Telling the Twentieth Century: Sexuality, Race and Storytelling in Twentieth Century Italian Literature and Film

Course Overview

On this Telling the Twentieth Century short course we explore different strands and defining moments in Italian literature and film in the twentieth century. We will focus on the themes of gender and sexuality, the representation of race, and the impact of psychoanalysis on twentieth-century Italian literature and film.

The twentieth century was a period of tumultuous events in Italy. We will explore how the cultural response to and engagement with these momentous historical events have shaped the modern Italy of today. 

Novelists we examine include some of the most influential of the twentieth century inside and outside of Italy, such as Italo Calvino, Primo Levi and Umberto Eco. We will also explore the significant impact of women’s writing on twentieth-century Italian culture through the fascinating work of Natalia Ginzburg. 

Areas of exploration include:

• theatre of the absurd through Luigi Pirandello’s theatre
• postmodernism through the magical writings of Calvino and Eco
• race, the Holocaust and memory through the writings of Giorgio Bassani and Primo Levi
• race and the immigrant experience through Pap Khouma’s iconic novel I was an Elephant Salesman.

Together, we will also study major films by three of the great auteurist film directors: Giuseppe De Santis, Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni.

By the end of this course, you will be equipped to:

• understand developments in twentieth-century Italian literature and film
• demonstrate relevant factual knowledge about the writers, directors, literary and filmic texts, contexts and issues under discussion
• evaluate literary texts and films at a thematic and a stylistic level
• show a good understanding of the political and social context from which the literary and filmic texts have arisen
• show a good understanding of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches (especially for the analysis of literature and visual material such as film).

Assessment of this course is via two 2500-word essays (50% each).

This can be taken as a standalone short course or as part of:

• Culture and Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese) (Certificate of Higher Education)

Credits: 30 credits at level 5