| CODE | ITL2026 | ||||||
| TITLE | Shooting the Mob - Literary and Cinematic Representations of Organised Crime in Italy and the United States | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | Not Applicable | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Italian | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | What makes the sinister narrative of the mafia so alluring to novelists and film directors? How is a novel on organized crime transformed into a film? In what ways are such elements as plot, character, point of view, time and space transposed from a literary work to an audio-visual one? The study-unit will investigate the rapport between literary and cinematic versions of organized crime in Italy and the USA. It will first focus on the roots of the mafia in Sicily as portrayed in Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo and Luchino Visconti's cinematic version. Sciascia's depiction of the character of the mafioso will also be examined. The arc of representation will then expand from Italy to the United States to include the portrayal of Sicily in Mario Puzo's Godfather and Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic trilogy. Finally, some examples of more recent Italian and American literary and cinematic representations of organized crime will be explored. NB Lectures will be delivered in English. The exam will be held in English. Students who are majoring in Italian will be allowed to take the exam in Italian, with the permission of the lecturer. Reading List: Puzo M., The Godfather. A coursepack of readings with a series of theoretical and critical works will be made available. The readings will include excerpts from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Leonardo Sciascia, Henner Hesse, Pino Arlacchi, Christopher Duggan, Giuseppe Pitre, James Monaco, Martin Scorsese and Gregory L. Lucente. Recommended reading: Tomasi Di Lampedusa G., The Leopard, Vintage Classics, UK, 2007 (either in Italian or English). Sciascia L., Il Giorno della Civetta, Adelphi, Milano, 2002 (either in Italian or English). Duggan C., 1989 Fascism and the Mafia, Yale UP, McFarlane B., 1996 Novel to Film. An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation, Oxford UP Stille A., Excellent Cadavers. 1996 The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, Vintage, Browne N., 2000 Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather Trilogy,’ Cambridge UP, Ciconte E. 2008, Storia criminale, Rubbettino |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | 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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