OLLI Spring 2018 Jews, Italy, and Fascism Francesco Spagnolo Contact: [email protected] This course examines contemporary works of prose, fiction, poetry, cinema, and music by or about Italian Jews during the 20th century, focusing on the particular status of Jewish intellectuals under the Fascist Regime between the two World Wars. With the exception of Giorgio Bassani, it mainly concentrates on authors from the city of Turin, in the northwestern region of Piedmont: Natalia Ginzburg, Carlo Levi, Primo Levi, and Vittorio Dan Segre. Week 1: April 4 Jews in Italy: History and Culture Week 2: April 11 The Silver Age of Italian Jewry and the Rise of Italian Fascism Week 3: April 18 Family Ties: Giorgio Bassani and Natalia Ginzburg Week 4: April 25 Intellectual Networks: Carlo Levi and Vittorio Dan Segre Week 5: May 2 Primo Levi: A Lone Giant? Week 6: May 9 Legacies: History, Politics, and (Jewish) Literary Classics in Post-WW2 Italy Materials referenced and presented in class include the following: 1. Books Giorgio Bassani. The Garden of the Finzi-Contini, Atheneum, New York 1965 Natalia Ginzburg. The Things We Used to Say, Arcade Press, New York 1999 Carlo Levi. Christ Stopped at Eboli, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, New York 2001 Primo Levi. Survival in Auschwitz, Collier, New York 1993 Primo Levi. The Periodic Table, Schocken, New York 1984 Dan Vittorio Segre. Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew: An Italian Story, Adler & Adler, Bethesda 1987 2. Films Vittorio De Sica. Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (Italy 1970, 94 min., English subtitles) Francesco Rosi. Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Italy 1983, 118 min., English subtitles) 3. Encyclopedia Articles “Italy,” “Piedmont,” “Turin” and “Ferrara” in Encyclopaedia Judaica .