L’esperienza italo-americana nei testi e al cinema
Letteratura italiana contemporanea
Gli studenti che seguiranno il corso acquisiranno conoscenze relative alla storia della cultura e della letteratura italo-americana, a partire dalla seconda metà dell’Ottocento, con particolare attenzione alle questioni del canone e dell’interpretazione.
Gli studenti saranno messi in condizione di conoscere i passaggi fondamentali della storia anche culturale e letteraria italo-americana contemporanea, e di padroneggiarne i principali strumenti di interpretazione. Saranno altresì in condizione di applicare i metodi acquisiti dell’indagine storico-testuale ad altri autori e ad altri testi rispetto a quelli affrontati a lezione.
Gli studenti acquisiranno le capacità di leggere e interpretare i testi della letteratura italo-americana contemporanea, di compiere ricerche bibliografiche autonome e di ricostruire il dibattito critico sui singoli autori.
Saranno altresì in grado di comunicare le proprie conoscenze sia sotto il profilo del merito che sotto quello del metodo, utilizzando, ove se ne dia la necessità, il lessico specialistico degli studi del settore.
Gli studenti del corso saranno, infine, in grado di acquisire un metodo di studio fondato sulla specificità della critica etnica, mirato a commentare analiticamente i testi di qualunque autore appartenente alla letteratura italo-americana contemporanea.
Il corso intende mostrare la ricchezza delle espressioni autentiche della presenza etnica italiana negli Stati Uniti d’America, esplorando le varietà dell’esperienza italo-americana, dall’immigrazione all’etnicità e oltre. Le lezioni sul contesto storico-culturale, le analisi di testi letterari, storici e sociologici, le visioni commentate di film offriranno un’ampia serie di risorse per lo studio. Il corso offrirà agli studenti il necessario background storico e teorico per comprendere sia il rilievo dell’esperienza italiana negli Stati Uniti, sia il suo contributo alla storia culturale e letteraria contemporanea tanto nord americana quanto italiana.
The Italian/American Experience in Print and on the Big Screen
Contemporary Italian Literature
Students are expected to acquire a general knowledge of the history of Italian American Culture and Literature from the second half of the 19th century to the present, and to became familiar with several issues regarding its literary canon and hermeneutics.
They will be able to recognize the most important phases of the Italian American history, culture and literature, and to familiarize with its fundamental tools of interpretation.
They will be able, as well, to transpose the methods acquired during the course to authors and texts others than those taught.
Students will acquire the capacity of reading and interpreting Italian American literature; of conducting autonomous bibliografical researches; of reconstructing critical debates about different authors.
They will be able, also, to communicate their knowledge, both in content and in method, adopting, when needed, the scientific language of the field.
Finally, students will acquire a method of study based on the specificity of the ethnic literary criticism, aimed at interpreting and carefully commenting any literary text in contemporary Italian/American literature.
This course draws on a wealth of authentic expressions of the Italian ethnic experience in the United States to explore varieties of the Italian American experience from immigration to ethnicity and beyond. Background lectures, discussions of readings in literature, history, and sociology and films will be utilized to bring a full range of resources to this study. The course will provide students with historical and theoretical backgrounds to become aware of the experience of Italians in the US and their contributions to both the American and the Italian contemporary culture and literature.
This course offers a close look at the printed and celluloid works of some of the more prominent names in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Italian American literature and film. These works will be examined from two complementary perspectives. On the one hand, we will analyze the evolution of how Italians (read, Italian Americans) have been represented and how they have represented themselves within these two media. Namely, how does the plethora of stereotypes generated by the dominant culture compare to what the Italian Americans themselves have and continue to produce in their literary and cinematic work. In examining this historical component of the Italian in the United States, we will also analyze the technique, “intention,” and narrative “responsibility” of the modern/contemporary writer/filmmaker. Namely, “How, why, and for whom does one write (or, make films)?” And, if applicable, how might they be situated within a contemporary literary or cinematic ars rhetorica.
While there were many Italian American newspapers in which appeared creative and critical work by Italian American writers, so much of it was in Italian and mattered only to its readers and certainly not to those who were studying Italian in the universities at the time. The recent works of Francesco Durante (Italoamericana 2001) and Martino Marazzi (I misteri di Little Italy 2001) captured this well, but it would not be until the children of Italian immigrants came of age in the 1930s that an articulate voice of Italian Americana would be heard in the mainstream media. Italian Americans, like many ethnic groups, have sought and established their identity in images presented in literature, film and popular culture. What the larger society finds, more often than not, stereotypical representations.
This course draws on a wealth of authentic expressions of the Italian ethnic experience in the United States to explore varieties of the Italian American experience from immigration to ethnicity and beyond. Background lectures, discussions of readings in literature, history, and sociology and films will be utilized to bring a full range of resources to this study. The course will provide students with historical and theoretical backgrounds to become aware of the experience of Italians in America and their contributions to American culture.
Course work will consist of in-class discussion of assigned readings and viewings based on field notes taken during reading, processed in small groups and presented in class. Final examination will be in the form of a 7-10 page researched essay based on course reading, developed in consultation with the instructors through written proposal, and presented orally to the class during the exam sessions. Grading will be based on class participation and performance and on written and oral assignments.
