ITALIAN 45/Reading Italy Through Fashion, Cinema and the Media (PLAS, Cultural Values (CV) and European Traditions (ET) Requirements
NEW COURSE NEW COURSE NEW COURSE
TTH: 10:45-12:00 Room : Rathaus 208
Prof. Paulicelli
How do we define Italian culture, national identity and the
process of nation building especially today in an increasingly globalized world
and market? How can fashion both as an industry and as symbolic and immaterial
meanings and values contribute to the creation of the Italian nation and
identity? Investigating these and other questions through an analysis of fashion
and the media that have shaped its power and diffusion, the course focusses on several
periods crucial to Italian fashion: the beginning of the 20th century
with futurism and fascism; the post-WWII years when Italian fashion was
launched globally; the 1960s and the economic miracle; and the triumph of Milan
and the pret-a-porter in the late 1970s and 1980s. The course will conclude
with an analysis of the cultural, social and political landscape of today’s
Italy, the challenges of immigration and how different ethnic groups (Chinese,
Indian, Albanian, North African, etc.) are contributing to Italy’s creative
industries and also reshaping and rethinking nation, identity and urban space. The
students will read primary and secondary sources on the history of Italian
fashion and design and theories of dress, gender and the body in order to
critically understand the connections between the meanings of dress, behaviour,
lifestyle, and technologies of body and mind. The material will be available as
PDF files. Students will be required to do a final project (either a paper or a
digital project) , a midterm exam and give oral presentations on topics covered
in class.