Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines topics in Italian history and culture through film, literature, primary sources, and/or art. May be repeated for credit when a different topic is taught. Students with credit for HUM 345 under the same topic may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

In a remote town in Sicily in the late 1940s, a group of poor sulfur miners decides to sell everything they own. They are paying a human trafficker to help them emigrate illegally from Italy to France for what they hope will be a better life. But along the way to the French border, they meet a series of obstacles that threaten their dream. Fast-forward to the present day, and further south to Africa: it is now Italy that promises the better life, this time to two young men from the nation of Burkina Faso. Like their Sicilian counterparts from decades earlier, they pay a human smuggler to arrange their safe passage. But their treacherous voyage across land and sea offers no guarantee of a brighter tomorrow in Italy.

These are the basic storylines of two films that you will watch and analyze in HUM 335 as part of a broader introduction to Italian “migrant cinema” since 1950. The seminar will be grounded in the following questions: Why have Italian filmmakers taken a sustained interest in representing migrant experiences in Italy and abroad? Why – and how – did Italian films about migration emerge after World War II? When did filmmakers shift their focus from Italians leaving home to migrants coming to Italy from around the world, and why did they do so? And why has cinematic interest in mass migration peaked in the 21^st century?

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This version of HUM 335 offers more than just an opportunity to watch outstanding films of global relevance. It’s a chance to develop the skills of analyzing films as audio-visual humanistic texts and reading them in their social and political contexts. In this course, we will assess the strengths and limitations of Italian migration cinema as an artistic medium for representing the complex histories of mass immigration. We will also evaluate how effective these filmmakers are at shaping collective memories of the Italian diaspora; interpreting Italy’s dramatic transition from a land of out-migration to one of in-migration; and visualizing the problematic encounters between Italians and immigrants (both regular and irregular) today.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

For this “blended” B-HUM 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.

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: