JWC3150

Contemporary Italian Jewish Writers in Translation ( 6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL)

Leader: Mirna Cicioni

Offered:
Clayton Second semester 2005 (Day)

Synopsis: Unit introduces students to the way some themes recognised as belonging to 'Jewish writing' are treated in texts by writers deeply rooted within post-World War II Italian history and culture. The themes are the notion of 'chosenness'; ethical imperatives; faith and doubt; survival and continuity; memory, preservation and forgetting; marginality and integration. The unit helps students to analyse the construction of 'Jewish subjects' in autobiographical texts (inc: Levi, Sereni, Zargani) and in autobiographical fiction (Bassani's novels). Students are enabled to reflect on the way the different texts reconstruct and interpret Italian history from the 1920s to the end of the twentieth century.

Objectives: On completion of this unit students will be able to: 1. Analyse, describe and recognize various types of autobiographical constructs, with specific references to issues of Jewish identities. 2. Understand the prescribed texts in terms of their literary, historical and cultural contexts. 3. Understand, discuss and analyse the texts both as literary constructs and as different views of the intersections between the private and public spheres before the anti-Semitic laws of 1938 in Italy, between the 1938 and 1945, and in post World War II Italian society. In addition, students at third year level will be able to demonstrate: 4. A deeper understanding of issues relating to memory, autobiography, the public and private. 5. An ability to apply this understanding to texts of their choice not analysed in lectures and tutorials.

Assessment: Essay (2500 words): 40% + Seminar paper (500 words): 10% + Seminar participation: 15% + Two written reading reports (400 words each): 20% + Oral report: 15%

Contact Hours: 3 hours (1 x 2 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial) per week