ITL1666 - The Dark Side of Italy - L-Universit脿 ta' Malta

ITL1666 - The Dark Side of Italy

MQF Level

Duration and Credits

Semester 2

4 ECTS

Mode of Study

Part-Time Evening

This study-unit explores three dark and compelling dimensions of modern and contemporary Italian culture - organised crime, political terrorism, and the enduring presence of folklore and the supernatural - through the lens of popular media. The study-unit thus investigates how these themes have shaped, and continue to shape, Italy鈥檚 sociocultural imagination.

The first section focuses on organised crime, examining how mafia narratives have been constructed, mythologised, and demythologised within Italian popular culture. Students will consider how literary and cinematic representations of the mafia intersect with questions of regional identity, masculinity, justice, and political power.

The second part of the study-unit addresses political terrorism, and the so-called 鈥淵ears of Lead鈥� in particular, a period marked by radical ideologies, violent extremism, and state repression. Through case studies mostly drawn from film and media coverage, students will explore how terrorism has been narrativised, remembered, and fictionalised in the public sphere.

The final section delves into the rich interplay between folklore and pop, uncovering a cultural terrain populated by witches, pagan rites, ghostly apparitions, and diabolical manifestations. These lectures will explore how such figures and themes, far from belonging solely to the past, persist and evolve in modern and contemporary works of fiction as well as the press.

By tracing the ways in which crime, terror, and the supernatural intertwine with Italy鈥檚 popular imagination, this study-unit invites critical reappraisals of cultural products often dismissed as trivial, ephemeral, or merely derivative, but also of acclaimed works now considered part of the Italian cultural canon.

Main Reading List

John Dickie, Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, 2nd ed., London: Hodder, 2007.
Ruth Glynn, Giancarlo Lombardi, and Alan O鈥橪eary (eds), Terrorism, Italian Style: Representations of Political Violence in Contemporary Italian Cinema (Volume 3), London: University of London Press, 2012.
Marco Malvestio and Stefano Serafini (eds), Italian Gothic, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

Supplementary Reading List

Gloria Lauri-Lucente, 鈥淭he Narrative of Realism and Myth in Francesco Rosi鈥檚 Salvatore Giuliano and Michael Cimino鈥檚 The Sicilian"", Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies, Vol. 12 (2013), pp. 211-227.
Dana Renga (ed.), Mafia Movies: A Reader, Toronto-Buffalo (NY): University of Toronto Press, 2011.
Christian Uva, Schermi di piombo: Il terrorismo nel cinema italiano, Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2006 (recommended to students who can read Italian).
Carmine Mezzacappa, Cinema e terrorismo, Milan: PaginaUno, 2016 (recommended to students who can read Italian).
Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (eds), Almanacco dell'orrore popolare: Folk horror e immaginario italiano, Citt脿 di Castello-Bologna: Odoya, 2021 (recommended to students who can read Italian).
Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (eds), Almanacco dell'Italia occulta: Orrore popolare e inquietudini metropolitane, Citt脿 di Castello-Bologna: Odoya, 2022 (recommended to students who can read Italian).

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Study-unit Aims

To introduce students to the critical study of organised crime, political violence, and the belief in the supernatural as they are represented in modern and contemporary popular culture, with a particular focus on Italy;
To examine how narratives surrounding criminality, terrorism, and the occult intersect with broader sociocultural and political discourses in literature, cinema, television, music, comics, and the press;
To familiarise students with key cultural works - both popular and canonical - that blend elements of organised crime, political extremism, and folklore to the shaping of Italy鈥檚 national imagination;
To engage students in scholarly debates on the cultural function of popular fiction and media in Italy from the 19th century to the present, with attention to themes such as identity, memory, ideology, and collective trauma.

Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

Appraise the differences and interactions between narratives and depictions of organised crime, political terrorism, and the supernatural with particular attention to their sociocultural functions in Italian popular culture;
Critically analyse the use of criminal, terrorist, and folkloric motifs in fictional works, taking into account the intended audiences and historical contexts;
Discuss organised crime, political violence, and the occult as evolving cultural phenomena, exploring their treatment across various forms of media and their role in shaping collective memory and national identity;
Identify and analyse key tools, conventions, and narrative strategies employed in popular culture to represent criminal, terrorist, and supernatural themes, and evaluate their ideological implications.

Learning Outcomes: Skills

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

Develop the critical skills necessary to interpret cultural products that incorporate elements of criminality, political violence, and folklore;
Apply their ability to analyse cultural and ideological implications in fictional works;
Situate Italian cultural products concerning crime, terrorism, and the supernatural within a broader international and comparative context.

Non EU Applicants:

EUR260

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