Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Italian Literature and Culture

Undergraduate

This course examines the radical transformation of literary form and vision that characterizes twentieth and twenty-first century Italy with its two World Wars, its colonial conflicts, and the challenges to Italian identity posed by modernization, immigration, and globalization. We will use poetry, fiction, autobiography, political writings, television, documentaries, and film to explore cultural movements such as the avant-garde and neo-realism. Specific topics will vary for each offering; themes may include modernism, fascism, the resistance movements, and terrorism. Readings will be both canonical and non-canonical and may include, for example, recent immigrant and minority writers. Readings and films may include works by Bontempelli, Montale, Moravia, Morante, Calvino, Pavese, Maraini, Fellini, Tornatore, Wertmueller, and Jadelin Mabiala Gambo.