HUM 321W: Shooting the Mafia

This seminar makes an offer you can’t refuse: studying the Sicilian Mafia through Italian cinema.   

Since the end of World War II, Italian filmmakers have taken a sustained interest in the Sicilian Mafia (a.k.a. Cosa Nostra), Italy’s most notorious crime syndicate, and represented it in cinematically diverse ways. The stories that they put on screen draw upon and experiment with a variety of forms, including the Italian “western,” political/investigative cinema, black comedy, melodrama, the police procedural, the biopic, and the social-justice film. Their dynamic approaches to exploring the problem of organized crime in contemporary Italy differ – often significantly – from Hollywood mafia films with which you may be more familiar. 

To sharpen our skills of critical thinking, we will approach our subject in two complementary ways. First, we will read and contextualize our films as audio-visual histories, examining how the Mafia emerged in Sicily and why it flourished; why it has remained an endemic scourge in Italian society for so long; and the extent to which anti-mafia campaigns have succeeded in curbing its influence over time. Second, we will analyze our films as humanistic texts, interpreting their authors’ narrative and aesthetic strategies and, in turn, filmmakers’ contribution to historical knowledge, cultural debate, and civic action through their artistic works.  

No background in Italian or film studies is necessary. 

Teaching Mode: Blended Learning
As a “blended” course, you will watch one film out of class each week. Films will be streamed on Canvas and subtitled in English. To situate films in their social and political contexts, supplemental readings will be assigned each week.