Present Futures: Questions of Marginality in Contemporary Italy

Module Code: IT316
Module Name: Present Futures: Questions of Marginality in Contemporary Italy
Module Coordinator: Dr Marina Spunta
Term 2
Module Credits: 15

Module Description

Who are contemporary Italians and what is Italy today? What does their future look like and what are the most salient issues defining Italian identities of today and tomorrow? This module aims to enhance students’ understanding of questions of place, belonging/displacement, migration, transnational identity and climate change in contemporary Italian culture. By looking at a broad range of mostly non-canonical texts, the module allows students to explore these issues from a variety of perspectives and thus to develop a nuanced and flexible understanding of concepts of genre and readership, whilst also mapping a literary and cultural history of contemporary Italy.

The module's main thematic emphasis will be on stories of mostly marginalized spaces, subjects and communities in contemporary Italy. Through analysing films, novels, short stories, and graphic novels, students will develop an understanding of how identities in Italy are negotiated and expressed through both individual narratives of interior experience and an outsider’s observational gaze. The module will discuss normative and non-normative constructions of what is ‘contemporary Italy’ and what it is to be a ‘contemporary Italian’, and explore the strategies used by a range of authors and filmmakers to articulate, challenge, and re-imagine these positions. Questions of exploration and discovery, and of the construction of knowledge in relation to spaces and subcultures, will be followed through the different sections and texts.

Module Outline (may be subject to change - please contact module convenor before purchasing any texts)

Week 1: Introduction

Weeks 2 and 3: Place and Environment

Primary texts: Gianni Celati, Narratori delle pianure (1985); Wu Ming 1, 'Arzestula' (2009)

Weeks 4: Ecocinema

Primary text: Lazzaro Felice (Alice Rohrwacher, 2018) TBC

Weeks 5: Migration

Primary text: Io sono Lì (Andrea Segre, 2011)

Weeks 7 and 8: Transnational Identities within and outside Italy

Primary texts: Claudia Durastanti, La straniera (2019); Takoua Ben Mohamed, Sotto il velo and Il mio migliore amico è fascista (graphic novels)

Weeks 9 and 10: Assessment and Revision