Italian Studies 343 - Senior Seminar: Restless Sea: The Mediterranean Viewed from Italy in the Age of Globalization

Topics Course: In this age of globalization, how do contemporary Italians relate to the Mediterranean: the sea that the Romans called mare nostrum (our sea) and that the Maritime Republics of Genoa, Venice, Amalfi and Pisa dominated for centuries? How does the past affect the way Italians today view the wave of recent immigrants who arrive by sea? How does Italy experience the fundamental opposition between sea and land, given its peculiar geographical configuration (its overextended coastlines and multiplicity of islands)? In contemporary Italy, what new forms has the old opposition between North and South taken? Why has the Mediterranean become the trade name of an alternative lifestyle? We read both literary works (Homer, Calvino, Consolo, De Luca, Magris, Montale, Morante, Ortese, Pasolini) and critical analyses (Braudel, Cacciari, Cassano, Chambers, Matvejević, Schmitt); we also analyze films (Crialese, Marra, Moretti, Rosi, Rossellini, Segre). Conducted in Italian.

Instructor Permission Req. Limited to juniors, seniors.