Course description
This course offers an introduction to the intersections (modern and premodern) between gender, race, and power, framed both historically and theoretically. The specific course materials for case studies and close reading will be finalized according to the geographical representation in the VIU consortium, as per the preference indicated in the call for proposed courses. The instructor’s area of expertise (e.g., the early modern period and Europe) will situate the course historically within the early constructions of gender, race, power, and difference created from within and disseminated well beyond Italy and the European continent. The pairing of primary texts (literary, visual, and theatrical) with critical theories of gender, race, and power will act as a bridge between premodern and modern case studies.

Broadly conceived, the course approaches questions of gender, race, and power through an intersectional lens, recognizing the interdependencies that resonate across the definitions of and resistances to these categories of identity. Among the questions pursued in the course are: how do differences in power shape the relationship between gender and race? How can we think of gender, race, and power as relative constructs, and locate the manifestations of interdependency among them? What categories of human diversity did authors and authorities of the early modern world invent in order to harness political power both at home and abroad? Where do the literary histories of gender, race, and power intersect with the political histories of imperialism and nationalism? What resonances of these histories do we encounter today in our world?
The case studies from the Italian context, to be aligned comparatively with materials drawn from other geographical centers, will span the late-medieval period to the modern day. We will address the so-called querelle des femmes (“the woman question”) of the late fourteenth to early-seventeenth centuries. We will study how the “Renaissance man” was constructed as an ideal—in terms of his appearance, decorum, and education—for others to emulate, and what this meant for Renaissance women and the performance of one’s gender before others. In studying the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, our focus will be on musical-theatrical figures and the possibilities represented on stage for fluid approaches to transgender identities and non-conforming sexualities. Still in the nineteenth century, we will study major socio-political struggles widely faced by Italian women, including: women and the education system, Italian unification and its effects on women’s emancipation, and Italy’s feminist movement in relation to those in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Turning to twentieth-century feminisms, we will trace how Italy’s fascist government sought to impose gender-based ideologies onto women and men, and how, in the post-war period, second wave feminist activism, including the “Rivolta Femminile” and its aftermath, took on issues of proper wages for women workers, gender equality in marriage, divorce, and abortion. Looking to contemporary Italy, we will analyze the challenges faced by migrant women and an ever- diversifying Italian population, and ask how globalization has impacted “women” as a collective, international category. In this respect, we will study examples of how the international #MeToo movement has manifested itself in Italy, and recall how, already in the 1990s, members of the California senate demonstrated solidarity with Italy’s opposition to violence against women through the “Denim Day” protest, which continues still today and has drawn international attention and support.

Course Topics
Introduction: What is gender?
“Men’s Latin and Women’s Vernacular”: Early Implications and Practices of Language and Identity
Gender Quarrels, Past and Present Men Doing/Undoing Feminism Campaigning for Difference Feminism on Screen
Feminism and Global Migration Italy’s #MeToo Movement

Evaluation method
Active Participation and Attendance (25%)
Weekly Response Papers (1–2 pages max) (15%)
One Discussion Leader, responsible for 3 discussion questions to be posed in class (10%)
Three Cultural Artifact Reflection Posts, based on site visits (250 words each) (15%)
Literary Analysis Close Reading Mini-Paper (4–5 pages max) (15%)
Final Research Paper and Presentation, a comparative or single case study analysis of themes related to course content (10 pages max) (20%)

Primary readings (excerpts and/or complete texts, to be made available in English): *to be amended based on geographical representation of VIU student body)
Sibilla Aleramo, Una donna
Isabella Andreini, Rime and Lettere
Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, Le forze umane (especially Forze Femminili: Spirale di Dolcezza + Serpe di Fascino and Forze Maschili: Armi e Piume)
Espérance Hakuzwimana Ripanti, E poi basta. Manifesto di una donna nera italiana
Moderata Fonte, Il merito delle donne
Veronica Franco, Rime
Natalia Ginzburg, Ti ho sposato per allegria and Condizione femminile Manifesto della rivolta femminile
Dacia Maraini, Donna in guerra and “Donne mie”
Lucrezia Marinella, Della nobiltà et eccellenza delle donne
Maria Messina, correspondence with Verga, “La ’Mèrica” and “Mùnnino”
Elsa Morante, Lo scialle andaluso
Giacomo Puccini, Tosca and Madama Butterfly
Emilia Rosselli, Poesie
Igiaba Scego, Adua
Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata and Giovanna d’Arco

Films and Documentaries (clips and/or full viewings):
Alina Marazzi, Vogliamo anche le rose
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mamma Roma
Lina Wertmüller, Camorra: un complicato intrigo di donne, vicoli e delitti
Lorella Zanardo, Il corpo delle donne
L’aggettivo donna [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0D2Y39FTE]

Secondary criticism may include chapters/articles by:
Jomarie Alano, Beverly Allen, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lorenzo Benadusi, Paola Bono, Adriana Cavarero, Manuela Coppola, Virginia Cox, Lidia Curti, Tom Digby, Bram Dijkstra, Laura Fantone, Silvia Federicci, Joan Kelly, Sandra Kemp, Julia Kristeva, Marie-Hélène Laforest,

Donald Meyer, Susanna Poole, Lucia Re, Chiara Saraceno, Barbara Spackman, Molly Tambor, Maddalena Tirabassi, Jane Tylus, Bruno Wanrooij, and Perry Wilson

Last updated: May 29, 2024