The course will study Italian culture from the perspective of literary discourse in its responses to a broad spectrum of cultural, ideological, and institutional forces. Taught in English or Italian.

"La vita attuale è inquinata alle radici. L’uomo s’è messo al posto degli alberi e delle bestie ed ha inquinata l’aria, ha impedito il libero spazio. Può avvenire di peggio." (Our life to-day is poisoned to the root. Man has ousted the beasts and trees, has poisoned the air and filled up the open spaces. Worse things may happen. ) Almost a century ago, thus wrote Italo Svevo in the final pages of his Confessions of Zeno (1925), published only few years after the end of WWI’s human and environmental carnage. As we all know, worse things are indeed foreseen today for the future of our planet. The themes of Nature and our relationship with it have always been present in Italian literature, from Francis of Assisi’s “Cantico delle creature” (13th century), through Leopardi’s complex views on Nature, to Italo Svevo’s above-mentioned words. Today, that relationship is more and more problematic as we are facing the consequences of our own role as a species in damaging the environment not only at a local, but at a global level. We are all witnessing changes to our climate, the sea level, the purity of our air, water and food, and to our relationships with other species on a daily basis. It has thus become more urgent for many literary authors to question our relationship with the natural environment. This course will explore how Italian literature has interpreted and represented the concept of “environment” and the challenges it experiences. We will focus on different themes, from the importance Nature had in seminal examples of Italian literature of the past, to more recent descriptions of the horrors of the wild “cementificazione” in the ‘50ies and ‘60ies, to today’s fears about climate change and our relationship with other species, to speculative narratives of a post-apocalyptic world. We’ll read, discuss and analyze literary works belonging to different genres, from poems and plays to novels and short stories. Authors likely to be included are, among others, Italo Calvino, Erri De Luca, Anna Maria Ortese, Eugenio Montale, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Laura Pugno, Serena Vinci. The course is entirely in Italian. Though we will read a couple of critical texts in English, the majority of the readings, all class discussions and writing assignments will be in Italian.

Taught in Italian.
Prerequisite: Italian 101, placement exam or instructor’s permission.
http://italian.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-program/language-study-and-placement/

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Requirements class fulfills