Intellectuals, Popular Culture, Collective Identities: Italy and Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims to present the methodology of intellectual and cultural history through an investigation of the main theories and historiographical debates. It provides the theoretical tools with which to analyse the intellectual and cultural history of Italy and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Employ a wide variety of written and visual sources as well as secondary readings on the intellectual and cultural history of Italy;
- Employ different methodologies of historical analysis and research;
- Read critically primary and secondary sources relevant to the formation of contemporary Italian identity from an intellectual and cultural point of view.
- Employ a wide variety of written and visual sources as well as secondary readings on the intellectual and cultural history of Italy;
- Employ different methodologies of historical analysis and research;
- Read critically primary and secondary sources relevant to the formation of contemporary Italian identity from an intellectual and cultural point of view.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
Unit 1: Intellectual and cultural history: theories and methodology
Unit 2: An Intellectual and cultural history of 19th and 20th century Italy
Unit 3: Flipped-classroom: Presenting and discussing case studies.
Unit 2: An Intellectual and cultural history of 19th and 20th century Italy
Unit 3: Flipped-classroom: Presenting and discussing case studies.
Prerequisites for admission
No additional requisites to the ones for degree's admission.
Teaching methods
Attendance to classes is strongly recommended although not compulsory. After some initial frontal lectures aimed at introducing the students to the sources and methods, the teaching is delivered mainly through interactive seminars, in which students prepare, present, and discuss case studies based on a specific reading list to be agreed with the lecturer. The teaching is also based on didactic material provided on Ariel.
Teaching Resources
Attending students
Peter Burke, What is Cultural History?, Cambridge, Polity 2004 AND Annabel Brett, What is Intellectual History Now?, in David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now?, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan 2002, pp. 113-131.
And ONE of the following:
Venturi, Franco, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studies in a Cosmopolitan Century, London, Longman 1972.
Riall, Lucy, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, New Haven, Yale University Press 2007.
Moe, Nelson, The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question, Berkeley, University of California Press 2002.
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press 2015.
Gundle, Stephen, Between Hollywood and Moscow. The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2000.
Scarpellini, Emanuela, Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2011.
Non-attending students
Peter Burke, What is Cultural History?, Cambridge, Polity 2004 AND Annabel Brett, What is Intellectual History Now?, in David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now?, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan 2002, pp. 113-131.
And TWO of the following:
Venturi, Franco, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studies in a Cosmopolitan Century, London, Longman 1972.
Riall, Lucy, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, New Haven, Yale University Press 2007.
Moe, Nelson, The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question, Berkeley, University of California Press 2002.
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press 2015.
Gundle, Stephen, Between Hollywood and Moscow. The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2000.
Scarpellini, Emanuela, Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2011.
Peter Burke, What is Cultural History?, Cambridge, Polity 2004 AND Annabel Brett, What is Intellectual History Now?, in David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now?, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan 2002, pp. 113-131.
And ONE of the following:
Venturi, Franco, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studies in a Cosmopolitan Century, London, Longman 1972.
Riall, Lucy, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, New Haven, Yale University Press 2007.
Moe, Nelson, The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question, Berkeley, University of California Press 2002.
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press 2015.
Gundle, Stephen, Between Hollywood and Moscow. The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2000.
Scarpellini, Emanuela, Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2011.
Non-attending students
Peter Burke, What is Cultural History?, Cambridge, Polity 2004 AND Annabel Brett, What is Intellectual History Now?, in David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now?, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan 2002, pp. 113-131.
And TWO of the following:
Venturi, Franco, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studies in a Cosmopolitan Century, London, Longman 1972.
Riall, Lucy, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, New Haven, Yale University Press 2007.
Moe, Nelson, The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question, Berkeley, University of California Press 2002.
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press 2015.
Gundle, Stephen, Between Hollywood and Moscow. The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2000.
Scarpellini, Emanuela, Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2011.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam. Evaluation criteria: capacity to demonstrate and elaborate knowledge; capacity for critical reflection; quality of exposition, competence in the use of specialised lexicon. Capacity of understanding and interpreting sources. Type of evaluation method: mark in 30s.
M-STO/04 - CONTEMPORARY HISTORY - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Baldoli Claudia
Professor(s)