Italian Migrations

This course will offer an account of the multiple migrations out, in and through Italy since 1800. By combining history, literature, and film, and by approaching the topic through the lens of transnationalism, we will study different topics of Italian mobility, such as Exile and the Risorgimento, The Mediterranean in Motion, Migrants’ Experiences at Sea, The Great Italian “Exodus” to the Americas, Mobile Italy and its Colonies, The Lost Italian “Cosmopolitanisms” of the Middle East, Postwar Italian “National Refugees”, and Contemporary Migration to Italy. We will read masterpieces of Italian literature both by Italian-American authors and by contemporary migrants to Italy. We will watch some of the most important films and documentaries on these topics. And we will think about how such phenomena as Italian mass emigration in the long nineteenth century, Fascist colonialism and resettlement of populations in the twentieth century, postwar refugees, and contemporary immigrants to Italy are all intrinsically interconnected and make part of the same story. Overall, the aim of this course is to turn our gaze away from the territorially defined Italy, towards a view of Italy as a space on the move.