Italy Beyond Italy: Languages, Affects, and Geographies in Modern Literature

3 Credits.

What is Italian in a globalized world? How do geography, language, and migration shape the stories we tell and the ways we read them? This course offers an introduction to twentieth- and twenty-first-century Italian literature through a transnational lens. We will explore how Italian identity is constructed, challenged, and redefined through migration, multilingualism, and political contestation. Focusing on authors who write about Italy from afar or examine the broader world from within its borders, we will reconsider Italy not as a fixed geographic entity, but as a fluid concept shaped by global entanglements and affects. Readings will include novels about dictatorship, contemporary diasporic family memoirs, postcolonial narratives of identity and migration, and graphic novels that link the streets of Rome to global conflict zones. We will examine how the Italian language becomes a site of expression and transformation—adopted, reshaped, and reimagined by writers working across borders and traditions. Authors include Dino Campana, Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi, Melania Mazzucco, Jhumpa Lahiri, Claudia Durastanti, Igiaba Scego, Helena Janeczek, Amara Lakhous, and Zerocalcare. Throughout the semester, students will engage with key themes including the history of fascism and anti-fascism, colonial legacies, modern migration, and the resurgence of nationalism in Europe while critically rethinking what constitutes “Italian literature” today.