The course provides an interdisciplinary approach to the culture(s) of Italy. Crisscrossing the historical, the course introduces students to the most salient cultural, social and political configurations of contemporary Italy and the many identities these have produced. Students will be introduced to a variety of texts and popular cultural expressions and their mediation through media technologies and the resultant discursive construction of Italian identities. A strong emphasis will be placed on investigating the present historical moment through a critical engagement with the past. The course will be articulated through film screenings, listening sessions, reading assignments, lecture and discussion. When appropriate on-site sessions will also be used. 

By the end of the course students will be:

1         Familiar with the analytic and theoretical perspectives of cultural studies and cultural analysis

2         Able to conduct a critical analysis of a wide range of texts and cultural artefacts, identifying their principal characteristics and placing them in a social and historical context.

3         Able to demonstrate knowledge of Italy’s post-war cultural history and contemporary expressions as they relate to the development of the media and popular culture.

4         Able to recognize various trends in the cultural and artistic production of Italy, be familiar with a number of artists and performers that have characterized specific historical moments and identify social movements and political groups active during the post-war years.

The course contributes to the following learning outcomes of the Major in Italian Studies:

• LOS 2:  Identify, interpret and explain the major developments and forces shaping Italian social, political and cultural history.
• LOS 3:  Distinguish, discuss and evaluate the role of key trends and works in Italian literature, cinema and other forms of cultural production.
• LOS 4:  Demonstrate extensive knowledge of contemporary Italian culture and society and the ability to function effectively within it.
• LOS 5: Engage with the principles of relevant literary, cultural and social theory, with an awareness of the particular perspectives and relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and apply these in their own critical analyses of the material studied.
•  LOS6: Apply appropriate methodological strategies and information literacy skills to identify, use and document primary and secondary materials in full respect of academic integrity and ethical standards.
•  LO7: Communicate information and analytical interpretations clearly and effectively in written and spoken English. 

Week 1:

Introduction to some key concepts:  culture and popular culture; media and behaviors; consumption and taste; personal and collective identities. Italian media and popular culture studies: semiotics, TV, radio and film studies, sociology, media research, cultural studies and the challenges of digital technology. Case study: Umberto Eco.

Week 2:

The making of a nation: pre-modern Italy, from the XIXth century to WWI. Civil passion as a marker of national identity. The role of the Church in shaping Italian collective consciousness. Early popular culture: illustrated magazines, circus, ballrooms, carnivals, feuilletons, alpines' and riceweeders' subcultures. Hunger and poverty as a central issue in Italian history. Case studies: Gabriele D’Annunzio, Miseria e nobiltà

Week 3:

Radio, cinema and records: the entertainment industry and the consensus-building process during Fascism. The cult of personality and the nationalization of the masses. Escapism and the myth of the countryside. Legacies and reactions: the culture of Resistenza. Case study: the cinematic school of neo-realismo.

Week 4:

Social and political cultures in the Postwar period: the rise of a modern sensibility, the advent of a youth culture and the relationship with the United States. Cars and highways, domestic appliances and television pave the way to Italy's new look and role in the international context. Case studies: Mike Bongiorno, Don Camillo e Peppone.

Week 5:

Festa: folk into popular culture. The attraction of local traditions and their impact on tourism. Collective rites outdoor and indoor, from soccer to tv, from big events to private parties. The spiritual drive: from Don Bosco's youth utopia to John Paul II and Papa boys. Christmas in Italy: from ancient traditions to a globalized experience. Case study: Bella Ciao at the Spoleto Festival (1964).

Week 6:

Opera, bel canto and canzone. The globalization of an Italian invention, from the pre-Unification years to date. The spread of Italian language and music, from the 'little slaves of the harp” (Zucchi) to great tenors. The role of mediators and the consolidation of an international format (publishers, theatres and producers). Popular music in Italy: indigenous drives and foreign influences. Case studies: Little Opera (documentary film), Adriano Celentano.

Week 7:

Cultures of Revolt. Social Movements and Cultural Resistance. The Long ’68. The Pantera. The Radio Libere. Comics and Graphic Arts. The alternative press and the birth of a counter-information. From no-logo to no-global movement. Case study: Bologna ’77 (Radio Alice, Autonomia operaia, Indiani metropolitani)

Week 8:

Countercultures and subcultures: indigenous (bar culture and the province dandy in the Fifties) and endogenous movements and styles (classic subcultures: mods, hippies and punks vs contemporary subcultures: hip hop, skaters, emo). Case study: Re Nudo pop festivals.

Week 9:

Understanding Naples: the city as a metaphor of the country. From its golden age to its reshaping in a postmodern context. Stereotypes of the South, from Grand Tour to the age of mass migrations. The lure of foreign attractions and their assimilation. The art of making do. The neo-melodic scene, wedding parties and the camorra underworld. Case study: Il boss delle cerimonie.

Week 10:

Exoticism vs Racism. The colonial experience and the rise of an imperial mentality. Facing with strangers in a multiethnic society. Stereotypes and collective representations in the process of negotiating identities.  Nostalgia and pietism as features of national character: from literature to music, from mélo movies to reality shows. Case study: Mario Balotelli and black Italians in sports.

Week 11:

Italian queer cultures. Class with a guest speaker (TBA)

Week 12:

“Shopping is a feeling” (David Byrne). From village and neighborhood markets to round-the corner outlets, from supermarkets to shopping centers, the lure of things and the art of displaying them.  Objects as symbolic consumption: gadgets: fads and fashions from the Sixties to date. Case study: Carosello and the fictionalization of advertising.

Week 13:

America in Italy. The Americanization of Europe: culture (jazz, hip-hop, western movies) and fads (comics, jeans, fast food). The reception of American ideas, from assimilation to opposition. Serial places and the anthropology of repetition. Case studies: Un Americano a Roma, Halloween.

Week 14:

Italy in the Americas. The attraction of the authenticity 'aura', and its impact on the American imaginary: quality food, opera, art and history, museums, fake cities and hotels, simulacra.  Italian-American culture, from early diaspora to the booming Fifties. Case study: Tarantino and spaghetti western.

Selected Readings:

There is no required textbook for the course but readings will be available on reserve in the library and in digital form.  

Readings will be chosen (but not limited to) from the following:

Allen, Beverly and Mary J. Russo. Revisioning Italy. National Identity and Global Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

Andall, J. & Duncan, D. (eds), National Belongings: Hybridity in Italian Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures, Peter Lang, 2010

Baranski, Z. and Lumley, R. (eds) Culture and Conflict in Post-War Italy, Macmillan, 1990

Chambers, Iain. Popular culture. The Metropolitan Experience. Methuen, 1986.

Chambers, Iain. Migrancy, Culture. Identity, Routledge, 2008.

Clough-Marinaro, I. & Thomassen, B. (eds), Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, Indiana University Press, 2014

Downing, John, Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements, Sage, 2001

Eco, Umberto, Apocalypse Postponed, Indiana University Press, 2000.

Edensor, Tim. National identity, popular culture and everyday life, Berg, 2002.

Fabbri, Franco and Plastino, Goffredo (eds.). Made in Italy. Studies in Popular Music. Routledge, 2014.

Forgacs, D. and Gundle, S. Mass Culture and Italian Society From Fascism to the Cold War, Indiana University Press, 2008

Frasca, Simona, Italian Birds of Passage: The Diaspora of Neapolitan Musicians in New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014   

Grossberg, Lawrence. We Gotta Get Out of the Place. Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture.  Routledge, 1992.

Hebdige Dick. Hiding in the Light: on Images and Things. Comedia, 1988.      

Hibberd, Matthew, The Media in Italy: Press, Cinema and Broadcasting From Unification to Digital, Open University Press, 2008

Lombardi-Diop, C. & Romeo, C. (eds), Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012.

Lumley, Robert, States of Emergency: Cultures of Revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978, Verso, 1990.

McCracken, Grant. Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture: Indiana University Press 2008                                                                                  

Mosse, George L. The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars Through the Third Reich, Cornell University Press, 1991

Patriarca, Silvana and Riall, Lucy, The Risorgimento Rivisited. Nationalism and Culture in XIXth Century Italy, Palgrave MacMillan. 2012                                                                     

Pine, Jason. The Art of Making Do in Naples. University of Minnesota Press, 2012.                                                                                                                                                                                                

Plastino Goffredo and Joseph Sciorra (eds), Neapolitan Postcards: The Canzone Napoletana as Transnational Subject, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

Sassoon, Donald. The Culture of the Europeans. From 1800 to the Present. Harper Collins, 2006.

Storey, John, Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture: Theories and Methods, Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Storey, John, Inventing Popular Culture: From Folklore to Globalization, Blackwell Publishers, 2003

White, Jonathan, Italy: The Enduring Culture, Continuum International, 2001

Zjiderveld, Anton C. On Clichés. The Supersedure of Meaning by Function in Modernity. New York: Routledge, 1984.

Zucchi, John E. The Little Slaves of the Harp. Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London and New York. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992.