Italian Department Spring Graduate Courses 2024
War and Experience. Twentieth-Century Narratives
16:195:515/560:657. Tu 2-5 pm, AB5050
Paola Gambarota
The clash between institutional representations of war (e.g., by government, public media, school) and the lived experiences of war produces the need to make sense of those experiences and to integrate them into public discourse. How was fighting and dying in war legitimized in the twentieth century and what did war mean to those who fought it? This seminar explores the ways in which the arts have been used to frame and understand the modern experience of war. Drawing on classic theories (e.g., Virilio, Benjamin, Joan Scott, Hayden White, Fussel, Leed, Barthes, Jameson), we will analyze how cultural and formal paradigms interact with lived historical events in memoirs (e.g. D’Annunzio; Jünger), fictional narratives (e.g. Lewis, Remarque, Malaparte), poems (Futurism; Hermeticism, Neo-Avantgarde), postcards, photographs, and films (e.g., Rossellini, Boulting, Patierno). Our discussion will concentrate on the relation between experience and representation and the question of the medium: how did different genres and media affect the articulation of the war experience? No knowledge of Italian required.
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Multispecies Humanities
Prof. Vetri Nathan
Wednesdays 4.30-7 pm
16:560:691
This new transcultural and transdisciplinary course explores the entangled lives of humans, fungi, plants, microorganisms and animals via the newest thinking in the Environmental Humanities. Learning and research in the course will be connected to the structure and activities of a new humanities lab (www.thecybercenelab.org). We will experiment with innovative ways of engaging with the worlds around us by questioning the hierarchical classification of species as well as the resulting commodification and othering of lives in different transnational, national, regional and local contexts. We will also explore possible public-facing solutions towards renewed multispecies healing and habitability by studying historical and contemporary restorative strategies. Taught in English.
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