| Unit name | The Idea of Italy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ITAL20049 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. O'Rawe |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) | |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
N/A |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
N/A |
| School/department | Department of Italian |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Italy continues to inspire fascination, and to generate cultural representations, myths and clichés. For centuries regarded by outsiders as a land of beauty, mystery, and darkness, the unit will go beyond the stereotypes of la dolce vita and examine the multi-faceted ways in which, across centuries, Italy has been imagined and represented, as a concept, a romantic ideal, a set of clichés, a linguistic area, a lifestyle and a brand. Ranging across the geographical breadth and contested history of Italy as an idea long before it finally became a nation in 1871, the unit will develop your knowledge of Italian history and culture, and explore how the idea of Italy has evolved in different time periods, and with different ideological purposes. The transhistorical focus of the unit, moving across centuries, will develop your understanding of debates on key questions of the nation and nationalism, the transnational, Italy’s North/South divide, multilingualism and migration.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
The unit builds on approaches and methodologies developed in the first year, by developing your knowledge of key questions like the nation and nationalism, the transnational, Italy’s North/South divide, multilingualism and migration.
The unit will be core for students who were ab initio students of Italian: thus it offers valuable extended engagement with a range of texts in the target language, and will prepare students robustly for the year abroad. It gives students who have not studied medieval or Renaissance Italy in year 1 valuable contact with the earlier period, while stressing a continuity of themes and tropes in how the Italian nation has been imagined across centuries.
Overview of Content:
The unit takes a broadly chronological approach to the study of Italy to explore how the nation has been conceptualised, written about, and imagined, both before and after there was an ‘Italian nation’.
The unit will be taught in three discrete but interrelated sections by experts on those topics and periods. Throughout we will emphasize the importance of the diverse contexts and historical periods in which Italy was imagined, the forms and genres in which this imagining took place, and the need to carefully historicise and contextualise close readings of primary texts and objects of analysis.
Various topic which you might explore include, The Idea of an Italian Language: 14th-16th-century debates on the vernacular language and their link to the ‘nation’. Dante as an Icon of italianità: the promotion of Dante as a national symbol, with particular focus on the post-unification and fascist periods. Ideas of Italy in the Age of Nation-Building: different ways in which ‘Italy’ is imagined and disseminated in the Risorgimento and post-Unification period, through writing, political speeches, and monuments. Mussolini and the Ideological Promotion of Italian Nationalism. Icons of Italianness: architecture, consumer objects, fashion, ‘Made in Italy’ – film/design/art/advertising/fashion in the 1950s and ’60s, from Roman Holiday to La dolce vita. The ‘Southern Question’: debates on southern Italy from the 19th century to the present, and their articulation in film. New Italians and the Remaking of Italy: the impact of inward migration on Italy since the 1990s, focusing on the changing demographic and cultural make-up of Italy.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
You will broaden your horizons by gaining insight into the evolution of ideas of the Italian nation, and their application to a range of different media and contexts. You will in turn become confident, reflective, and effective communicators, both through seminar discussion and the unit assignments.
You will therefore arrive in Italy for your year abroad experience with recently acquired knowledge of how contested Italian national identity is, the processes of formation of that identity, and the centrality of cultural production to those processes. The subject matter will also give you a sensitivity to how Italy has been pictured from outside, which will enable you to interrogate their own preconceptions and positionality with regard to Italy. You will be encouraged to reflect upon your own experiences as students of Italian (and as tourists to Italy!), and to historicise and challenge clichés of Italy and Italianness.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the unit students will be able to:
Each week, your teaching will involve:
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
In-class activities will increase your familiarity with the subject matter, thereby allowing you to increase in confidence and knowledge before the summative assessment. Students will be required to prepare material every week for seminars, and will engage in class discussions to develop their confidence in engaging with the topics.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Group presentation (in podcast or video format), 15 minutes (25%) [ILOs 1 and 3]
Comparative essay, 1,500 words (75%) [ILOs 1, 2, 4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ITAL20049).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
