Lecture Course
Santa Reparata International School of Art Course Syllabus
Semester: Summer Session B 2017 [4-Week Session] Course Title: Migration in the Italian Visual/Cultural Imaginary Course Number: ART 497/ART 509 Meeting Times: Monday – Thursdays: 2-hour session Credit: 3 credits, Contact Hours: 45 Location: TBA Instructor: Dr. Shelleen Greene Email: [email protected] Office Hours: By appointment
1. COURSE DESCRIPTION Beginning in the 1980s, Italy, a country traditionally known as a nation of emigration, became a nation of immigration, with migrants arriving from parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With the arrival of migrants from the former Soviet bloc and former Western colonial territories, Italy’s transformation into a new multicultural and multiracial society becomes evident in its cinema. In this course, students will examine Italy’s transformation from emigrant to immigrant nation through film. Through selected readings, screenings and assignments, students will learn how migration is represented in the Italian cultural imaginary. Specifically, students will learn how the cinema mediates our understanding of migration today, and contributes to dialogues concerning cultural hybridity, citizenship, and national belonging.
Students will learn the historical contexts for understanding contemporary migration to and within Italy (national unification, Fascist imperialism, postwar decolonization, postwar internal migration, postcolonialism). Students will also study the representation of migration in various cinematic modes (narrative, documentary, experimental). By the end of the course, students will understand the central debates surrounding contemporary immigration to Italy. Students will also be able to analyze films both in terms of form and genre, but also within their social, historical, and cultural contexts. While this course focuses on film, we will examine migration in the broader Italian visual culture, looking at political art, advertising campaigns and mass demonstrations and movements surrounding migration debates.
2. COURSE RATIONALE This course is designed for students who want to gain a broader understanding of Italian cinema, and who wish to develop their skills in film analysis and criticism. This course is also for students interested in contemporary non-Western European immigration to Italy as represented in a broader Italian visual culture.
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3. PREREQUISITES No prerequisites; however, previous Film Studies or Art History courses are beneficial to the understanding of the course content.
4. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this course, students will possess the following working knowledge: • To examine the representation of contemporary migration in the Italian visual cultural imaginary.
• To learn the historical contexts for contemporary migration to and within Italy.
• To understand the central debates surrounding contemporary migration to Italy.
• To examine the representation of migration in various cinematic modes (narrative, documentary, experimental).
• To develop and demonstrate visual literacy by analyzing film form (cinematography, editing, mise en scene).
• To analyze films both in terms of form and genre, as well as within their historical, social, cultural contexts.
5. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS All required readings will be provided as pdf files and books (when available) will be on reference at the SRISA library.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS (Students have the option of purchasing the books. All readings for the course will be available electronically or in a course reader):
Destination Italy: Representing Migration in Contemporary Media and Narrative (Italian Modernities). Eds. Emma Bond, Guido Bonsaver, Fedrico Faloppa. Peter Lang (2015) Italian Mobilities (Changing Mobilities). Eds. Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Stephanie Malia Hom. Routledge (2016). Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy, 1943-1988. St. Martin’s Griffin (2003). Paul Ginsborg, Italy and its Discontents: 1980 to 2001. Penguin UK New Edition (2002). Graziella Parati, Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture. U. Toronto Press (2005). From Terrone to Extracomunitario: New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema. Ed. Grace Bullaro. Troubador Press (2007) Greene, Shelleen. Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa – Constructions of Racial and National Identity in the Italian Cinema. Continuum/Bloomsbury (2012). Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity. Palgrave Macmillan (2012). Wood, Mary. Italian Cinema. New York and London: Bloomsbury (2005). Articles available as pdf.
6. GRADING POLICY AND EVALUATION PROCEDURES
25% Attendance 40% Short Response Papers [2 total/ 2 pages each]
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35% Final Paper [5-8-pages] The following grading system will be observed:
A Excellent 4.0 (grade points awarded) 95% percentage of 100% A- 3.7, (90% to 94%) B+ 3.3 (87% to 89%) B Above Average 3.0 (83% to 86%) B- 2.7 (80% to 82%) C+ 2.3 (77% to 80%) C Average 2.0 (73% to 76%) C- 1.7 (70% to 72%) D Below Average 1.0 (60% to 69%) F Failure 0.0 (59% and below) W Withdrawal 0.0
7. EXAMS Please note, this 4-week course does not include a mid-term or final exam.
8. ATTENDANCE AND BEHAVIOR POLICY Students should attend all classes if they are healthy and able to come to class. Students who miss more than 1 class will have their final grade lowered by one letter grade for each additional absence. For example, if you have an “A” in this class and you are absent 3 times you will receive a “D” in the course. If you are absent more than 3 times you will receive an “F” on your transcript.
• Tardiness: After 20 minutes into class time, students are considered absent. • Students who leave 20 minutes before class time ends will be considered absent • Excused absences require a doctor’s note or a written note from the Director. • Arriving in class unprepared to work is considered an unexcused absence. • The use of cellular phones is prohibited during class time.
Students are expected to participate in class, act responsibly, and behave properly while on the school premises. Classrooms are to be left in order and clean. Students must take care of equipment and materials and promptly report any damage and/or loss.
9. COURSE CONTENT AND DAILY CALENDAR
Week I
Readings for Week I: • Schrader and Winkler. “The Cinemas of Italian Migration: From Il cammino della speranza (1950) to Into Paradiso (2010).” 1-20. • Zambenedetti, Alberto. “Modernizing Italian Migration: Film Auteurs and the Economic Boom” in The Cinemas of Italian Migration. 107-122.
➢ Thursday, June 22nd | Introduction: Italian Film and Migration Learning Objectives:
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• Course Introduction • Review course requirements and assignments. • To comprehend the history of Italian emigration from the late 19th century post-unification period.
Lecture and Film Introduction: Italian Film and Migration
Screening: Golden Door (Emanuele Crialese, 2006) 1h 58min ______
➢ Friday, June 23rd | Italy’s History of Emigration Learning Objectives: • To comprehend the history of Italian emigration from the late19th century post-unification period. • To analyze Crialese’s Golden Door and its approach to the history of Italian emigration and immigration.
Lecture and Discussion: Golden Door (Emanuele Crialese, 2006)
Week 2
➢ Monday, June 26th | Movement Within: Internal Migrations of the post-World War II era Learning Objectives: • To comprehend the conditions that lead to Italian emigration in the late 19th and 20th centuries. • To analyze early filmic representations of Italian emigration • To examine the representation of post-WWII internal migration in Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers.
Film Introduction and Screening [Part 1]: Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) 3h ______
➢ Tuesday, June 27th | Within and Without: External Migrations from the post-World War II era Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of post-World War II internal migration in Italy. • To examine the representation of post-WWII internal migration in Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers.
Screening and Discussion [Part 2]: Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) 3h
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Readings continued for Week II and part of Week III: • Bondanella, Peter. “Commedia all’italiana: Comedy and Social Criticism” from A History of Italian Cinema. 180-217 • Greene, Shelleen. “Transatlantic Crossings: Representing Hierarchies of Whiteness in the Cinema of the Economic Miracle” in Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa – Representations of Racial and National Identity. 185-209.
➢ Wednesday, June 28th | Within and Without: External Migrations from the post- World War II era Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of post-World War II internal migration in Italy. • To examine the representation of internal migration in the commedia all’italiana.
Film Introduction and Screening: Il Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, 1962) 1h 45min
Assignment: Short Film Response 1 Due ______
➢ Thursday, June 29th | Movement Within and Without: Internal Migrations from the post-World War II era Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of post-World War II internal migration in Italy. • To examine the representation of internal migration in the commedia all’italiana.
Lecture and Discussion: Il Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, 1962) 1h 45min
Week 3
➢ Monday, July 3rd | Movement Without: Migrations within Europe from the post- World War II era Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of post-World War II internal migration in Italy. • To examine the representation of internal migration in the commedia all’italiana.
Film Introduction and Screening: Bread and Chocolate (Franco Brusati, 1974) 1hr 40min ______
➢ Tuesday, July 4th | Movement Without: Migrations within Europe from the post- World War II era
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Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of post-World War II internal migration in Italy. • To examine the representation of internal migration in the commedia all’italiana.
Lecture and Discussion: Bread and Chocolate (Franco Brusati, 1974) 1hr 40min
Continued Readings for Week III and Week IV: • Forgacs, David. “African Immigration on Film: Pummarò and the Limits of Vicarious Representation.” In Media and Migration: Constructions of Mobility and Difference. 2001. • Caminati, Luca. “The Return of History: Gianni Amelio’s Lamerica, Memory, and National Identity.” Italica. 83.3-4 (2006). 596-608. • Duncan, Derek. “Italy’s Postcolonial Cinema and its Histories of Representation.” Italian Studies. 63.2 (2008): 195-211.
In preparation for our visit to Villa La Pietra, please review the description of Black Portraiture[s] II: Imagining the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories: http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/black-portraitures-ii
Also review Re-Significations: European Blackamoors / Africana Readings: http://www.lapietradialogues.org/dialogues_sch.php?cat=4&id=106
➢ Wednesday, July 5th | From Emigrant to Immigrant Nation Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of immigration to Italy beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s. • To examine the representation of non-Western European immigration to Italy in Placido’s Pummaro’.
Film Introduction and Screening: Pummaro’ (Michele Placido, 1990) 1h 42min
➢ Thursday, July 6th | From Emigrant to Immigrant Nation Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of immigration to Italy beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s. • To examine the representation of non-Western European immigration to Italy in Placido’s Pummaro’.
Lecture and Discussion: Pummaro’ (Michele Placido, 1990) 1h 42min
Assignments: Final Paper Proposal Due: Schedule individual consultation with instructor
Assignment: Short Film Response 2 Due
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Week 4
➢ Monday, July 10th | From Emigrant to Immigrant Nation Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of immigration to Italy beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s. • To examine the cinematic reflection upon Italian emigration and the Italian colonial legacy during the rise non-Western European immigration in Lamerica.
Film Introduction and Screening: Lamerica (Gianni Amelio, 1994) 1h 56min
➢ Tuesday, July 11th | A New Nation, The New People Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of non-Western European immigration by way of the Mediterranean. • To examine the issues and debates surrounding contemporary immigration to Italy.
Lecture and Discussion: Lamerica (Gianni Amelio, 1994) 1h 56min
DATE WEEK IV TBA: Visit to Villa La Pietra, Via Bolognese 120, Florence.
Continued Readings for Week IV and Week V: • Greene, Shelleen. “Envisioning Postcolonial Italy: Haile Gerima’s Adwa: An African Victory and Isaac Julien’s Western Union: Small Boats” in Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity (2012). 251-260. • Ardizzoni, Michela (2013). “Narratives of Change, Images for Change: Contemporary Social Documentaries in Italy.” Journal for Italian Cinema and Media Studies. 1.3, pp. 311-326. • Wright, Simona. “Lampedusa’s gaze: Messages from the outpost of Europe.” Italica. 91.4(2014).
➢ Wednesday, July 12th | A New Nation, The New People Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of non-Western European immigration by way of the Mediterranean. • To examine the issues and debates surrounding contemporary immigration to Italy. • To examine the representation of the intersection of issues of race, class and gender in contemporary immigration to Italy.
Film Introduction and Screening: Once you are born you can no longer hide (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2005) 1h 55min
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Assignment: Short Film Response 2 Due
➢ Thursday July 13th | A New Nation, The New People Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of non-Western European immigration by way of the Mediterranean. • To examine the issues and debates surrounding contemporary immigration to Italy. • To examine the representation of the intersection of issues of race, class and gender in contemporary immigration to Italy.
Lecture and Discussion: Once you are born you can no longer hide (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2005) 2hr
Film Introduction and Screening: Western Union: small boats (Isaac Julien, 2008) 18 min
Week V
➢ Monday, July 17th | A New Nation, The New People Learning Objectives: • To understand the conditions of non-Western European immigration by way of the Mediterranean. • To examine the issues and debates surrounding contemporary immigration to Italy. • To examine the creation of an activist cinema to bring attention to the immigration/border crisis.
Film Introduction, Screening and Discussion: Come un uomo sulla terra (Andre Segre, Dagmawi Yimer, Ricardo Biadene, 2008) 1hr ASMAT (Dagmawi Yimer, 2013) 18 min.
➢ Tuesday, July 18th | A New Nation, The New People Learning Objectives:
Film Introduction, Screening and Discussion: Terraferma (Emanuele Crialese, 2011) 1hr 28 min.
Final Paper Due
10. DISCLAIMER This Syllabus may be amended as the course proceeds. You will be notified if changes are made.
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