifer Burns, Migrant Imaginaries (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013)
Jennifer Burns and Loredana Polezzi, eds., Borderlines: migrazioni e identità nel novecento (Isernia: Cosmo Iannone, 2003)
Graziella Parati, Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005)
Sandra Ponzanesi, Paradoxes of Postcolonial Culture: contemporary women writers of the Indian and Afro-Italian Diaspora (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004) –
Ralph Grillo and Jeff Pratt, eds., The Politics of Recognizing Difference: multiculturalism Italian-style (Ashgate 2002)
Daniele Comberiati, Scrivere nella lingua dell’altro: La letteratura degli immigrati in Italia (1989-2007), (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2010),
Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity, ed. by Cristina Lombardi-Diop & Caterina Romeo (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

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 Italian transnational stories 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.