The main aim of the course is to evaluate critically the development of Italy by focusing on its history, politics, culture and society. More specifically, the course will explore and examine a number of issues, problems, influences and attitudes related to the understanding Italian national history. On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to both assess the academic literature in the field and identify the principal determining characteristics of modern Italian society. In general terms, students will be expected to understand and analyse critically the major social, political and economic developments in Italy since the late 18^th century.

On completion of the module a student will be able to:

• Assess the academic literature in the field
• Identify the principal determining characteristics of contemporary Italian society
• Understand and analyse critically the major social, political and economic developments in Italy since late 18^th century
• Employ and assess a range of critical positions which may be relevant to the analysis of Italian society

The module will be delivered via 20 lectures and 6/8 seminars. Students will be required to read the appropriate texts before the lecture/seminar.

This module is designed to foster an active, participatory as well as independent approach to learning, to develop critical faculties and to consolidate and develop written and communication skills.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• Contact with Italian language (literary and critical texts as well as film)

Transferable Skills:

• Written communication skills
• Personal and interpersonal skills
• Information gathering skills
• Problem solving skills
• Critical thinking and reflection
• Assessment and evaluation skills

How the module will be assessed

The potential for reassessment in this module

The reassessment will take the form of a re-sit examination in the summer session. The exam will last 2 hours and will have the same format as the main exam. 

• The Italian peninsula pre-unification
• Process of Italian unification
• Post-unification issues
• Crisis of liberal state
• Road to Fascism
• Fascist Italy
• 1945-50: political and economic reconstruction
• Neo-realism: culture and the Left
• The economic miracle: origins and consequences
• Patterns of migration
• 1968: the students’ unrest
• “Hot autumn” (1969)
• Terrorism: the “leaden years”
• The Mafia
• Case study: Buongiorno notte (2003), Marco Bellocchio
• Tangentopoli and the end of the First Republic
• Silvio Berlusconi’s rise to power

Compulsory Reading

David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, Penguin 2012

Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A history of Italy since 1769, Harcourt, 2008

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard

Other (non-compulsory) Reading

Refer to seperate in Reading Lists content area for Seemester 1 essay reading.

Donald Sassoon, Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism, Harper, 2008

Zygmunt Baranski and Robert Lumley, Culture and conflict in postwar Italy: essays on mass and popular culture, Palgrave, 1990

Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy, Palgrave, 2003

Patrick McCarthy, Italysince 1945, OUP, 2000