ML8003: Modern Italy: Birth of a Nation?
| School | Italian |
| Department Code | MLANG |
| Module Code | ML8003 |
| External Subject Code | 100327 |
| Number of Credits | 10 |
| Level | L4 |
| Language of Delivery | English |
| Module Leader | Professor Gino Bedani |
| Semester | Spring Semester |
| Academic Year | 2016/7 |
Outline Description of Module
The main aim of the course is to evaluate critically the development of Italy by focusing on its history, politics, culture and society. More specifically, the course will explore and examine a number of issues, problems, influences and attitudes related to the understanding Italian national history. On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to both assess the academic literature in the field and identify the principal determining characteristics of modern Italian society. In general terms, students will be expected to understand and analyse critically the major social, political and economic developments in Italy since the late 18th century.
On completion of the module a student should be able to
- Assess the academic literature in the field
- Identify the principal determining characteristics of contemporary Italian society
- Understand and analyse critically the major social, political and economic developments in Italy since late 18th century
- Employ and assess a range of critical positions which may be relevant to the analysis of Italian society
How the module will be delivered
The module will be delivered via lectures and seminars. Students will be required to read the appropriate texts before the lecture/seminar.
Skills that will be practised and developed
This module is designed to foster an active, participatory as well as independent approach to learning, to develop critical faculties and to consolidate and develop written and communication skills.
Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:
Contact with Italian language (literary and critical texts as well as film)
Transferable Skills:
- Written communication skills
- Personal and interpersonal skills
- Information gathering skills
- Problem solving skills
- Critical thinking and reflection
- Assessment and evaluation skills
How the module will be assessed
Exam at the end of the spring semester (examination period) - 100%
Assessment Breakdown
| Type | % | Title | Duration(hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam - Spring Semester | 100 | Modern Italy: Birth Of A Nation? (Erasmus - Spring) | 2 |
Syllabus content
· Background: city republics, signorie and duchies
· The Italian mosaic before unification
· Process of Italian unification
· Post-unification issues
· A literary critique: The Leopard
· Crisis of liberal state
· Road to Fascism
· Fascist Italy
· 1945-50: political and economic reconstruction
· Neo-realism: culture and the Left
· The economic miracle: origins and consequences
· Patterns of migration
· 1968: the students’ unrest
· “Hot autumn” (1969)
· Terrorism: the “leaden years”
· The Mafia
· Case study: Buongiorno notte (2003), Marco Bellocchio
· Tangentopoli and the end of the First Republic
· Silvio Berlusconi’s rise to power
Essential Reading and Resource List
Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy (any edition), Chapters 1- 9.
Edmondo De Amicis, Heart: An Italian schoolboy journal, (any edition).
David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, Penguin Books, 2012
Lampedusa, Tomasi di, The Leopard, transl. A. Colquhoun, Vintage Books, 2007
Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A history of Italy since 1769, Harcourt, 2008
Donald Sassoon, Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism, Harper, 2008
Zygmunt Baranski and Robert Lumley, Culture and conflict in post-war Italy: essays on mass and popular culture, Palgrave, 1990
Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy, Palgrave, 2003
Patrick McCarthy, Italy since 1945, OUP, 2000
Movie: ‘L’albero degli Zoccoli’, Ermanno Olmi, 1978.