Topics in Italian Culture and Literature (250-0-20)
Topic
Building the Italian Nation: Heroes and Anti-Heroe
Instructors
Stefano Jossa
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-331: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Course taught by Professor Stefano Jossa (Royal Holloway University of London and Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Italian Studies).
The course aims to focus on some of the symbolic passages in the process of nation-building in Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries, as Italy reached its unity only in 1861.
Through the study of Foscolo's Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1798), Collodi's Pinocchio (1880), Calvino's The Path to the Nest of Spiders (1947), and Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard (1958) the course aims to give students an understanding of how and why Italy was born so late as a political entity. By focussing on the different stages of the process of Nation building in Italy, the course also aims to make students aware of how Italy's national identity developed: two books (Foscolo's and Collodi's) were written in the 19th century, and will help students to understand the pre-Risorgimento (the making of Italy), and the post-Risorgimento (the making of the Italians); whereas the other two books (Calvino's and Tomasi's) come from the 20th century, and will help students to understand the Resistenza (the making of the Republic), and the post-war Italy (the crisis of nationhood).
The course also aims to discuss the problem of the absence of a national hero in the Italian literary tradition, such as Wilhelm Tell for Switzerland or D'Artagnan for France or Robin Hood for Britain.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course students will have an understanding of the process of Nation making in Italy through the last two centuries. They will be able to distinguish the different passages of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italian history and reflect on the impact that literature had on national identity. They will have a detailed knowledge of four of the most important Italian stories in Nation-oriented literary production, such as Foscolo's Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, Collodi's Pinocchio, Calvino's The Path to the Nest of Spiders, and Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard.
Class Materials (Required)
A. Texts
Foscolo, Ugo, Last letters of Jacopo Ortis; and, Of tombs; translated by J.G. Nichols (London: Hesperus, 2002).
Collodi, Carlo, Pinocchio (London: Penguin Classics, 2002).
Calvino, Italo, The Path to The Spiders' Nest, translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun, revised by Martin McLaughlin (London: Penguin, 2009).
Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giuseppe, The Leopard, translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun (London: Vintage, 2006).
B. Criticism
B1. The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis
Cambon, Glauco, Ugo Foscolo: Poet of Exile (Princeton - Guildford: Princeton University Press, 1980).
B2. The Adventures of Pinocchio
Ipsen, Carl, Italy In The Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in The Liberal Era (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
Stewart-Steinberg, Suzanne, The Pinocchio Effect: On Making Italians (1860-1920) (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
B3. The Path to The Spiders' Nests
Re, Lucia, Calvino And The Age of Neorealism: Fables of Estrangement (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990).
McLaughlin, Martin, Italo Calvino (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998).
Nocentini, Claudia, Italo Calvino And The Landscape Of Childhood (Leeds: Northern Universities Press, 2000).
B4. The Leopard
Hampson, Ernest, Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo: An Introductory Essay (Market Harborough: University Texts, 1996).
Gilmour, David, The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (London: Eland, 2007).
Class Notes
Course taught by Professor Stefano Jossa (Royal Holloway University of London and Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Italian Studies).
Course is taught in English.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area