85118 - Italian Pop Cultures (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have a general knowledge of the processes of production and consumption of popular culture in Italy. They will have studied major theoretical issues and empirical cases from different sectors (e.g. music, movies, newspapers, books). They will be able to analyze the cultural meanings and social effects of popular culture in Italy, focusing also on the role of cultural institutions, the media system, and the political field. They will be able to interpret the relevance of popular culture for the social construction of national identities in Italy. In particular, they will be able to recognize and analyze a variety of Italian cultural objects from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

The program of the course is articulated in two major sections.

The first section focuses on the theoretical state of the art. It reconstructs and defines core concepts from the academic fields of cultural sociology as well as media and cultural studies. The aim is building a conceptual tool-kit to analyze the socially constructed and historically rooted – yet contested and changeable – meanings of the notions of “Italian”, “Popular”, and, especially, “Culture(s)”.

The second section presents the results of various empirical research projects on Italian popular cultures carried out over the last two decades. The aim is to apply the conceptual tool-kit outlined in the first section to a variety of cultural objects and case studies, in order to explore, among others, such issues as the role of popular culture and media rituals in the construction of (trans-)national identity; the relationship between popular culture and national politics in Italy; the ways in which digital cultures and younger generations are redefining what constitutes popular culture in Italy today. Special attention will be paid to how these redefinitions unfold within an increasingly globalized and interconnected hybrid media ecosystem.

Readings/Bibliography

The course readings refer to the two sections of the program and include two books plus a list of papers. This bibliography is valid for both attending and non-attending students.

The books are:

Grazian, David (2023), Mix It Up. Popular Culture, Mass Media, and Society. Third edition. New York, W.W.Norton & Co.

Poell, Thomas, David B. Nieborg, and Brooke Erin Duffy (2021), Platforms and Cultural Production. Cambridge, Polity Press.

The list of papers addressing a variety of case studies on Italian popular culture will be available online on Virtuale at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

The teaching method will follow a flipped classroom approach: readings and exercises will be carried out independently, while in class, we will discuss the emerging issues and collaboratively work on specific case studies.

Assessment methods

Students are required to write a final essay. The paper must be submitted to the professor via email no later than one day before the exam date. Both the content and the structure of the paper must be discussed in advance and approved by the professor via email. In order for the paper’s grade to be officially registered, students must sign up for the exam through AlmaEsami.

The paper's length will be 25.000-35.000 characters, spaces and bibliography included. The achievement of an organic vision of the themes based on the readings, the use of specific language, the ability to show knowledge of contemporary Italian pop cultures, as well as the ability to link single cultural products to the wider social and cultural context will be evaluated with excellent grades. An ability to synthetize or analyse that is not very well articulated, and a correct but not always appropriate language lead to average evaluations. Gaps in knowledge or inappropriate language, such as a lack of knowledge of readings and contexts, allow the student to obtain grades on the threshold of sufficiency. Knowledge gaps, inappropriate language, lack of familiarity with the bibliography and inability to analyze are evaluated negatively.

In accordance with the University of Bologna’s official policy on the use of Artificial Intelligence in teaching and learning, students are reminded that the final paper must be the result of original and autonomous work. For further details, please consult the University’s guidelines on AI usage.

Teaching tools

Slides will incorporate images, videos, and audio materials. Additional online resources and open-access tools relevant to case studies discussed in class will also be employed.

Office hours

See the website of Federico Pilati