SELCS

Risorgimento Histories

Course code: ITAL1112

Course unit value: 0.5

The premise of the course is that it is impossible to understand Italy today without knowing how the country was unified in the first half of the 19th century - what is called 'the Risorgimento'. It introduces the protagonists of this epic: Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cavour, Verdi, and Manzoni, and looks at the part played by literature, and music as well as politics in the national cause. We examine how questions that still preoccupy Italians - the divisions between North and South, corrupt politicians, the power of the Church, - all originate in this key historical moment. Contemporary visual materials and documents are used, together with films on the Risorgimento. The content and the methods of study provide an excellent grounding for other courses in history, visual culture, cinema and literature taught in the department and across UCL.

Assessment: one unseen two-hour written examination (100%); one compulsory but not assessed essay; and one compulsory but not assessed commentary.

Tutor: Professor Robert Lumley

Preparatory reading and set texts:

  • C. Duggan, Force of Destiny: History of Italy Since 1796 (Penguin, 2007)
  • L. Riall, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero (Yale, 2007)
  • R. Lumley & J. Morris (eds), The New History of the Italian South (Exeter University Press, 1997)
  •  S. Patriarca, Italian Vices. Nation and Character from the Risorgimento to the Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
  • L. Riall, Risorgimento. History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State (Palgrave, 2009).
  • A. Dalle Vacche, The Body in the Mirror. Shapes of Italian History in Cinema (Princeton, 1992)
  • Films: '1860' (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934); 'Garibaldi/Viva l'Italia!' (Roberto Rossellini, 1861).
  • ‘Garibaldi and the Risorigmento’ (Brown University Digitial Project dl.lib.brown.edu/garibaldi/)