Containing Difference: Race and Identity in Contemporary Italy

Catalog description

This course explores how marginality, difference, and memory intersect in the Black, Jewish, and Slav communities of contemporary Italy. Through analysis of literary texts, film, and historical representation, students will map points of connection between representations of the Holocaust, violence along Italy's eastern borderland, Italian colonialism, and contemporary migration to Italy across the Mediterranean. These connections are not intended to suggest historical equivalency but rather an opportunity to "think together" different histories of violence and explore how the legacies of colonialism, antisemitism, and racism intertwine in Italy.