Course subtitle: Containing Difference: Race and Identity in Contemporary Italy

Inspired by Michael Rothberg’s work on “multidirectional memory,” this course explores how marginality, difference, and memory intersect in the Black, Jewish, and Slav communities of contemporary Italy. Through analysis of literary texts, film, and historical representation, we will map points of connection between representations of the Holocaust, violence along Italy’s eastern borderland, Italian colonialism, and contemporary migration to Italy across the Mediterranean. These connections are not intended to suggest historical equivalency but rather an opportunity to “think together” different histories of violence and explore how the legacies of colonialism, antisemitism, and racism intertwine in Italy.

This cross-disciplinary course explores issues of race, identity, and citizenship in colonial and postcolonial Italy drawing from history, anthropology, critical theory, memory studies, literature, film, and cultural studies. The course will provide students with an extensive overview of the construction and representation of “race” in Italy, as well as its influence on the cultural and political development of nation-building. By analyzing many recent historical works, as well as literature and film, we will explore how political, social and cultural realms are continually producing and negotiating ideas of marginality and exclusion.