ITC 3480 - HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ITALY

Course Type: Lecture Class Course
Instruction Language: English
Examination Method: Written (assignments, term paper, and exams) & oral (in-class presentation and open debates)
Contact Hours: 49 h
Independent Study: 56 h
Special Project/ Activities: 45 h
Total Work: 150 h
*200 AEF Academic Hours [ 1AEF Academic Hour = 45 minutes ]
Time: Monday 4.45 PM - 6.30 PM
Wednesday 4.45 PM - 6.30 PM
Location:
AEF building, via Cavour 37, Firenze

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course offers an upper-level survey of modern Italian history from 1815 to the present. Besides presenting and documenting historical events, the course inquires into the very making of late-modern/contemporary Italy, identifying and describing the main factors and circumstances that might have eventually fostered or interfered with the various political projects over time. It provides a complex narrative of late-modern/contemporary Italy building-process, based on both primary and secondary sources, whilst also opening windows for new interpretations and criticism. The course is organized along two main lines: chronological and thematic. Chronologically, it documents developments and key turning points in Italian history from the end of Napoleonic wars (1815) to our days. Part I introduces the early stage (from the advent of Risorgimento to the WW1) and the fascist times (Fascism and WW2). Part II is dedicated to Republican times (the first and the second republic, and beyond). Thematically, it investigates key patterns: the nation (ethnic roots, language) and its nationalist turn (colonialism, racism); religion (Catholicism); the modern state and its pillars (the constitution, institutional setting, the party system); economy (from poverty to consumerism; ‘Made in Italy’; food culture); society (social stratification, family, and gender); geography (territory; South–North); informal institutions (mafia, terrorism, corruption); arts (literature, painting, architecture, cinema, music). In addition, the course places Italian events within a European and world-wide framework. The course concludes with a reflection on the future of Italy.