81860 - Historians and Historiographic Practices (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Teaching Mode: Blended Learning
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in History and Oriental Studies (cod. 8845)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student demonstrates full understanding of the relationship between historiography and sources. Second, the student must be able to reconstruct the evolution of the historical method through the centuries. Thirdly, one must be able to distinguish the quality of the various sources available, both in positive (reliability) and in negative (possible falsifications).

Course contents

The course focuses on the historiography on Italian fascism. In the last years, the discussion around what is fascism led to a vast reconsideration of the meaning and the experience of Italian fascism in the European and global context. The lessons will interrogate the history of Fascism to understand in which way Fascism was able to mould the historical context in which it was born, how and if it transformed political, cultural, social elements that were already present in Italy.

The themes considered are violence, empire, politics, economy, culture, but also the impact of Fascism abroad in the Twenties and in the Thirties. The study of the incredibly complex and diverse nature of historical transformations during the interwar years provides an excellent perspective on historiography’s recent developments.

After a general course introduction, students (guided by the teacher) will be asked to read, and comment in depth on articles, chapters and primary sources focused on some of the most significant shifts in Italian politics, culture, and society, in close connection with the global context.


Readings/Bibliography

Giulia Albanese (a cura di), Il fascismo italiano Storia e interpretazioni, Carocci, Roma 2021

Fascismo: itinerari storiografici da un secolo all’altro, numero monografico di “Studi storici”, 2014, n. 1 (12 articles of your choice) [Download using J STOR in SBA UNIBO with proxy]

Aristotle Kallis, The ‘Fascist Effect’: On the Dynamics of Political Hybridization in Inter-War Europe, in Antonio Costa Pinto, Aristotle Kallis (eds), Rethinking Fascism and Dictatorship in Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2014, pp. 13-41

* Teaching materials not present in the department library will be available online on Virtuale

Teaching methods

After a few introductive lessons, the course will be articulated through lectures and seminars discussions. Students are expected to participate actively by attending all lessons, reading the assignated texts and take an active part in class discussions.

This course participates in the University's Teaching Innovation Project. The face-to-face lectures will therefore be alternated with five remote lectures, during which a group activity of a workshop nature will take place, focusing on the examination of primary sources.

Those unable to do so can always opt for an oral exam at a later stage, as foreseen by the programme.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 12 lessons are considered to be attending.

Students attending the seminar will read and discuss the assignements every lesson. At the end they will write a paper (10.000 signs).

Evaluation will be based on three elements: a) written review; b) study of Giulia Albanese (a cura di), Il fascismo italiano Storia e interpretazioni, Carocci, Roma 2021; c) participation in the seminar discussion, speeches and presentations.

For students not attending at least 12 classes of the seminar, the exam will be oral.

Thorough in-depth knowledge of the topics covered in the course, together with analytical and critical skills and command of the specific language, will qualify for top marks (30-30L).

A good grasp of the topics covered in the course, together with good critical analysis and command of the specific language, will qualify for high marks (27-29).

A more mechanical and less articulate grasp, and/or correct use of language though not always appropriate, will qualify for a medium-range mark (23-26).

Weak analytical capacity and frequently inappropriate language – together with some knowledge of exam material – will receive a pass mark or little more (18-22).

Mistakes of spelling and syntax (by native Italian students) will be heavily penalized, as befits a university examination, especially in a humanistic subject.

This is an integrated course (STORICI E STORIOGRAFIA). Therefore, the final mark will result from the average of the marks in both courses (STORICI E PRATICA STORIOGRAFICA and STORIA DELLA STORIOGRAFIA).

Teaching tools

Readings, analysis and discussion of articles and book chapters

Office hours

See the website of Alessio Gagliardi