Course Description
The course is an introduction to modern Italian politics, society and culture in a historical and comparative perspective. Lectures will revolve around six major Italian fiction movies, which will be object of collective discussion. The idea is that films can be useful as a starting point for historical discussion, as documents of the time in which they were made, as historiographical texts on the period in which they are set and as historical agents, as they are constantly reinterpreted and can influence culture in different successive moments. They can also be useful because they talk about individuals, daily life, family and personal relations; they involve a “mise-en-scène” which bring history much closer to life, and oblige us to discuss events and phenomena also at a micro level, bringing in themes related to gender, family, and collective psychology.
The period covered by the course runs from 1796 to 2011, i.e. from the process of Nation-Building to the end of the Berlusconi age. Similarly to Germany and unlike Spain, Italy is a new nation-state. The beginning of the process of unification can be traced back to the Napoleonic Age, which saw the diffusion of ideals of Liberalism, Democracy and Nationalism. The foundation of the new Kingdom (1861) was followed by attempts to forge a common identity in the context of a liberal but conservative State, which formed the basis of the first industrialization. After the Great War, the peninsula saw the rise of the first Fascist Regime in Europe, as a result of an alliance between Mussolini, the Monarchy and the Catholic Church. Military defeat and the 1943-45 Civil War, paved the way for a Republic, characterized by a blocked political system with the Catholic Party in power and the largest Communist Party in the West on the opposition. In 1992-94 the judicial investigation and arrests of corrupt politicians contributed to a revolution in the party system, which laid the foundations of the present political landscape.
Movies have been selected so as to deal with the above and also other issues like mother and son relations, the Italian male, origins and development of the Mafia, the North-South divide, social transformations, emigration and immigration, the 1968 movements, the economic miracle and development of the 'Made in Italy' concept, and controversies involving Berlusconi (comparisons with Trump). The general focus will be on the relationship between politics and society. Cinema has been the major Italian art of the 20th century, providing plenty of social and historical criticism. Fiction movies chosen offer instances in which artistic freedom is used to its full to critically recreate historical atmospheres.

Course structure
The course will be divided into six units, each revolving around one of the movies:
1) Il Gattopardo by Luchino Visconti (1963) - the Risorgimento and its aftermath 1796-1871 (weeks 1-2)
2) Amarcord by Federico Fellini (1973) - the origins and development of Fascism 1872-1935 (weeks 3-4)
3) La Notte di San Lorenzo by the Taviani brothers (1982) - Fascism, War and Resistance 1936-1945 (weeks 5-6)
4) Don Camillo by Julien Duvivier (1952) - the Republic and the Cold War 1946-1962 (weeks 7-8)
5) Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore by Lina Wertmueller (1974) - Economic Miracle, 1968 and the 1970s (weeks 9-10)
6) Il Caimano by Nanni Moretti (2006) - Postfordism and crisis of democracy 1980-2017 (weeks 10-11)
Each unit will consist in (a) an introductory lecture by the professor on the historical context of the time in which the movie is set and on the director and the time the movie was produced; (b) a general discussion after having watched the movie; (c) presentations by students; (d) further discussion.
Movies will be screened out of class in the evening after the introductory lecture. Students may also watch the movies on their own.
Detailed information about the course, guidelines and weekly useful materials will be available during the semester in the e-learning platform.

Course aims
The aim of the course is to expose students to:
1) several very important themes of Italian History and Culture, including: the Unification of the country and the Southern Question (1859-1861), Fascism and the "Italian male" (1922-1943), Resistance against Nazi-fascism and civil war (1943-1945), the immediate postwar period and the beginning of the Cold War (1945-1948), the effects of postwar social and cultural transformation, the mafia and gender roles (1970s), Berlusconi and Berlusconismo (1994-2011);
2) six internationally re-known Italian movies, six outstanding directors, two famous literary authors (Tomasi di Lampedusa for Il Gattopardo, Guareschi for Don Camillo) and the languages typical of Italian Cinema, with its neorealist, expressionist, tragicomic and grotesque tones;
3) an approach to History through the discussion of movies, which will lead us to seriously consider individual choices, gestures, fashion, daily life, food, family, gender roles and to critically treat films as sources of historical discourse of the time in which they are set, as cultural products of the time in which they were shot and as opportunities to reflect on the time in which we live in (ie consider the three times of a movie);
4) experimental reflections on how our cultural background affects perception of movies and the whole process of producing and watching movies, induced by experiencing vision of moving images in the VIU context. Since movies are produced for a certain audience at a particular time and we are a very diversified class, we'll end up noticing and discussing differences in sense of humor, taboos, misinterpretations and conceptions about the role of movie making.

What is expected
Students are expected to contribute weekly to the online forum, watch all the movies and actively participate to class discussions; form a team with other mates and further discuss one of the movies doing a presentation in front of the rest of the class; submit a final research paper at the end of the semester. It is particularly important that students are present to the discussions of films, as absences to discussions will particularly affect final evaluation.
Students in Venice are expected to attend all classes. Away students should watch the recorded classes on moodle. If possible, presentations and discussions of films will be bradcasted live online, with possibility to interact with distance learners. On-site and distance learners shall interact throughout the semester in the online forum.

Evaluation method
40% contributions to the online forum and movie discussion;
30% oral presentations;
30% final research paper

Suggested Books
CINEMA AND HISTORY (methodology)

BACON, HENRY, Visconti: explorations of beauty and decay, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York 1998
BONDANELLA, PETER E., A History of Italian Cinema, Continuum, New York 2009
ITALIAN CINEMA (themes, with reference to some of the movies)
COTTINO JONES, MARGA, Women, desire, and power in italian cinema, Palgrave MacMillan, New York 2010.
ITALIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE (books with useful material for context of all the movies)
CUCCU, LORENZO, The Cinema of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani: Nature, Culture and History Revealed by Two Tuscan Masters, Gremese, Rome 2001
DAVIS, JOHN, (ed.), Italy in the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford- New York 2000
AMARCORD (Fellini's cinema and historical setting of the movie)
FORGACS, DAVID AND LUMLEY, ROBERT, (ed.), Italian cultural studies: an introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 1996
GINSBORG, PAUL, A History of Contemporary Italy. Society and Politics 1943-1988, Penguin, London etc. 1990
THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI (Wertmueller's cinema and historical setting of the movie)
GINSBORG, PAUL, Silvio Berlusconi: television, power and patrimony, Verso, London-New York 2005
HOLMES, GEORGE, (ed.), The Illustrated Oxford History of Italy, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 1997
IL GATTOPARDO (Visconti's cinema, historical setting of the movie)
LICHTNER, GIACOMO, Fascism in Italian cinema since 1945: the politics and aesthetics of memory, Victoria University of Wellington, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2013
LYTTELTON, ADRIAN (ed.), Liberal and Fascist Italy, 1900-1945, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 2002
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS (Tavianis' cinema and historical setting of the movie)
MAZIERSKA, EWA, RASCAROLI, LAURA, The Cinema of Nanni Moretti: Dreams and Diaries, Wallflower Press, London 2004.
MCCARTHY, PATRICK, (ed.), Italy since 1945, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 2000
THE CAYMAN (Moretti's cinema and historical setting of the movie)
MURRAY, EDWARD, Fellini the artist, 2nd, enl. ed., F. Ungar, New York 1985
PAVONE, CLAUDIO, A civil war : a history of the Italian resistance, Verso, London-New York 2013
DON CAMILLO (Guareschi's life and historical setting of the movie)
PERRY, ALAN R., Don Camillo Stories of Giovannino Guareschi: A Humorist Potrays the Sacred, University of Toronto Press, Toronto-Buffalo 2007
REICH, JACQUELINE, Beyond the Latin lover: Marcello Mastroianni, masculinity, and Italian cinema, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2004
RESTIVO, ANGELO, The cinema of economic miracles: visuality and modernization in the Italian art film, Duke University Press, Durham 2002
ROCCHIO, VINCENT F., Cinema of anxiety: a psychoanalysis of Italian neorealism, University of Texas Press, Austin 1999
RUSSO BULLARO, GRACE, Man in Disorder: The Cinema of Lina Wertmüller in the 1970s, Troubador, Leicester 2007
SORLIN, PIERRE, The film in history: restaging the past, Noble Books, Totowa 1980
ITALIAN CINEMA (quick reference for all movies, like a dictionary)