The Role of the Witness in Italian Culture: Testimonies of Fascism, the Mafia, and Terrorism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Italian literature and cinema have sought throughout the modern era to give testimony and bear witness to the crises of Italian history and society. This course aims to explore the role of the witness and the function of testimony in the representation of the crises of modern Italian society, including Fascism, the Mafia, and Terrorism. Analyzing literature and cinema that bear witness to the anti-Fascist Resistance, the Holocaust, the victims of Mafia violence, and Terrorist attacks, in this course, you will consider questions such as: Who is the witness of the event? Can a fictional character bear witness? What kind of testimony can the witness provide? Can testimony objectively define the event even as it reflects the subjective position of the witness? What are the meanings and the implications of the witness's narration? What role do we, as readers and viewers, have in the testimonial narrative? Together, we will reflect on the political, social, and ethical implications of testimony in the modern age. Among the texts and films we will consider in this course are works by Marco Bellocchio, Italo Calvino, Giacomo Debenedetti, Marco Tullio Giordana, Ada Gobetti, Liana Millu, Carlo Levi, Primo Levi, Leonardo Sciascia, and Michele Soavi