| CODE | ITL1666 | ||||||||
| TITLE | The Dark Side of Italy | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Italian | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit explores three dark and compelling dimensions of modern and contemporary Italian culture - organised crime, political terrorism, and the enduring presence of folklore and the supernatural - through the lens of popular media. The study-unit thus investigates how these themes have shaped, and continue to shape, Italy’s sociocultural imagination. The first section focuses on organised crime, examining how mafia narratives have been constructed, mythologised, and demythologised within Italian popular culture. Students will consider how literary and cinematic representations of the mafia intersect with questions of regional identity, masculinity, justice, and political power. The second part of the study-unit addresses political terrorism, and the so-called “Years of Lead” in particular, a period marked by radical ideologies, violent extremism, and state repression. Through case studies mostly drawn from film and media coverage, students will explore how terrorism has been narrativised, remembered, and fictionalised in the public sphere. The final section delves into the rich interplay between folklore and pop, uncovering a cultural terrain populated by witches, pagan rites, ghostly apparitions, and diabolical manifestations. These lectures will explore how such figures and themes, far from belonging solely to the past, persist and evolve in modern and contemporary works of fiction as well as the press. By tracing the ways in which crime, terror, and the supernatural intertwine with Italy’s popular imagination, this study-unit invites critical reappraisals of cultural products often dismissed as trivial, ephemeral, or merely derivative, but also of acclaimed works now considered part of the Italian cultural canon. Study-Unit Aims: - To introduce students to the critical study of organised crime, political violence, and the belief in the supernatural as they are represented in modern and contemporary popular culture, with a particular focus on Italy; - To examine how narratives surrounding criminality, terrorism, and the occult intersect with broader sociocultural and political discourses in literature, cinema, television, music, comics, and the press; - To familiarise students with key cultural works - both popular and canonical - that blend elements of organised crime, political extremism, and folklore to the shaping of Italy’s national imagination; - To engage students in scholarly debates on the cultural function of popular fiction and media in Italy from the 19th century to the present, with attention to themes such as identity, memory, ideology, and collective trauma. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Appraise the differences and interactions between narratives and depictions of organised crime, political terrorism, and the supernatural with particular attention to their sociocultural functions in Italian popular culture; - Critically analyse the use of criminal, terrorist, and folkloric motifs in fictional works, taking into account the intended audiences and historical contexts; - Discuss organised crime, political violence, and the occult as evolving cultural phenomena, exploring their treatment across various forms of media and their role in shaping collective memory and national identity; - Identify and analyse key tools, conventions, and narrative strategies employed in popular culture to represent criminal, terrorist, and supernatural themes, and evaluate their ideological implications. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Develop the critical skills necessary to interpret cultural products that incorporate elements of criminality, political violence, and folklore; - Apply their ability to analyse cultural and ideological implications in fictional works; - Situate Italian cultural products concerning crime, terrorism, and the supernatural within a broader international and comparative context. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - John Dickie, Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, 2nd ed., London: Hodder, 2007. - Ruth Glynn, Giancarlo Lombardi, and Alan O’Leary (eds), Terrorism, Italian Style: Representations of Political Violence in Contemporary Italian Cinema (Volume 3), London: University of London Press, 2012. - Marco Malvestio and Stefano Serafini (eds), Italian Gothic, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023. Supplementary Readings: - Gloria Lauri-Lucente, “The Narrative of Realism and Myth in Francesco Rosi’s Salvatore Giuliano and Michael Cimino’s The Sicilian", Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies, Vol. 12 (2013), pp. 211-227. - Dana Renga (ed.), Mafia Movies: A Reader, Toronto-Buffalo (NY): University of Toronto Press, 2011. - Christian Uva, Schermi di piombo: Il terrorismo nel cinema italiano, Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2006 (recommended to students who can read Italian). - Carmine Mezzacappa, Cinema e terrorismo, Milan: PaginaUno, 2016 (recommended to students who can read Italian). - Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (eds), Almanacco dell'orrore popolare: Folk horror e immaginario italiano, Città di Castello-Bologna: Odoya, 2021 (recommended to students who can read Italian). - Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (eds), Almanacco dell'Italia occulta: Orrore popolare e inquietudini metropolitane, Città di Castello-Bologna: Odoya, 2022 (recommended to students who can read Italian). |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Glen Bonnici Fabrizio Foni (Co-ord.) Gloria Lauri Lucente |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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