Leonardo Sciascia. The Day of the Owl [ISBN 978-1590170618]. Textbooks:
John Dickie. Cosa nostra: A History of the Sicilian mafia (excerpts included in the
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THIT360: Mafia, Murder, and Mystery: Crime in Contemporary Italian Literature and Cinema Course Syllabus Spring 2013
Type of Course: Lectures, film screenings, class discussions Credits: 4 (45 contact hours) Cross Listing: Italian Studies, Literature ,Media Studies, Schedule: TBA Instructor: Elgin K. Eckert, Ph.D.
Course Description Insights into Italian society and culture’s obsession with crime fiction (gialli) through a systematic study of popular mystery novels and representation of crime in cinematic fiction. This course will examine the different expressions of this genre (traditional giallo, hardboiled, noir, legal thriller, fictional reality) in Italian literature and cinema. Among the main topics that will be considered are: political commentary in contemporary crime fiction and film, immigration and the figure of the immigrant, the portrayal of the mafia and organized crime, and each author’s/filmmaker’s philosophy of justice/depiction of the Italian legal system. The course will discuss the history of this undervalued literary genre, which has until very recent times been disparaged in academic circles, and evaluate how from the mid-90s on the giallo has contributed to an Italian national literary “reawakening”. It will do so focusing on the sociological and cultural changes that took place in exactly those years in Italy, also focusing on films about historic crimes and organized criminal activity produced during those years. In this course, Leonardo Sciascia’s classic denouncement of the mafia The Day of the Owl (published 1961) will lay the bases for a discussion, but the rest of the works read will be nationally and internationally acclaimed works of the most successful authors of the last fifteen years (Carlo Lucarelli, Andrea Camilleri, and Gianrico Carofiglio), many of which have also been adapted for the screen.
Course Objectives Students in this course will analyze different works of of contemporary Italian cinematic and literary texts from a literary, historical and sociological point of view gain an understanding of the different expressions of the genre of crime fiction both in contemporary Italian literature and film. analyze contemporary Italian society’s obsession with crime literature – especially fictional texts about organized crime – in light of Italian media, political and socio-cultural reactions to the phenomenon. understand typical narrative dynamics behind crime films
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acquire a sufficient appreciation of the representation of phenomena of crime in Italian cinematic popular culture
Attendance: Attendance will be taken and will be part of your final grade. Over two absences will lower your grade. Furthermore, exam dates cannot be changed for any reason. Cellular/mobile telephones must be turned off during the class period. Use of a cell phone (such as texting) may be grounds for considering you absent from the class day. Similarly, computers may be used for taking notes during class lectures and discussions; however, surfing the net, browsing Facebook, etc. will lead to your being counted as absent from the class day. Grading Attendance and Participation 2 Short Papers Student presentations Midterm Written Assignment Final Exam
Letter Grade Range A AB+ B BC+ C CD+ D DF
Numerical Score Equivalent 93% - 100% 90% - 92% 87% -89% 83% - 86% 80% - 82% 77% - 79% 73% - 76% 70% - 72% 67% - 69% 63% - 66% 60% - 62% 59% or less
15% 30% 15% 20% 20%
Student Performance Exceptional Excellent Superior
Satisfactory
Low Pass Fail (no credit)
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Course Program Crime Novels: Andrea Camilleri. Excursion to Tindari, [ISBN 978-0330493031] ---. Rounding the Mark, [ISBN 978-0330447386] Gianrico Carofiglio. Involuntary Witness [ISBN 978-1904738077] Giancarlo de Cataldo (ed.). Crimini: The Bitter Lemon Book of Italian Crime Fiction [ISBN 978-1904738268] Carlo Lucarelli. Almost Blue [ISBN 978-0099459439] Leonardo Sciascia. The Day of the Owl [ISBN 978-1590170618] Textbooks: John Dickie. Cosa nostra: A History of the Sicilian mafia (excerpts included in the course reader) Alexander Stille. Excellent Cadavers Films: I cento passi (One Hundred Steps) Excellent Cadavers - evening screening L’escursione a Tindari (Excursion to Tindari) Gli arancini di Montalbano (Montalbano’s Rice Croquettes)- evening screening Il giro di boa (Turning of the Mark) Almost Blue La ragazza siciliana (The Sicilian Girl)
Course reader: Selected readings from newspapers and scholarly journals.
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Course Schedule Week 1 Lesson 1
Introduction to the course, Etymology of the word “mafia”
Lesson 2
Origins of the mafia
Readings: Dickie, John. Cosa nostra: Prologue, Introduction Farell, Joseph. Understanding the mafia: Introduction. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997. Week 2 Lesson 1
Leonardo Sciascia’s groundbreaking novel
Readings: Sciascia, Leonardo. The Day of the Owl Dickie, John. Cosa nostra: The Genesis of the Mafia Lesson 2
The mafia in the 20th century
Readings: Sciascia, Leonardo. The Day of the Owl Dickie, John. Cosa nostra: The Genesis of the Mafia
Van Dine S.S. [Williard Huntington Wright] (1928) “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” in The art of the mystery story: a collection of critical essays by Howard Haycraft (ed.). New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973 [1946].
Week 3
A victim of the Mafia: Peppino Impastato
Lesson 1
Discussion of the importance of Impastato In-class Screening of Marco Tullio Giordana’s I cento passi (One hundered Steps)
Readings: Dickie, John. “Death of a ‘Leftist Fanatic’” in Cosa nostra. New York: Palgrave, 2004.
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Lesson 2 In-class Screening of Marco Tullio Giordana’s I cento passi (One hundered Steps) (cont.) Readings: Small, Pauline. “Giordana’s I cento passi: renegotiating the Mafia codes” in New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film vol. 3(1), pp. 41-54. Pugliese, Stanislao. “I cento passi” in The American Historical Review, 2001, vol. 106 (3), pp. 1109-1110.
Week 4
Excellent Cadavers
Lesson 1
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the Mafia Wars
Readings: Alexander Stille. Excellent Cadavers, chap. 1-11 Lesson 2
The “Maxi-Process”
Readings: Alexander Stille. Excellent Cadavers, chap. 12-23 Evening Screening of “Excellent Cadavers”
Week 5
Women in the Mafia
Lesson 1
In-class screening of The Sicilian Girl
Readings: Wade, Diana. “Fighting the Mafia through the cinema: an interview with Marco Amenta.” Cinéaste 2010, vol. 36, 1. pg 4. Lesson 2
In-class screening of The Sicilian Girl (cont.) Discussion of The Sicilian Girl
Readings: Catsoulis, Jeannette. “An Angry Soul From a Hard Island.” The New York Times August 4, 2010, p. 5.
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Week 5
Old mafia vs. New Mafia
Lesson 1 Andrea Camilleri’s Sicily Readings: Camilleri, Andrea. Excursion to Tindari Lesson 2 Andrea Camilleri’s Journalistic Activity Short Paper 1 due In-class Screening of Excursion to Tindari Readings: Camilleri, Andrea. “When a Godfather becomes expendable” in New York Times, April 21, 2006.
Eckert, Elgin K. Sicily and the Mafia in Andrea Camilleri
Week 6
Midterm review and Midterm
Week 7
Term break
Week 8
New Organized Crime
Lesson 1 Fighting corruption through words Readings: Camilleri, Andrea. Rounding the Mark Lesson 2
Andrea Camilleri as Public Intellectual In-class Screening of Rounding the Mark
Readings: Eckert, Elgin K. Camilleri: Writer and Public Intellectual (in press) Pasolini, Pier Paolo. From a Poem to Young Communist Students. (Il PCI ai giovani). Rotella, Sebastian, “Italian mystery writer Andrea Camilleri keeps Montalbano on the case” in Los Angeles Times, Feb. 3, 2009.
Week 9
Different genres of crime stories: the Noir
Lesson 1
Carlo Lucarelli: writer and investigative journalist
Readings: Lucarelli, Carlo. Almost blue.
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Lesson 2
From Page to Screen: film adaptations of literary works In-class Screening of Almost Blue (86 min.)
Week 10
The Treatment of Immigrants in Modern Crime Fiction
Lesson 1
Italian “Procedural Criminal Novels”: Giancarlo Carofiglio
Readings: Carofiglio, Gianrico. Involuntary Witness. De Bartolo, Giuseppe. Immigration in Italy: The Great Emergency. PAA-Population Association of
America, New York, 2007, pp. 1-19. Lesson 2 Readings: Carofiglio, Gianrico. Involuntary Witness. Dawson Ashley and Patrizia Palumbo. “Hannibal's Children: Immigration and Antiracist Youth Subcultures in Contemporary Italy” in Cultural Critique, 2005, Vol.59 (1), p.165-186. Evening Screening of Gli arancini di Montalbano
Short Paper 2 due
Week 11 and 12
Gialli, Noir, Police Procedurals: Student Presentations
Readings:
Giancarlo de Cataldo (ed.) Crimini: The Bitter Lemon Book of Italian Crime Fiction Van Dine S.S. [Williard Huntington Wright] (1928) “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” in The art of the mystery story: a collection of critical essays by Howard Haycraft (ed.). New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973 [1946]. (re-read carefully!)
Week 13 Final Review and Final Exam dates TBA, (Short Paper 3 due on day of Final Review)
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