Letteratura e immigrazione nell’Italia contemporanea

Italian 360, Fall 2003

The College of New Jersey

Dr. Monica Rossi-Miller

Office hours: Wed; Thur. 11 – 12 PM

 

Weekly Syllabus

 

Course Description and Requirements

Seven contemporary italophone novels published between 1991 to the present will be examined from the point of view of 20th century Italian social, political, and cultural history in order to understand the various social and ethical concerns raised by the recent massive immigration from Africa to Italy of the past fifteen years. The novels will be read in chronological progression according with their date of publication. We will analyze and conduct a textual analysis of each text within the framework of topics such as race, gender, social class and religious affiliation.

Also, we will discuss the novels’ topic in relationship with the evolving, mutating Italian social and political reality of the end of the millennium.

Students will write a short essay after having read each novel; they will make an oral presentation of a topic of choice related to the discussion of each novel in class; they will write a paper at the end of the semester.

 

Course Objectives:

1.       To introduce Italian contemporary culture through literature

2.       To provide an overview of the history of contemporary Italophone literature

3.       To become familiar with the interpretation of the issue of immigration through the works of contemporary Italophone authors of today’s Italy

4.       To consider the novels content in relation to the social and ethical concerns exemplified by each class discussion

5.       To broaden this understanding with selected cultural, and critical readings

6.       To gain a greater degree of “literary criticism literacy”

7.       To write critically about the novels read by describing and analyzing them and the assigned readings in clearly focused short essays and a final paper.

 

Assessment of Students’ Performance

1.    Participation to class’ discussions

2.    by weekly oral presentation

3.    by weekly response paper

4.    Final paper

 

Homework

Students will make an oral presentation regarding one or more issues presented in each text. They will have to demonstrate critical knowledge of the readings assigned and be able to contribute to the discussion with new ideas and new conclusions. Students are required to then write a response paper following their presentation. At the end of the semester students will write a final paper of 8 to 10 pages.

 

Required Texts:

Tahar Ben Jelloun, L’estrema solitudine, Bompiani, 1999 (first edition 1977)

                          Dove lo stato non c’è, Einaudi, 1990

  A occhi bassi, Einaudi, 1993

   L’albergo dei poveri, Einaudi, 1999

AA, Alessandro Ramberti & Roberta Sangiorgi eds., Le voci dell’arcobaleno, Fara Editore, 1995

Mohsen Melliti, I bambini delle rose, Edizioni Lavoro, 1995

Saidou Moussa Ba, La memoria di A., DeAgostini, 1995

 

Critical texts (not required):

Revisioning Italy, Beverly Allen & Mary Russo eds., University of Minnesota Press, 1997

I razzismi reali, Laura Balbo, Luigi Manconi, Feltrinelli, 1992

I confini del patto, Guido Bolaffi, Einaudi, 2001

Stranieri in Italia – Assimilati ed Esclusi, Asher Colombo & Giuseppe Sciortino eds., il Mulino, 2002

Societa multietniche e multiculturalismo, Vincenzo Cesareo, Vita e Pensiero, 2000

Africa Italia – Due continenti di avvicinano, Sante Matteo Stefano Bellucci eds., Fara Editore, 1999

Strangers to Ourselves, Julia Kristeva, Columbia University Press, 1991

 

 

DAYLY SYLLABUS

 

August 27

Introduction to the course

Overview of the required texts to be read and analyzed

Presentation: “What does it mean to be an immigrant to Europe today?”

 

September 3

Film screening: Pummarò, Michele Placido

 

September 10

L’estrema solitudine, Tahar Ben Jelloun

Presentation of the novel

Critical reading: “La letteratura Africana d’immigrazione in lingua italiana: la mia patria e la letteratura.”, Carla Ghezzi

 

Speptember 17

Students’ oral presentations

Discussion

Critical readings: “Italy, Exile, Country.”, Antonio Negri

                        “”Italy” in Italy: Old Metaphors and New Racism in the 1990s”, David Ward

 

September 24

Dove lo stato non c’è, Tahar Ben Jelloun

Presentation of the novel

Critical reading: “The Myth of Backward Italy in Modern Europe”, John Agnew

 

October 1

Students’ oral presentations

Discussion

Critical reading: “The Preclusion of Postcolonial Discourse in Southern Italy”, Pasquale Verdicchio

 

October 8

A occhi bassi, Tahar Ben Jelloun

Presentation of the novel

Critical reading: “Italy: Cultural Identity and Spatial Opportunism from a Postcolonial Perspective”, Mohamed Aden

 

October 15

Students’ oral presentations

Discussion

Critical readings: Soggetto nomade – Femminismo e crisi della modernità, Rosi Braidotti

                        Strangers to Ourselves, Julia Kristeva

 

October 22

Film screening: Vesna va veloce, Carlo Mazzacurati

 

 

 

October 29

L’albergo dei poveri, Tahar Ben Jelloun

Presentation of the novel

Critical reading: Africa Italia – Due continenti si avvicinano, Autori Vari, Sante Matteo & Stefano Bellucci edts.

 

November 5

Students’ oral presentations

Discussion

Critical reading: Nation and Narration, Homi K. Bhabha edt.

 

November 12

Le voci dell’arcobaleno, AA

Presentation of the short stories collection

Critical reading: “Strangers in Paradise: Foreigners and Shadows in Italian Literature”, Graziella Parati

 

November 26

I bambini delle rose, Mohsen Melliti

La memoria di A., Saidou Moussa Ba

Presentation of the novels

Critical reading: States of Grace, Donald Martin Carter

                        L’identità italiana, Ernesto Galli della Loggia

 

December 3

Students’ oral presentations

Discussion

Critical reading: I razzismi reali, Laura Balbo & Luigi Manconi