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Valerie Mcguire, Phd Candidate Italian Studies Department, New York University La Pietra, Florence; Spring, 2012

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Valerie Mcguire, Phd Candidate Italian Studies Department, New York University La Pietra, Florence; Spring, 2012 Valerie McGuire, PhD Candidate Italian Studies Department, New York University La Pietra, Florence; Spring, 2012 The Mediterranean in Theory and Practice The Mediterranean as a category has increasingly gained rhetorical currency in social and cultural discourses. It is used to indicate not only a geographic area but also a set of traditional and even sacrosanct human values, while encapsulating fantasies of both environmental utopia and dystopia. While the Mediterranean diet and “way of life” is upheld as an exemplary counterpoint to our modern condition, the region’s woes cast a shadow over Europe and its enlightened, rationalist ideals—and most recently, has even undermined the project of the European Union itself. The Mediterranean is as often positioned as the floodgate through which trickles organized crime, political corruption, illegal immigration, financial crisis, and more generally, the malaise of globalization, as it is imagined as a utopian This course explores different symbolic configurations of the Mediterranean in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Italian culture. Students will first examine different theoretical approaches (geophysical, historical, anthropological), and then turn to specific textual representations of the Mediterranean, literary and cinematic, and in some instances architectural. We will investigate how representations of the Mediterranean have been critical to the shaping of Italian identity as well as the role of the Mediterranean to separate Europe and its Others. Readings include Fernand Braudel, Iain Chambers, Ernesto de Martino, Elsa Morante, Andrea Camillieri, and Amara Lakhous. Final projects require students to isolate a topic within Italian culture and to develop in situ research that examines how the concept of the Mediterranean may be used to codify, or in some instances justify, certain textual or social practices. This course will familiarize students with Italy’s colonial past as well as the shadow of this history in present discussions of immigration and globalization. It will also increase students dexterity in textual analysis and field research. As part of the course, students will engage in field research workshops and compare how different types of evidence may produce different conclusions or answers. For many of the sessions, students will divide the reading material and be responsible to present the content to the other half of the class. The course is purposefully designed to interest students from a wide range of interests and majors, including, political science, history, literature, film studies, Italian Studies, and anthropology. Tentative Syllabus: Part 1: The Mediterranean in Theory: Constructions of the Mediterranean Week 1: Postcolonial Italy? The Politics of Mapping a Modern Mediterranean Lecture: Italy as barrier and/or bridge between Europe and its Others; Orientalism and the Mediterranean Reading: Claudio Fogu, “From Mare Nostrum to Mare aliorum: Mediterranean Theory and Mediterraneanism in Contemporary Italian Thought.” ; Screening : Il Postino. Week 2: Geophysical and Historical Definitions of the Mediterranean Fernand Braudel and the Christian Mediterranean, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II. Iain Chambers, Geography as temporality and politics, Mediterranean Crossings Week 3: Two Italies: The Mediterranean in the Italian Unification Verga, Sicilian Novellas Giacomo Leopardi, “Discourse on the Present State of the Customs of the Italians” Week 4: Political Theories of the Mediterranean: Enrico Corradini, “Political Discourses” Antonio Gramsci, “The Southern Question” Pasquale Verdicchio, “The Preclusion of Postcolonial Discourse: in Revisioning Italy: National Identity and Global Culture Week 5: Mediterraneità, Constructing the Mediterranean in the Built Environment: Mia Fuller, “The Built Environment Untheorized” in Moderns Abroad: Architecture and “Mediterranean Modern,” and “Colonial Modern” in Moderns Abroad, 105- 137 Slides: The “Model” Mediterranean City on Leros. Field Trip to Rome – EUR and Garbatella Week 6: “Stessa faccia, stessa razza,” Stereotypes of the Mediterranean: Michael Herzfeld, “The Horns of the Mediterraneanist Dilemma” Nicholas Doumanis, Myth and Memory in the Mediterranean: Remembering Fascist Rule Film: Mediterraneo (1991)/ Corelli’s Mandolin Part 2: The Mediterranean in Practice: De-colonizing the Mediterranean and the Emergent Postcolonial Italy Week 7: The South in Post-War Italy Ernesto de Martino, Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism Elsa Morante, Arturo’s Island Recommended film: La Terra Trema. Week 8: Decolonization of North Africa Mario Tobino, The Desert of Libya David Forgacs, “Italians in Algiers” in Interventions Film: The Lion of the Desert/ The Battle of Algiers Week 9: The Mediterranean Diet: Sicily and the Islands in Contemporary Italian Culture Andrea Camilleri, Rounding the Mark Screening, Inspector Montalbano on Italian Television Week 10: From Albania to Sub-Saharan Africa to Rome, the “sea of Others,” Immigration to Italy since 1990 Amara Lakhous, Clash of Civilizations by an Elevator at Piazza Vittorio Film, Lamerica Week 12: The Silvio Berlusconi Mediterranean Tim Parks, “Italy’s Anniversary and Life with Silvio Berlusconi.” The New Yorker, April 11, 2011. Week 13: The Mediterranean Today: The Arab Spring, the integration of Global Markets in the Mediterranean, Human Rights and the Mediterranean Guest Speaker Week 14: Student Presentations Week 15: Student Presentations and Course Conclusion .
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