The course aims to offer students the tools for a general overview of the historical-social and historical-cultural processes that defined the twentieth century in Italy.

The teaching will allow to recognize the main theoretical directions, the different types of sources, the interpretation criteria and the methodological choices within the historiographical tradition of the discipline.

Alongside a reconstruction of the main temporal periods of the contemporary age, particular attention will be paid to the transformations of society and its imaginaries, from the consumption models, especially cultural ones, to youth cutstoms. Through the use of archival and journalistic documentary material, literature, films and songs, a comparison will be set up between the various aspects that have contributed in creating the social spaces where the processes of cultural consumption have been manifested, defining the ways of representing rites and languages of Italian society, built the lifestyles of youth movements.

The modules will follow a chronological path that will focus mainly on the transformations of consumption, customs and collective mentalities in Italy during the Twentieth Century. Particular emphasis will be placed on social dynamics, through a reflection on imaginaries, narratives and lifestyles, on the connections between gender and cultural consumption, between urban spaces and ways of constructing the self and between youth cultures, politics and consumption. 

The main topics addressed will be:

- Fascism

The management of free time in the fascist regime

Racism and colonial literature

- Resistance and anti-fascism

The reasons for the struggle and the matter of anti-fascism in Republican Italy

- The Italy of the economic boom

Political cultures and consumption

Gender and consumption

The Television

- 1968 and the youth protest

Culture and counterculture, rites, myths and languages ​​of the movement

- The Seventies and political violence

The "1977 movement"

New social subjects: the youth proletariat

Feminism

The free radios, the creative wing of the 1977 movement

- The "season of the ephemeral": urban spaces and cultural consumption

The Estati romane (Roman summers)

Political cultures and loisir

- The Eighties and the “politica-spettacolo”

The youth subcultures of the 1980s: punk, dark, paninari

The Neo-television

Media imaginaries and consumption styles

Knowledge and understanding. At the end of the course the student understands the profiles of the periodization and the historical evolution of customs, consumption and social profiles of contemporary Italy; identifies themes, actors, cultural and economic processes that underlie them, knows how to appropriately relate the national and international context.

Applying knowledge and understanding. The student knows how to apply general historical reconstruction and its theoretical models to particular case studies. Through the analysis of sources and documents, it reflects critically on the specificities of the construction of lifestyles and cultural consumption in Italy, evaluates the impact of political cultures on the multiple declinations of social history, identifies the most suitable methodological approach to set up a critical comparison with them.

Making judgments. At the end of the course the student develops an autonomous and aware judgment regarding the definition mechanisms of Italian society with a long-term perspective which also applies to the analysis of contemporary phenomena.

Communication skills. The student is able to formulate explanations in a clear and articulated way of the historical-social processes relevant to the course modules, and is able to move within their complex itineraries through the use of a historiographically accurate lexicon.

Learning skills. The student elaborates the topics proposed in lessons and in the reference bibliography, manages to compare them in a synchronic and diachronic way, acquires critical skills with respect to the nodes of social history during the twentieth century.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The frontal lessons will be supported by the projection of slides, articles, documents, images and videos. Readings, films or songs will be suggested to delve deeper into some of the topics covered. This material will be available on the Moodle platform together with the teacher's communications.

Teaching

Lectures, seminars and in-depth conferences in the presence of external scholars, support of multimedia materials.

The method used to build the course and transmit its contents to students consists of examining in depth some monographic courses on the social history of twentieth-century Italy within the more general structure of the manual. Students will therefore have to learn to connect the two levels, the general one and the one relating to monographic paths, to grasp the specificity of historical interpretations on certain social actors, themes and contexts.

Attendance

There are no attendance obligations.

Course books

The final exam consists of the study of the manual and a monograph chosen by the following list.

Manual

Miguel Gotor, L’Italia del Novecento. Dalla sconfitta di Adua alla vittoria di Amazon, Torino, Einaudi, 2019 (va escluso il capitolo I Dalla crisi di fine secolo all'età liberale)

A Monograph chosen by the ones listed below:

F. Casales, Raccontare l’Oltremare. Storia del romanzo coloniale italiano (1913-1943), Mondadori, 2023

L. Falciola, Il movimento del 1977 in Italia, Carocci, 2015.

M. Gualtieri, L’Estate romana (1977-1985). La città, la politica, l’effimero, Pacini, 2023.

A. Masini, Siamo nati da soli. Punk, rock e politica in Italia e Gran Bretagna (1977-1984), Pacini, 2019.

C. Pavone, Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza, Bollati Boringhieri, 1991

A. Sangiovanni, Specchi infiniti. Storia dei media in Italia dal dopoguerra ad oggi, Donzelli, 2021.

E. Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi. Dalla belle époque al nuovo millennio, Laterza, 2008.

A. Tonelli, Stato spettacolo. Pubblico e privato dagli anni ’80 a oggi, Mondadori, 2010.

Assessment

The knowledge acquired by the students is assessed through an oral exam.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Lectures, seminars and in-depth conferences in the presence of external scholars, support of multimedia materials.

The method used to build the course and transmit its contents to students consists of examining in depth some monographic courses on the social history of twentieth-century Italy within the more general structure of the manual. Students will therefore have to learn to connect the two levels, the general one and the one relating to monographic paths, to grasp the specificity of historical interpretations on certain social actors, themes and contexts.

Attendance

There are no attendance obligations.

Course books

The program is the same for attending students.

The final exam consists of the study of the manual and a monograph chosen by the following list.

Manual

Miguel Gotor, L’Italia del Novecento. Dalla sconfitta di Adua alla vittoria di Amazon, Torino, Einaudi, 2019 (va escluso il capitolo I Dalla crisi di fine secolo all'età liberale)

A Monograph chosen by the ones listed below:

F. Casales, Raccontare l’Oltremare. Storia del romanzo coloniale italiano (1913-1943), Mondadori, 2023

L. Falciola, Il movimento del 1977 in Italia, Carocci, 2015.

M. Gualtieri, L’Estate romana (1977-1985). La città, la politica, l’effimero, Pacini, 2023.

A. Masini, Siamo nati da soli. Punk, rock e politica in Italia e Gran Bretagna (1977-1984), Pacini, 2019.

C. Pavone, Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza, Bollati Boringhieri, 1991

A. Sangiovanni, Specchi infiniti. Storia dei media in Italia dal dopoguerra ad oggi, Donzelli, 2021.

E. Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi. Dalla belle époque al nuovo millennio, Laterza, 2008.

A. Tonelli, Stato spettacolo. Pubblico e privato dagli anni ’80 a oggi, Mondadori, 2010.

Assessment

The knowledge acquired by the students is assessed through an oral exam.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.