SELCS

Italian Culture under Fascism


Course code: ITAL1116
Course unit value: 0.5.

This course is an overview of Italian culture during fascism. It gives an introduction to the fascist regime in the peninsula, focusing on literature, art, criticism, architecture, and cinema during Mussolini’s dictatorship (1922-1943). It thus provides an understanding of the relationship between Italian intellectuals and the fascist State; the places, institutions, and events (Accademia d’Italia, Littoriali della cultura e dell’arte, etc.) for the production of culture during the regime; and issues of censorship and cultural propaganda. It also considers Italy’s cultural relationships with other countries through international exchanges and initiatives, translations of foreign books into Italian, and the look of foreigners visiting the peninsula.

Assessment: one 4000 word essay (100%)

Tutor: Dr Beatrice Sica

Preparatory reading and set texts:

The following texts provide the general historical and cultural context for the understanding of literary and visual productions analyzed during the course, and also set the terms for broader debates, themes, and questions.

  • Martin Blinkhorn, Mussolini and Fascist Italy, 3rd edition, New York–London, Routledge, 2006
  • Liberal and Fascist Italy, 1900-1945, edited by Adrian Lyttelton, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002 (chapters 5-9)
  • Marla Susan Stone, The Patron State. Culture & Politics in Fascist Italy, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1998
  • Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities, 1922-1945, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 2001 (chapters 1-3)
  • Christopher Rundle, Publishing Translations in Fascist Italy, Bruxelles, Peter Lang, 2010

A detailed reading list will be available at the beginning of the course