Italian 320Instructor: Cristina Villa
Department of French and ItalianE-mail:
Tel: 213 821 2606
Class: 11:00-12:20pm Tu-Th WPH B26
Office Hours: M-W 3-3.50 PM
T 12.30-2 PM
The Shoah in Italy and the Myth of the Good Italian
It’s better to remember for those who don’t know and for those who forgot, that the Holocaust took place in Italy too, even if the war was almost at the end and even if most of the population appeared to be “immune” from the racist “poison”.”(Primo Levi, L’asimmetriae la vita)
The goal of this course is 1) to broaden the students’ knowledge of Italian culture, history, politics, literature, and cinema; 2) to enhance reading, writing, and oral skills in Italian; 3) to deepen the understanding of the Italian Jewish condition before, during, and after World War II by analyzing the concepts of prejudice and intolerance.
Wewill to critically examine the phenomenon called the “myth of the good Italian”. After the war, the Italian government, population, and Jewish community created the legend (somewhat, but not entirely grounded in truth) of an entire population opposed to the fascist regime and the war and united to fight for freedom under the banners of Resistance. “The Italian” is characterized by a natural and inherent goodness, incapable of committing cruel and atrocious acts. The responsibility for such acts is transferred onto the German “monsters”, typically cold and sadistic SS officers with the ultimate decision regarding life and death. After the war, this myth allows survivors to erase any sense of guilt, to consider Italy as a place to find shelter and relief after terrible persecutions, and to regard the Italian language as a more “comfortable”, less traumatic means of expressing the scars of the past.
The Shoah foundation online testimony video archive will be extremely helpful for this course, since videos are divided into the following categories: Pre-War, Hiding, Ghettos, Camps, Liberation, and Post-War. We will follow this schematic to organize the class. We will use the following learning materials: Shoah foundation online videos in Italian, diaries or literary works about the subject, and clips of movies or entire movies, which the students will have to read or watch.
Grading:
15% Midterm ExamThursday February 25th
20% Final paperThursday April 29th
45% Papers (3 papers, 15 % each)Paper 1 due Tuesday February 2nd
Paper 2 dueThursday March 11th
Paper 3 dueThursday April 15th
10% Oral presentations
5% Participation
5% Attendance, writing assignments
Course Requirements:
1)IN CLASS. Class will be held exclusively in Italian. Students will be expected to participate in class activities and discussions.
2)EXAMS. There will be a midterm exam based on readings, outside materials and class discussions.
3)PAPERS ASSIGNMENTS. There will be three short writing assignments. Each paper will be 3 typed, double-spaced pages and will be handed in at the beginning of class. The essays will be graded on content and form so that spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax must be carefully considered. (More specific guidelines regarding the individual papers will be given out separately).
4)FINAL PAPER. There will be a final research paper in Italian. The paper will be 5 typed, double-spaced pages and will be handed in at the beginning of the last class. (More specific guidelines regarding the individual papers will be given out separately).
5)ORAL PRESENTATIONS. Students will be expected to lead a class discussion on one assigned reading and on one assigned video and to give oral presentations on the authors/texts/movies studied in class.
6)HOMEWORL, PARTICIPATION, AND ATTENDANCE.
In class you will be expected to participate actively in the discussion of the reading the material. Students will have to write daily three-four questions about the reading material, videos, and movies they had to watch to ask to their classmates and to answer a few questions the teacher will send by email to facilitate the discussion.
Regular attendance in this course is mandatory. Absences and excessive tardiness also will have an adverse effect on the grade.
7)READING ASSIGNMENTS
Most of the reading material is online. The teacher will provide handouts and/or files with the reading material that cannot be found online. During the week end the teacher will send an email and post on blackboard the homework and reading assignments for the following week.
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(NB: There may be modifications to reading assignments and class scedules at any time during the term at the discretion of the instructor)
Conversation and Tutorials
All instructors of Italian will be available one hour a week for conversation and tutorials. The schedule will be posted on the web page of the LanguageCenter (
Policy for Make-Ups and Assignements
There are no make-up dates for the midterm exam. Written assignments should be turned in on scheduled due dates. Late papers will detract from your final grade by one grade below for each day (for istance a B+ paper due on Tuesday and turned in Thursdat will receive a B-)
Accommodation Based on Disability
Students requesting academic accommodation based on disability are required to register with the Office of Disability Services and Programs (DSP). A letter of verification can be obtained from DSP, when adequate documentation is filed. DSP is open Monday to Friday 8.30 am- 5 pm. The office is located in the Student Union, room 301, phone number (213) 740 – 0776, email: .
A Note on Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a serious offense and could result in your dismissal from USC. All instances of suspected plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action. If you borrow words or an idea from any source, whether it be a book, journal, magazine, the Internet, or a lecture, you need to indicate where the information came from. Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference identifies three different acts that are considered plagiarism: “(1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases [of other texts] into your own words” (Hacker 261). If you have any questions regarding plagiarism, please ask me.
Basic Classroom Manners.
-Turn off all cell phones.
-Do not conduct private conversations or pack up books and papers while theprofessor or other students are speaking.
-Once class has begun, remain alert and focused; do not dohomework. Do not leave the room.!
-Do not arrive late or leave early.
-Do nothing that interrupts the focused attention of the professorand the class.
WEEK 1.Jan 12-14
COURSE INTRODUCTION AND THE JEWISH POPULATION IN ITALY BEFORE WWII
WEEK 2-3.Jan 19-21-26-28
THE JEWISH SITUATION DURING THE FASCIST REGIME: Propaganda, Racial Laws, Segregation, and War
WEEK 4-5.Feb 2-4-9-11First paper February 2nd
DURING THE WAR: 1943, The Italian Social Republic, Deportations
WEEK 6-7Fe. 16-18-23-25Midterm Exam February 25th
DURING THE WAR: Deportations, Massacres, and Camps
WEEK 8-9.March 2-4-9-11Second Paper March 11th
DURING THE WAR: Camps in Italy and in the Third Reich
WEEK 10.Spring Break
WEEK 11.March 23-25
LIBERATION
WEEK 12.March 30-April 1
AFTER THE WAR: Perpetrators and Victims
WEEK 13-14.April 6-8-13-15Third Paper April 15th
AFTER THE WAR: Victims and Bystanders
WEEK 15.April 20-22
AFTER THE WAR: Bystanders
WEEK 16.April 27-29Final Paper April 29th
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
READINGS
Websites
-La persecuzione degli ebrei in Italia
-Il giorno della memoria
-Fondazione memoria della deportazione
Extracts from Books
-Bassani, Giorgio. Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini. Milano: Mondadori. 1974.
-Bosonetto Marco, Nonno Rosenstein nega tutto. Milano: Baldini e Castoldi, 2002.
-Bruck, Edith. L’attrice Bruck, Venezia: Marsilio. 1995.
-Bruck, Edith. Signora Auschwitz. Marsilio: Venezia. 1999.
-Deaglio Enrico. La banalità del bene. Storia di Giorgio Perlasca. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2002.
-De Benedetti, Giacomo. 6 ottobre 1943. Palermo: Sellerio. 1993.
-Levi Primo. I sommersi e i salvati. Torino: Einaudi, 1986.
-Levi Primo. L’asimmestria e la vita. Torino: Einaudi, 1997.
-Levi Primo. La tregua. Torino: Einaudi, 1997.
-Levi, Primo. Se questo è un uomo. Torino: Einaudi, 1973.
-Loy Rosetta. La parola ebreo. Torino: Einaudi. 1997.
-Millù, Liana. Il fumo di Birkenau. Firenze: La Giuntina. 2001.
-Springer, Elisa. Il silenzio dei vivi. Venezia: Marsilio. 1997.
MOVIES AND VIDEOS
Websites
-USC Shoah Foundation college.usc.edu/vhi/
-Testimonianze dai lager
Movies
-Kapò (1959) Regia: Gillo Pontecorvo
-L'oro di Roma (1961) Regia: Carlo Lizzani
-Il giardino dei Finzi Contini (1970) Regia: Vittorio De Sica
-Il portiere di notte (1974) Regia: Liliana Cavani
-Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975) Regia: Lina Wertmueller
--La tregua(1996)Regia: Francesco Rosi
-La vita è bella (1997) Regia: Roberto Benigni
-Il cielo cade (2000) Regia: Andrea e Antonio Frazzi
-Concorrenza sleale (2001) Regia: Ettore Scola
-Perlasca, un eroe italiano(2002)/TV Regia: Alberto Negrin
-La guerra è finita (2002)/TV Regia: Lodovico Gasparini
-La finestra di fronte (2003) Regia: Ferzan Ozpetek
-Volevo solo vivere. Gli ebrei italiani raccontano la Shoah. (2006)/documentario Regia: Mimmo Calopresti
-Dear Anne. The Gift of Hope (2006)/animazione Regia: Dario Picciau
Reference
Useful Websites:
-Holocaust/ Shoah: Education Resources and Projects
-Enciclopedia dell’Olocausto
-Remember Education
-Cybrary of the Holocaust.
-The Nizkor Project.
-Simon Wiesenthal Center.
-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
-Women and the Holocaust:
-Yad-Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial of Israel
In Italian
-Olokaustus
-Storia e menoria
-Testimonianze dal lager
-Fondazione Fossoli Ex-campo
-Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea di Milano
Books
-Gertie Lerer. The Young Soapmaker.
-Terence Des Pres, The Survivor
-Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History
-Lawrence Langer, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination
-Raul Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews, student ed.
-Raul Hilberg. Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders
-Bruno Bettelheim. Surviving and other Essays
-Remo Bodei. Il libro della memoria e della speranza.
Online Dictionaries:
Online Thesaurus:
parole.alice.it/parole
Online Criticism
(English)
(Italian)
Other Useful Websites
-Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
One of our most important projects is mounting the full proceedings of the Trial of the Major German War Criminals..
-Books and Websites about the Holocaust For Young Adults
-Shoah-Projekt
DEUTSCH: you will find, besides a huge range of commented links, information about the concentration camp in Dachau, about the Resistance group "The White Rose" and others,
-Women and the Holocaust
-Literature of the Holocaust
-I*EARN's Holocaust/Genocide Project
-Project Advisor David Dickerson's Page:
Holocaust/Shoah
Antisemitism
Jewish Culture and History
- Holocaust Education in Germany
-Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
This Web Site has the entire text of the book "Pius XII and the Holocaust" A Reader which contains documentation on the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust. About 50% of this volume was written in 1963 by Dr. Joseph Lichten, a Jewish Polish lawyer who served as the Director on International Affairs Department for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai N'rith.
-Berkeley Student's Research on Survivors
-Women Writers of the Holocaust
-Dickinson State University's Internet Holocaust Course
-Anne Frank Exhibit New Mexico Home Page: