Each of the main themes of the course will be introduced with lectures, followed by seminar-style group discussion and debate, drawing on students’ reading assignments and research projects. The course will first briefly look at the modern history of the Mezzogiorno, moving on to major themes and questions concerning how the Italian South has developed since the Unification of Italy and especially in recent decades. Issues to be studied include underdevelopment, modernization, social capital and civic spirit or the lack of it, the argument that the South is characterized by “amoral community”, the whys and hows of the great emigration of the last century, the land reforms after World War II, the attempt to overcome the region’s underdevelopment with the Fund for the Mezzogiorno, the issue of clientelist and corrupt politics, organized crime including the Sicilian Mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra, and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, the anti-Mafia movement, the recent crisis of waste removal in Naples and its causes, the changing role of women in Southern society and others. Emphasis will be on the often-overlooked attempts of ordinary Southern Italians to find solutions of their own to the problems facing them, from mass emigration abroad in the early twentieth century, to land occupations after World War II, from internal migration to the factories and cities of northern Italy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anti-Mafia movements in Palermo in the 1990s and in Calabria today.
Students are expected to do their assigned readings punctually and to follow developments in Southern Italy by reading newspapers throughout the semester.
On-site classes, guest speakers and videos may be organized to supplement lectures and presentations. They will be announced with reasonable advance.
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:
The research assignment makes up 30% of the course grade – 20% for the written paper and 10% for the oral presentation to the class. Students should choose a topic relevant to the course and write 1,500-2,000 words, based on research using at least three academic sources (the textbook, library books, academic web material and supplemented by newspaper articles where relevant). Non-academic internet material is not reliable and should be avoided. (NO wikipedia, please!) If you have doubts about the appropriateness of a source, check with the instructor. All sources must be cited in the text and bibliography following a recognized citation system.
Students should start researching their topic well in advance and must submit an outline to me by October 25 so I can provide feedback. The outline must include: a thesis statement, structure and main points of the essay, preliminary conclusion, bibliography. The deadline for the completed essay is November 29
The oral presentations will take place in the last two weeks of classes. Students will be required to give a 10 minute explanation of the topic of their research paper, explaining its relevance to the course, the methods used to collect information, their main findings and conclusions and a brief discussion of the sources used.
Please consult the scoring rubric provided. This gives indications of the quality expected and the grading criteria used.