Cultures of Fascism
(Italian 390, ICS 390, Literature 390, History 390-02)
Saskia Ziolkowski & Roberto Dainotto
The use of the word “fascism” is on the rise, but what is meant by the term? The Fasci of Revolutionary Action were formed in January 1915, when Benito Mussolini declared that it was necessary for Italy to secure its national borders and engage in an aggressive foreign policy aimed at protecting national interests. In 1922, Mussolini was elected Prime Minister of Italy, and the following year the “fascist mode” was adopted by Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party. By June 1940, when Marshal Philippe Pétain signed France’s surrender to Nazi Germany, all continental Europe except the Soviet Union was under some fascist regime. This course will focus on the cultural reasons that determined the global spread of fascism and explore literary, theoretical, and historical representations of fascism, from Italian to American ones. Taught in English. Codes: ALP, CZ, CCI
Jewish Italy and its Literatures: The Most Ancient Minority
(Jewish Studies 390S, Italian 390S, History 390S, ICS 390S)
Saskia Ziolkowski
Jews in Italy are often referred to as “the most ancient minority,” because of their continuous presence in Italy, from pre-Christian times to today. This course examines the wealth of literature, art, and culture that they have produced and inspired. We will discuss a range of works, from antiquity to modern day Italy, to analyze Jewish Italy and its representations in historical context. We will scrutinize representations of the ghetto, Jewish learning, anti-Semitism, family life, memory, and the Holocaust in figures such as William Shakespeare, Leon Modena, James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Umberto Saba, Natalia Ginzburg, Igiaba Scego, and Primo Levi, among others. Taught in English. Codes: ALP, CZ, CCI, R
Jewish History, 1492 to the Present
(History 251, ICS 253, Jewish Studies 251, Religion 340)
Malachi Hacohen
Major developments in Jewish history from the early modern period to today. The Kehillah, the Spanish-Jewish Diaspora, the rise of Polish Jewry, the Safed Kabbalah, Sabbatianism, the emergence of the Chassidut, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Emancipation and the nation state, Reform Judaism, economic modernization, racial antisemitism, Zionism, the Holocaust, the State of Israel, flourishing Jewish pluralism in the United States, the future: nation and Diaspora? Taught in English. Codes: CCI, EI, CZ, SS