27928 - Laboratory (1) (LM) (G.A)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the workshop, students will be able to collect and organize complex information in a coherent way and to apply critical analysis methodologies to linguistic sciences. Moreover, students will possess the necessary skills to identify a research topic in the field of philological studies and to address it through an appropriate use of primary sources.

Course contents

Italy first? Migratory movements and multicultural identities

The recent obsession with racial purity and national primacy (pursued while trying, at the same time, to promote regional and local partitions) stands in sharp contrast with the long-standing presence of “foreign” languages, cultures, food and traditions – all of which have contributed to making every part of Italy different and unique, thanks to the different populations that have met on this land, but also thanks to millions of migrants that have left Italy.

A detailed analysis is therefore necessary to trace the cultural stratifications that have come to define our ever-evolving civilization – a civilization that still struggles to accept migrants and refugees fleeing from wars and famines caused by neo-colonialism. An inhumane policy issuing from Fortress Europe's war of exclusion against immigrants, fought in the name of selfishness and racism and aimed at blocking those borders, over land and sea, across which different populations and ideas, languages and cultures have travelled over the centuries.

The narrative exercises of the Intercultural Writing Workshop therefore aim at responding to the need of keeping dialogue and exchange going beyond customary barriers. The workshop also intends to become a place for the experimentation of new communities through the shared elaboration of stories, tales and narratives that can help us overcome negative stereotypes concerning migration – a phenomenon involving human society from its very origin.

Readings/Bibliography

Reading lists and other relevant material concerning both interculturalism and the creative writing exercises will be pointed out and used during the workshop.

Teaching methods

The workshop consists of eight 4-hour meetings, which will take place under the supervision of Wu Ming 2 and Prof. Filippo Milani. In-between each meeting, students will have time to edit and finalize the texts elaborated in class according to a shared timetable.

Meetings will take place on Fridays, 3 to 7 p.m., in the Aula GUGLIELMI, Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica, starting from FEBRUARY to APRIL 2020.

The workshop aims to develop collective writing, issuing in its turn from the contact between native identities and foreign cultures. Therefore, the 35 participants will be selected by taking into account their native culture and language, as well as their proficiency in written Italian.

Students should apply starting from Jenuary 2020 through the website https://eventi.unibo.it/scrittura-interculturale-2020 . In their CV, students are required to detail their previous experiences in the field of creative writing and their ongoing interest in the topic of migration.

 

Assessment methods

The purpose of the workshop is to create intercultural short stories characterized by high standards in terms of both content and form. These short stories will then be collected and published on the Eks&Tra website.

The volumes containing the texts developed in recent editions of the workshop are freely available as e-pubs or pdfs on the following website: www.eksetra .net.

Documented attendance is mandatory for students enrolled in the following degree programs: Italianistica, Culture Letterarie Europee, Scienze Linguistiche of the Scuola di Lettere e Beni culturali, as well as for all the students incorporating the workshop into their academic curriculum. Completion of the workshop grants 6 CFUs.

For students attending the Corso di Laurea Magistrale di Lingua e Cultura italiana per stranieri (LM-39), the workshop will be considered 92646 SEMINARIO (R) (LM) 0983. In this case, the completion of the workshop grants 3 CFUs.

The final pass/fail evaluation and the CFUs will be assigned following the student’s attendance of all the meetings and a detailed assessment of his/her written production.

Teaching tools

The Intercultural Creative Writing Workshop is a collaborative project organised by the Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica of the Università di Bologna and the Associazione Eks&Tra. Its aim is to offer applicable knowledge for an evolving citizenry.

After a general introduction on the key principles of narratology, students – divided into groups – will focus on the development of an original short story. Great attention will be paid to the analysis of the plot, as well as of the style and language used.

The meetings are intended to stimulate conversation and collective creativity, thereby facilitating encounters and mutual “contamination” through narratives which explore crosscutting themes and current issues. The workshop seeks to promote collaboration between different voices willing to open themselves to the perspective of people coming from other countries and to exchange those perspectives with their own in order to build possible roads to a multicultural future. By renouncing a single point of view, it is possible to understand and appreciate different attitudes, thus spurring a clever imaginative flexibility when practicing interculturalism.

Office hours

See the website of Fulvio Pezzarossa