ITAL2121: The Making of Modern Italy

• Italian Language 1B (ITAL1102) AND Italian Language 1A (ITAL1071) or an equivalent to the satisfaction of the Chairman/woman of the Board of Studies of MLAC or his/her representative.

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and Joint and 'with' programmes: Italian Language 2B (ITAL2031) OR Italian Language 2A (ITAL2111). Others: see Chairman/woman of the Board of Studies or his/her representative.

• N/A

• To introduce students to the literary and artistic history of Italy in the long nineteenth century (1796-1918)
• To make students aware of the political role played by the textual, visual and performative arts (opera) in forging the modern nation
• Enable students to evaluate the cultural image of Italy in relation to other European nations and beyond
• To offer students a geographical overview of the cultural transformations underpinning the modernisation of Italy

• This module takes students to the inspiring and lively backstage of a nation in the making by exploring the dynamic contribution of the literary, visual and performative arts in shaping the cultural identity of Italy.
• Topics to be studied will typically include:
• Italy and the Grand Tour;
• cultural gains and cultural losses subtending the process of nation-building in Italy (Risorgimento);
• the emergence of new cultural, social, political, scientific and economic factors, intimately related to the global process of nation-building;
• competing cultural ingredients building the imaginary myth of Italy (heroes and saints, family and communities, city and countryside, traditions and innovations, war and peace, etc.);
• various social groupings involved in the making of modern Italy (men and women, children and adults, secular and religious people, peasants and workers, etc.);
• an introduction to cultural movements such as classicism, romanticism, purism, realism, naturalism, symbolism, decadentism and futurism;
• material to be studied may include literary texts in poetry and prose; art objects (painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative arts); and performative works (drama, opera, cinema).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Capture the image of Italy by foreign visitors;
• Compare different ideological and regional allegiances to the Italian nation-building process;
• Arrange various cultural manifestations under given historiographical labels;
• Acknowledge the specific Italian inflection of modern aesthetic trends and movements;
• Appraise the mutual interplay between different forms of textual, visual and performative arts in the period in question.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Employ subject-specific terminology to describe cultural artefacts.
• Constructing compelling arguments to defend or disprove cultural assumptions.
• Select different kinds of sources (textual, visual, aural) to support the evidence of a scholarly exposition.
• Acquire familiarity with Italian terms used in common and specialised English usage.

Key Skills:

• Adhere to standard guidelines in producing a scholarly essay.
• Carry out critical reading of set texts to specific requirements.
• Demonstrate evidence of independent research.
• Evaluate the pertinence of secondary sources in constructing an argument.
• Work in groups and independently to complete, to a deadline, scholarly texts.

• Lectures provide students with an historical introduction to the main events of the period in question, followed by a critical consideration of selected historical and cultural sources of the period in question.
• Interactive seminars will allow students to develop their synthetic and analytical skills by means of discussion, peer feedback, questions, and ideas-testing in order to produce a summatively-assessed detailed essay plan.

Formative work will include peer/question-driven discussions during the seminars and self-assessment tests provided on Blackboard Ultra.

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