Submitted for Minors: History, Italian Studies, Italian (with permission)
Course prepared by Erica Moretti, Assistant Professor in the Modern Languages and Cultures Department, Fall 2022
“Italy is a democratic Republic, founded on labor.” This excerpt from the first articles of Italy’s constitution implies a contractual agreement among citizenship, access to employment, and the nation. This course analyzes representations of work and labor in contemporary Italian culture (from 1945 onward), looking at the changing nature of work, the rise of labor unions, social movements, class culture, capitalism and its ramifications, industrialization, and the emergence of a post-industrial economy. It is structured chronologically and thematically to uncover changes, and recurring trends, in labor history on the Italian peninsula. Students will address the complexity of Italy’s economic transformations-from reconstruction to the economic boom and the shifts in migration patterns as affected by labor demands-by exploring how industrialization was narrated, celebrated, challenged, and even influenced by literary and cinematic texts. Course readings – available in English translation – include quantitative reports and theory.
Catalog Description
This course uncovers changes, and recurring trends, in labor history in Italy. Students address the complexity of Italy’s economic transformations-from reconstruction to the shifts in migration patterns as affected by labor demands-by exploring how industrialization was narrated, celebrated, challenged, and even influenced by literary and cinematic texts.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe the fictional representation of current issues related to labor history as well as fictional representation of labor
- Identify the overarching aspects and the historical contexts of the field of labor history and compare them across national borders
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of texts about labor
- Use specialized vocabulary in critical writing about issues related to labor issues
- Apply analytic reasoning across academic disciplines
Suggested Texts
History and Criticism:
F. Foucault, 1979, “The Birth of Bio-Politics” (Lecture delivered at the Collège de France)
A. O’Healy, 2016, “Bound to Care: Gender, Affect and Immigrant Labor,” in Italian Political Cinema: Public Life, Imaginary and Identity in Contemporary Italian Film
K. Marx, 1867, Capital (selections)
The Constitution of the Italian Republic (selections)
E. Williams, 2013, “The Fog of Class War: Elio Petri’s The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Four Decades on P. Chirumbolo, 2012, “Il mondo del lavoro nel cinema del nuovo millennio: per un’analisi de Il posto dell’anima di Riccardo Milani (2003), Mi piace lavorare. Mobbing di Francesca Comencini (2004), La febbre di Alessandro D’Alatri (2005)”
A. O’Healy and A. Bardan, 2013, “Transnational Mobility and Precarious Labor in Post-Cold War Europe: The Spectral Disruptions of Carmine Amoroso’s Cover Boy (2006)”
C. Testa, 2012, “The Working Class Goes to Hell: Economic Issues of the High Industrial Age in Post Second World War Italian Cinema”
Literature and Films:
Riso Amaro, G. De Santis, 1949.
Roma ore 11, G. De Santis, 1952.
Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his Brothers, L. Visconti, 1960.
Accattone, P. Pasolini, 1961.
La vita agra/It’s a hard life, L. Bianciardi 1962.
La classe operaia va in paradiso/Lulu the tool, E. Petri, 1971.
L’industriale/The industrialist, G. Montaldo, 2011.
Il capitale umano/Human Capital, P. Virzì, 2003.
Smetto quando voglio, Sydney Sibilia, 2014.
Units of Study and Suggested Hours
| WEEK | UNIT | HOURS |
| 1-2 | 1 Unemployment and reconstruction | 6 hours |
| 3-4 | 2 The economic miracle | 6 hours |
| 5-6 | 3 Industrial Hubs and internal migration | 6 hours |
| 7 | Midterm | 3 hours |
| 8-9 | 4 Protest and political struggles | 6 hours |
| 10 | Oral presentations | 3 hours |
| 11-12 | 5 Migrants building the nation | 6 hours |
| 13-14 | 6 Between precarity and flexibility | 6 hours |
| 15 | Review | 3 hours |
UNIT 1: UNEMPLOYMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION
This unit explores unemployment in the postwar period. Students will focus on labor relationships in an economy transitioning from war to peacetime. Narratives on scarcity, poverty, and informal labor, particularly underage workers, will be analyzed to tease out the complex years from Fascism (1922-1943) to democracy.
Clips: Selections from Riso Amaro, G. De Santis, 1949; Roma ore 11, G. De Santis, 1952; Vittorio De Sica, Bicycle’s Thief, 1948.
Readings: Selections from Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988, London, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1990; Selections from Jaleh Mansoor, Marshall Plan Modernism. Italian Postwar Abstraction and the Beginnings of Automia, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016; The Constitution of the Italian Republic (selections)
UNIT 2: THE ECONOMIC MIRACLE
As gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an average of 5.9 percent yearly, Italy experienced unprecedented economic growth between 1950 and 1963, a period known as Italy’s economic miracle. As the country recorded full employment, some Italian products such Olivetti typewriters and Fiat automobiles came to dominate global markets. This unit looks at how labor conditions changed, often improving, and how the Italian state concurrently offered new and expanded welfare policies to its citizens. Particularly, we will look at how industrial development propelled new labor relationships and how these relationships were depicted in film and literature. It also explores this prosperous moment in Italian economic history by looking at the formation and strengthening of organized groups of workers and the contentious relationship between the government and unions.
Clips: Il posto, E. Olmi, 1961; La cuccagna, L. Salce, 1962; I nuovi angeli (1962) U. Gregoretti.
Readings: Selections from Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988, London, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1990; Selections from Ottiero Ottieri, The Man at The Gate (1962).
UNIT 3: INDUSTRIAL HUBS, INTERNAL MIGRATION
This section explores the social and political repercussions of the economic miracle, delving into the strengthening divide between Northern and industrialized Italy and an impoverished South. As they grapple with the so-called Southern Question (the presumed backwardness of Southern Italy), students will explore patterns of internal migration; they will look into issues of migration chains and labor patterns, informal employment, the criminalization of non-contractual work, and marginalization. Particular attention will be given to representations of Italians from the South stealing the jobs of Northerners.
Clips: Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and his Brothers, L. Visconti, 1960; Accattone, P. P. Pasolini, 1961; Il posto, E. Olmi, 1961.
Readings: Valerio Coladonato and Dalila Missero, “Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960): Patterns of Labor, Space and Integration”, Italian Industrial Literature and Film. Perspectives on the Representation of Postwar Labor, Carlo Baghetti, Jim Carter, Lorenzo Marmo, Peter Lang, London, 2020; La vita agra/It’s a hard life, L. Bianciardi 1962.
UNIT 4: PROTESTS AND POLITICAL STRUGGLES
Protests throughout the year 1968 were a global phenomenon that in Italy started with the student protest of Villa Giulia in Rome and spread to most Italian universities, also triggering workers’ protest in Italian factories. This unit will look at the global movement and specifically at the Italian 1968, which according to some ultimately led to the anni di piombo (years of lead), that is, the period of terrorism that followed.
Readings: Nicola, Pizzolato, “Tactics of refusal: idioms of protest and political subjectivities in Italy’s ‘1968 years’”. The American Historical Review , 123 (3), 2018, 758-763; Luciano Bianciardi, La vita agra/It’s a hard life, 1962; Nanni Balestrini, “FIAT” (1977), https://radicalnotes.org/2013/07/17/nanni-balestrinis-fiat-1977/; Valerio Castronovo, “Gianni Agnelli and Enrico Mattei”, The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics, Erik Jones and Gianfranco Pasquino (eds), Oxford University Press, 2015; Selections from Luisa Passerini, Autobiography of a Generation: Italy 1968, University Press of New England, 1996 .
Clips: La classe operaia va in paradiso/Lulu the tool, E. Petri, 1971; La meglio gioventù/The best of Youth, M.T. Giordana, 2003.
UNIT 6: MIGRANTS BUILDING THE NATION
This unit looks at migrant workers’ conditions through the lens of the Tuscan city of Prato, home to the largest concentration of Chinese migrant-managed garment factories in Europe, and epicenter of the fast fashion section of “Made in Italy” products. Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese migrant community has clashed with Prato’s longstanding tradition of higher-quality textile production, producing considerable friction among the communities. This unit provides an overview of the economic, political, cultural and moral dynamics that inform the tension between them, which has often been portrayed as a clash between modes of production: mass-produced garments and artisanry. Specific attention is paid to issues related to gendered migrant labor.
Clips from: Gomorrah, M. Garrone, 2008; Mozzarella Story, E. De Angelis, 2011; L’isola delle colf/Housekeeper Island, F. Raganato, 2013.
Suggested Reading: Calvin Chen, “Made in Italy (by the Chinese): migration and the rebirth of textiles and apparel,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 20, 2015, 111-126; Selections from Gaoheng, Zhang, Migration and the media: debating Chinese migration to Italy, 1992-2012, Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
UNIT 7: BETWEEN PRECARITY AND FLEXIBILITY
As the organization of labor has been transformed by automation and information technology, processes of exploitation have evolved beyond specific classes to society as a whole. This section explores the ramifications of neoliberalism on working modalities and the way in which media outlets, unions, international labor organizations, and individuals have responded to, opposed, or praised these changes. It also analyzes how recent economic crises and continuing market fluctuations have increased the demand for atypical, flexible work patterns. Whereas stable working and living conditions have historically been the privilege of a minority of individuals, women and marginalized groups have often engaged in more precarious labor, and their exploitable labor assets have not been given equal value. This unit explores experiences of precarious and flexible work. In particular, it focuses on precarity, flexible work, atypical work, agency employment, interim contracts, and illegal work. Particular attention will be given to issues of gender and precarity.
Clips from: Mobbing/Mi piace lavorare, F. Comencini, 2014; L’industriale/The industrialist, G. Montaldo, 2011.
Suggested Readings: Selections from Guy Standing, The precariat: the new dangerous class, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2011; Alice Mattoni, Nicole Doerr, “Images within the Precarity Movement in Italy,” Feminist Review, 2007, 87 (1):130-135; Eugenia Bulat, Venezia ti fu data. Diario di una latitante dell’Est (2007); Selections from Antonio Negri, The Winter Is Over: Writings on Transformation Denied, 1989–1995, Translators Isabella Bertoletti, James Cascaito, and Andrea Casson, Boston: MIT University Press, 2013.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Foucault, 1979, “The Birth of Bio-Politics” (Lecture delivered at the Collège de France)
A. O’Healy, 2016, “Bound to Care: Gender, Affect and Immigrant Labor,” in Italian Political Cinema: Public Life, Imaginary and Identity in Contemporary Italian Film
K. Marx, 1867, Capital (selections)
The Constitution of the Italian Republic (selections)
E. Williams, 2013, “The Fog of Class War: Elio Petri’s The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Four Decades On P. Chirumbolo, 2012, “Il mondo del lavoro nel cinema del nuovo millennio: per un’analisi de Il posto dell’anima di Riccardo Milani (2003), Mi piace lavorare. Mobbing di Francesca Comencini (2004), La febbre di Alessandro D’Alatri (2005)”
A. O’Healy and A. Bardan, 2013, “Transnational Mobility and Precarious Labor in Post-Cold War Europe: The Spectral Disruptions of Carmine Amoroso’s Cover Boy (2006)”
C. Testa, 2012, “The Working Class Goes to Hell: Economic Issues of the High Industrial Age in Post Second World War Italian Cinema”