ITAL 322 - Ecocritical Italy: Narrating the Anthropocene

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 300
This course addresses the relationship between narrative and the nonhuman environment in modern and contemporary Italy. More precisely, it examines how literary, cinematic and other story-based forms allow receptive audiences greater insight into the complex realities of environmental change in Italy from the post-war period until the current day. Using an environmental humanities framework, it introduces students to a diverse range of Italian texts that explore issues such as climate change, urban expansion, extractive industry, and environmental justice, as shaped by Italy’s recent histories. As it does so, it asks: How do narrative texts allow us to make sense of these issues as they relate to collective realities, individual identities, and our relationship to the nonhuman environment? Additionally, what is unique to the Italian experience and what might we learn from it? This course is rooted in the specificities of Italian culture and geography, but it engages with transnational themes that also hit much closer to home. In this, it asks students to imagine a far-flung lived experience while also making comparisons and connections to their own daily lives.