Unit name | Italian Memories of the 2nd World War |
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Unit code | ITAL20016 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Burdett |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
Students must have an appropriate level of linguistic competence in Italian |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Italian |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit uses literary texts and film to explore the way in which various memories of the War have been formed in Italy, addressing issues such as testimony, the relation of memory to ethics and identity, and the relationship between memory and historiography.
Aims:
Successful students will:
Normally one lecture hour and one seminar hour per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours), often with student presentations. In units with a smaller number of students the lecture hour may be replaced by a second seminar or a workshop. Units involving film may require students to view films outside the timetabled contact hours.
Essay 75%, short essay 25%
Set texts
(to be studied in the following order):
Italo Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (Einaudi, 2002)
Bernardo Bertolucci, Strategia del ragno, 1970 (film)
Primo Levi, Se questo e' un uomo, 1947 (Einaudi, 2014)
Laudomia Bonanni, La rappresaglia (Textus, 2003)
Roberto Benigni, La vita è bella, 1998 (film)
Recommended reading:
Peitsch, H., Burdett, C. and C. Gorrara (eds), 'European Memories of the Second World War' (pbk), Berghahn Books, 1999.
Preparatory reading:
Paul Ginsborg, ‘Italy at War’ and ‘Resistance and Liberation’ in A History of Contemporary Italy (Penguin, 1990).
Christopher Duggan, ‘Italy in the Cold War Years and the Legacy of Fascism’ in Italy and the Cold War, eds. C. Duggan and C. Wagstaff (Berg, 1995).
Graham Bartram (ed.), Reconstructing the Past (Keele University Press, 1996).