Il corso fornisce allo/a studente la conoscenza e facilita la comprensione degli aspetti metodologici della critica e della teoria letteraria in relazione a specifici campi di ricerca come gli studi di genere, la teoria critica sulla razza, gli studi culturali, postcoloniali e decoloniali, e gli studi sulle migrazioni. Contribuisce alla capacità dello/a studente di porre in relazione quanto appreso in questo corso con i saperi acquisiti negli altri corsi e promuove lo sviluppo della sua capacità di giudizio e abilità comunicativa. Promuove l’apprendimento di specifici approcci teorici che consentano di comprendere l’importanza degli immaginari dominanti e delle contronarrazioni nei diversi contesti culturali. Promuove la comprensione della contemporaneità e la connessione di contesti storici, sociali e geopolitici transnazionali attraverso l’analisi delle loro produzioni letterarie e culturali.
MOBILITIES: NARRATIVES AND COUNTERNARRATIVES (10599920)
Laurea
Triennale in Global Humanities
Caterina
Romeo
a.a. 2025-2026
Class schedule: M 10:00 am – 12:00 noon, Aula Ernesto
De Martino (Lettere e Filosofia, 4th floor)
Th 12:00
noon – 02:00 pm, Aula Ernesto De Martino (Lettere e Filosofia, 4th floor)
Starting Date: 06 October 2025
Office
hours: W
09:45-11:45 am (Studio B, 4th floor, Lettere e Filosofia)
It is mandatory
to sign up to Google Classroom with your Sapienza email
course code: gbi7g3j6
The course aims to provide knowledge and understanding of the methodological tools of literary theory
and criticism in relation to specific fields of inquiry such as gender studies,
critical race studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, decolonial
studies, and migration studies. The course will enable students to become acquainted
with specific theoretical approaches and different cultural forms and to read
literature with a specific attention to how imaginaries are forged and
counternarratives articulated in different cultures and societies. Students
will learn how to apply the
acquired knowledge as the foundation to better understand contemporaneity and
to connect different historical, social, and geopolitical contexts through
their transnational literary and cultural productions. This year we will have a
special guest, Prof. Francesco Ricatti from the Australian National University
in Canberra (Australia), who is going to be Visiting Professor for the whole
semester and will co-teach the course with me. We will devote a section of the
course to Italian migrations to Brazil, the USA, and Australia, and to settler
colonialism in Australia.
Il corso fornisce alla/o studente la conoscenza e
facilita la comprensione degli aspetti metodologici della critica e della
teoria letteraria in relazione a specifici campi di ricerca come gli studi di
genere, la teoria critica sulla razza, gli studi culturali, postcoloniali e
decoloniali, e gli studi sulle migrazioni. Contribuisce alla capacità della/o
studente di porre in relazione quanto appreso in questo corso con i saperi
acquisiti negli altri corsi e promuove lo sviluppo della sua capacità di
giudizio e abilità comunicativa. Promuove l’apprendimento di specifici approcci
teorici che consentano di comprendere l’importanza degli immaginari dominanti e
delle contronarrazioni nei diversi contesti culturali. Promuove la comprensione
della contemporaneità e la connessione di contesti storici, sociali e
geopolitici transnazionali attraverso l’analisi delle loro produzioni
letterarie e culturali. Quest’anno sarà nostro ospite il Prof. Francesco
Ricatti, della Australian National University di Canberra, che è stato invitato
per una Visiting Professorship in Sapienza per tutto il semestre e che terrà il
corso insieme a me. Dedicheremo una sezione del corso alle migrazioni italiane
in Brasile, negli Stati Uniti e in Australia, e al settler colonialism in
Australia.
READING LIST
Books
House on Mango Street, NY: Vintage, 1991, https://mrperrysclassroom.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/the-house-on-mango-street.pdf
Reader (all texts
have been uploaded onto Google Classroom or are available online):
- Raewyn Connell, “Preface” and “The Question
of Gender,” Short Introductions – Gender (second edition), Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2009, p. IX-XI and 1-12.
- Alana Lentin & Debbie Bargallie
(2024), “Key Concepts and Definitions for Building Racial Literacy”: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/asset/12880/building-racial-literacy-guide.pdf
and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities,” in Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader, eds. Les Back and John
Solomos, NY and London: Routledge, 144-153.
- Giulia Riccò, “Introduction” to The
Italian Colony of São Paulo: Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Brazil,
New York, Fordham UP, 2025, pp. 1-18.
Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging, Norton, 2006, p. 17-50.
*
Edvige Giunta, “Figuring Race,” in Are Italians White? How Race Is Made in
America, NY and London: Routledge, 2001, p. 224-233.
“Introduction Settler colonialism as a distinct mode of domination,” The
Routledge Handbook of the History of Settler Colonialism, ed. Edward
Cavanagh and Lorenzo Veracini, New York: Routledge, 2016, pp. 1-9.
- Francesco Ricatti, Italians in Australia: History,
Memory, Identity, chapter 4, “Race and Racial Ambiguity in a Settler
Colonial Context,” Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 53-71.
- Debbie Bargallie, “Foreword.
Researching on Storied Lands: Reflexivity, Sovereignty, and the Ethics of
Migration Research,” Researching Migration on Indigenous Lands: Challenges,
Reflections, Pathways, eds. Andonis Piperoglou and Francesco Ricatti,
2025, IMISCOE/Springer (open access), https://link.springer.com/book/9783031993275 .
- Francesco Ricatti, “Indigenous Sovereignty and Multilingual Multiculturalism:
Challenging the Monolingual Hegemony of Settler Colonialism,” Chapter 5 of Researching
Migration on Indigenous Lands: Challenges, Reflections, Pathways,
eds. Andonis Piperoglou and Francesco Ricatti, 2025, pp. 1-29, IMISCOE/Springer
(open access), https://link.springer.com/book/9783031993275 .
- Paola Balla, Black female acts of
disruption (continued), Altreitalie 59, pp. 16-26. (See also
one of Paola Balla's artwork: https://photo.org.au/artists/paola-balla/ and a short interview with Paola
Balla: https://youtu.be/Uj2QvksvWk0?si=2bYh76kQuhmwSy40 )
- Tony Birch, The White Girl, NY, HarperVia, 2019, pp. 1-42 (chapter
1-3).
with Paul Daley,” The Guardian, June 6, 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/07/tony-birch-on-the-white-girl-no-aboriginal-person-i-know-is-intact
- Luca Peretti (ed.), “Built to last? Material legacies of Italian Colonialism,” Interviews with
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Alessandra Ferrini, Viviana Gravano, Hannes Obermair,
Resistenze in Cirenaica, Igiaba Scego, and Colletivo Tezeta, Interventions
26.7(2024), pp. 1051-1068.
Lectures and Interviews (online)
Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single
Story, TED Talk, July 2009, https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en
Film
(watched in class)
** Little Soldier, regia di Annette K. Olesen, 2008 (in Danish with
English subtitles)
Attendance is not
mandatory. However, due to the complexity of the course, it is highly
recommended.
EXAM: You can take the exam either written or
oral. There will be only ONE date for the written exam, namely the second
appello in January. On all the other subsequent dates, the exam will be oral.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Class 1 – M October 6
to the course
Adichie, The
Danger of a Single Story, TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en
Class 2 – Th October 9
- Raewyn Connell, “Preface” and “The Question
of Gender,” IX-XI and 1-12.
Class 3 – M October 13 (with Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
- Alana Lentin & Debbie Bargallie (2024), “Key
Concepts and Definitions for Building Racial Literacy,” https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/asset/12880/building-racial-literacy-guide.pdf
Class 4 – Th October 16
House on Mango Street, p. 3-61.
Class 5 – M October 20
- Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street,
p. 62-110.
Class 6 – Th October 23
- Stuart Hall, “Old and New Identities, Old and New
Ethnicities,” p. 144-153.
Class 7 – M October 27
- Giulia Riccò, “Introduction” to The Italian Colony of São Paulo: Race, Class, and
Cultural Capital in Brazil, New York, Fordham UP, 2025, pp. 1-18.
Class 8 – Th October 30
- Kym Ragusa, The Skin Between Us, pp. 17-50.
Class 9 – M November 3
*
Edvige Giunta, “Figuring Race,” p. 224-233.
Class 10 – Th November 6 (with
Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
“Introduction Settler colonialism as a distinct mode of domination,” pp. 1-9.
Class 11 – M November 10 (with Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
- Francesco Ricatti, Italians in Australia,
Chapter 4, pp. 53-71.
Class 12 – Th November 13 (with Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
- Debbie Bargallie, “Foreword.
Researching on Storied Lands: Reflexivity, Sovereignty, and the Ethics of
Migration Research.”
- Francesco Ricatti, “Indigenous Sovereignty and Multilingual Multiculturalism:
Challenging the Monolingual Hegemony of Settler Colonialism,” pp.
1-29.
Class 13
- M November 17 (with Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
- Francesco Ricatti, “Indigenous Sovereignty and Multilingual Multiculturalism:
Challenging the Monolingual Hegemony of Settler Colonialism,” pp.
1-29.
Class 14 – Th November 20
*
Film screening in class: Little Soldier, dir. Annette K. Olesen, 2008 (in Danish with English subtitles)
Class 15
- M November 24
- Film discussion
Class 16
- Th November 27 (with Prof. Francesco Ricatti)
- Paola Balla, “Black female acts of
disruption (continued),” Altreitalie 59, pp. 16-26.
Class 17 – M December 1 (with Prof.
Francesco Ricatti)
- Tony Birch, The White Girl, pp. 1-42.
Class 18 – Th December 4 (with Prof.
Francesco Ricatti)
- Tony Birch, The White Girl, pp. 1-42.
- Tony Birch, “Interview with Paul Daley,” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/07/tony-birch-on-the-white-girl-no-aboriginal-person-i-know-is-intact
December 8 is a
national holiday – NO CLASS
Class 19 – Th December 11
Visit to the Museo delle Civiltà,
Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, 14 (EUR).
Class 20
- M December 15
- Luca Peretti (ed.), “Built to last? Material legacies of Italian Colonialism,” Interviews with
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Alessandra Ferrini, Viviana Gravano, Hannes Obermair,
Resistenze in Cirenaica, Igiaba Scego, and Colletivo Tezeta, Interventions
26.7(2024), pp. 1051-1068.
Class 21