90091 - Social and Cultural History of Contemporary Age

Learning outcomes

The course is addressed to students of cultural heritage; it aims to give basic knowledge of history of contemporary society and culture even with respect to material and immaterial cultural heritage. The first part of the course is methodological and historiographical, and the second part is devoted to an analysis of particularly documents and sources, that will be used for written and oral exams. At the end of the course the students will have the basic knowledge of some of the most important social transformations in Europe and in the Western World from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the 20th century including the related cultural processes. The students will acquire a basic competence in heuristics and in critical analysis of different types of sources, a knowledge of historiographical issues and methodologies of social and cultural history, and will be able to frame critically the main social and cultural events and phenomena, placing them in the general historical context.

Course contents

The course will be divided into two modules: a first module of a methodological historiographic nature; a second monographic module conducted on documents and sources indicated by the teacher, also as the basis for a written or oral exercise.

The first module, of an institutional nature, intends to provide a critical-methodological reading of the social and cultural history of the contemporary age, following the new and recent historiographical orientations: the new history, the history from below, the history of images, the history of culture, urban history, gender history, micro-history etc.

The second module will have a monographic character and will be dedicated to the theme of cultures and representations of the world of work from the nineteenth century until today: peasant work, artisan and proto-industrial work, women's work, up to the work of the large factory Fordist.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students:
1) For the historiographical-methodological part a preparation is required on the materials distributed by the teacher during the lessons.
2) The study of a monographic volume chosen from those indicated in Part B (general monographs).
3) An oral exercise or report, in the form of seminars during the second part of the course on a volume ( to be chosen from those reported in part C), or a source agreed with the teacher on the specific part of the course concerning history, culture and representations of the world of work in contemporary age.

For non-attending students:
1) It requires the study of two texts of your choice among those recommended in point A.
2) A work chosen among those of group B (general monographs).
3) Two works chosen among those of group C (specific texts for the monographic part of the course

Bibliography

To understand the main historiographical paradigms of social and cultural history in the contemporary age, students will have to have a basic knowledge of the main events of contemporary history; the manual is recommended in this regard S. Lupo, A. Ventrone, L'età contemporanea, Milano, Mondadori education, 2018.

A) Methodology

A. Arcangeli, Che cos'è la storia culturale, Carocci, 2007.

P. Burke, Una rivoluzione storiografica. La scuola delle Annales 1929-1989, Bari, Laterza, 1990.

P. Burke, La storia culturale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.

C. Ginzburg, Il filo e le tracce. Vero falso finto, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2006.

S. Portelli, Storie orali. Racconto, immaginazione, dialogo, Roma Donzelli, 2007.

P. Sorcinelli, Il quotidiano e i sentimenti. Viaggio nella storia sociale, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2014.

La storia culturale. Parabole di un approccio critico al passato, a cura di R. Petri, A. Salomoni, L. Tomassini, «Memoria e Ricerca», n. 40, maggio-agosto 2012.

P. Bertella Farnetti, L. Bertucelli, A. Botti (a cura di), Public history. Discussioni e pratiche, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2017.

 

C) General monographs

A.M. Banti, Eros e Virtù. Aristocratiche e borghesi da Watteau a Manet, Bari, Laterza, 2016.

P. Burke, Testimoni oculari. Il significato storico delle immagini, Roma Carozzi, 2011.

E.J. Hobsbawm, T. Ranger, L'invenzione della tradizione, Torino, Einaudi, 1987.

N. Zamon Davis, La storia al cinema. La schiavitù sullo schermo da Kubrick a Spielberg, Con una nota di Alessandro Portelli, Roma Viella, 2007.

G. Duby, M. Perrot, Storia delle donne in Occidente, vol. 4 L’Ottocento, o vol. 5 Il Novecento, Laterza, 2011.

U. Frevert, H.G. Haupt, L'uomo dell'Ottocento, Laterza, 1999.

PH. Ariès, G. Duby, La vita privata, L'Ottocento, Laterza, 2001 [1986].

F. Ramella, Terra e telai: sistemi di parentela e manifattura nel Biellese dell'Ottocento, Torino, Einaudi, 1983.

A.M. Banti, Sublime madre nostra. La nazione italiana dal Risorgimento al fascismo, Bari, laterza, 2011.

E. Franzina, Merica! Merica! Emigrazione e colonizzazione nelle lettere dei contadini veneti e friulani in America latina (1876-1902), Cierre Edizioni, 1994.

A. Pellegrino, Patria e lavoro. La Fratellanza artigiana d'Italia fra identità sociale e pedagogia nazionale, Firenze, Polistampa, 2012.

E. Leed, Terra di nessuno. Esperienza bellica e identità personale nella prima guerra mondiale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1985.

A. Gibelli, La guerra grande: storia di gente comune, Bari, Laterza, 2014.

D. Sassoon, La cultura degli Europei. Dal 1800 a oggi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2011 (due capitoli a scelta da concordare con il docente).

D. Sassoon, La Gioconda. L'avventurosa storia del quadro più famoso del mondo, Torino, Carocci, 2004.

D) Specific texts for the monographic part of the course

Z. Bauman, Memorie di classe. Preistoria e sopravvivenza di un concetto, Torino, Einaudi, 1987.

E.J.P. Thompson, Rivoluzione industriale e classe operaia in Inghilterra, Milano, Il saggiatore, 1969.

E.J. Hobsbawm, Lavoro, cultura e mentalità nella società industriale, Bari, laterza, 1986.

S. Musso, Storia del lavoro in Italia, Venezia, Marsilio 2011.

A. Medici, F. Rancati, Immagini del lavoro. La fabbrica, la terra, la città, il mare, la miniera, la ferrovia, la frontiera in cento fil, Roma Ediesse, 2001.

La sortie des usines. Il lavoro industriale nei cento anni del cinema, a cura dell'Archivio audiovisivo del movimento operaio e democratico, Roma, Ediesse, 1995.

C. Martinelli, Fare i lavoratori? Le scuole industriali e artistico-industriali italiane in età liberale, Roma, Aracne, 2019.

A. Pescarolo, Il lavoro delle donne nell'Italia contemporanea, Viella, 2019.

A. Pellegrino, Operai intellettuali. Lavoro, tecnologia e progresso all'esposizione di Milano (1906), Bari, Lacaita, 2008.

A. Pellegrino, La città più artigiana d’Italia, Firenze 1861-1929, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2012.

R. Sennet, L'uomo flessibile. Le conseguenze del nuovo capitalismo sulla vita personale, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2001.

B. Settis, Fordismi. Storia politica della produzione di massa, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016.

C.G. De Vito, Global labour History. La storia del lavoro al tempo della globalizzazione, Verona, ombre corte, 2012.

 

 

 

Teaching methods

Projections of documentary materials, films, images are foreseen; in the second part of the course there will be a series of exercises on some samples of sources, to introduce at a didactic level some problems related to the reconstruction and interpretation of social and cultural history, and to the methodology of historical work in relation to the use of the sources of the themes in object.

Assessment methods

For attending students: in addition to forms of classroom participation during the lessons, an oral exercise on a topic related to the course on first-hand sources, and a final check on the day of the exam is expected.

The final examination will cover the knowledge acquired during the course through three questions concerning the ability to frame the main strands of social and cultural history, the new guidelines and the various subjects and topics of application.

The grade of the exam will be determined by the average of the scores obtained in the oral exercise in the classroom above and the score of the final examination.

Non-attending students:
1) It requires the study of two texts of your choice among those recommended in point A).
2) A work chosen among those of group B (general monographs).
3) Two works chosen among those of group C (specific texts for the monographic part of the course).

The knowledge of the social and cultural history of the contemporary age for the methodological part provides the ability to frame the main strands and social and cultural history, the new orientations and the various subjects and themes of application. For the part relating to monographic and methodological works, it is necessary to highlight the essential issues addressed in the volume and the main historiographical issues that emerge from reading.

 

Teaching tools

Basic equipment will be used for the presentation of slides, illustrations and short films to support teaching.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Pellegrino