Topic for 2020/21b: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Culture. In the brief century and half since its formation as a nation Italy has undergone many dramatic transformations, from colony to colonizer, from Fascist dictatorship to socialist parlament to founding member of the EU, from mafia hotbed to Cinecittà, from struggling rural economy to home of the Made In Italy and center of the foodie world. This course tracks those social, political and environmental changes through a study of cinema and literature from the end of the 19th century through the present day. In addition to developing their reading, writing and speaking skills in Italian, students come away with an understanding of key moments and significant cinematic and literary texts in modern Italian history, and a keener sense of how to engage in critical cultural studies. The course is conducted in Italian. Films are in Italian with English subtitles.