29613 - History of European Social Institutions (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student is able to analyze the main social institutions which have have characterize Europe's history in the XIX and XX centuries, considering institutions in a broad way, not limited to the institutionalized social formations and bodies but also the social groups which have interacted with the institutions helping to change, or, on the contrary, to preserve them. The student is able to critically value the role of the elites , in the wide meaning of social elites and their formation and reproduction mechanisms. The student also knows how to use the sources in a critical way and the techniques used in the research historiography to study the social institutions, including data processing using computers.

Course contents

The subject of this year's course are the the European nobilities from the Old Regime to  the XXth  century, a topic quite negletted by the Italian historiography but  very considered by the international historical researches that in the last years have been focused expecially on the European nobilities in the XXth century ( see for example Nobilities in Europe in the Twentieth Century, a cura di Y. Kuiper, N. BiJleveld , J. Dronkers, Leuven, Paris, Bristol, Peeters, 2015).

The course aims to discuss  about the transformations of a social institutions which has been at the center of political, social, cultural and economic history during the early modern era and then has progressively lost importance in modern societies, despite retaining a relative political, social and cultural weight in the first part of the XXth  century.

A particular focus will be put on Italian nobility and those sources from archives, literary works and films through which it can be studied.

Readings/Bibliography

STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE LECTURES

Students who attend the lectures are required to submit a paper focusing one of the topics developed in the courses by professoe Sofia and malatesta.

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE LECTURES

Students who don't attend the lectures will have to study the following readings:

Jonathan Dewald, La nobiltà europea in età moderna, Einaudi 2001, pp. 1-286.

Maria Malatesta, Le aristocrazie terriere nell'Europa contemporanea, Laterza 1999, pp. 1-160.

Teaching methods

The course aims to focus on two methodological sides:

. The comparison, chronological and geographical, intended as fundamental way of teaching to understand the social and cultural transformations of a transnational class like nobility;

. The presentation and analysis of the sources which can be used to study the XX century nobility, with a special attention towards archive sources.

To help students who attend the lectures to undertake this approach and to enable them to bring this to fruition in the written paper, some preparatory practice classes will be held to help with the writing of history under the guidance of Dr Greta Fedele.

Assessment methods

STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE LECTURES

Students who attend the lectures are required to submit a paper focusing one of the topics developed in the courses by professor Sofia and professoer Malatesta. The evaluation of the papaer will consider the student's capacity to make use of sources and bibliograpy related to the selected topic. Students who demonstrate to heve a global outlook and a good design of the selected topic and to use an appropriate language, will receive an excellent evaluation.

Student who write a paper only based on the existing bibliography without making use of sources, will receive an adequate evaluation.

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE LECTURES

Students who do not attend the lectures will have to take an oral exam based on the required readings. The evaluation of the oral examination will depend on the correctness of contents, of the design and language used in answering to the questions.

 

The evaluation in both cases is unique and results from the arithmetic average of the two partial votes. Th oral examen must be supported with the two respective teachers in the same day.

Teaching tools

To support the teaching audiovisual tools will be used, especially films by directors of aristocratic origin like Luchino Visconti.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Malatesta