History of Contemporary Culture

The course is divided into sections. The first, more general in scope and corresponding to the educational units A and B, aims to offer students an in-depth reconstruction of the history of culture and the cultural industry in the modern age, from the end of the nineteenth century to the second-half twentieth century, in Italy and in the European context, with a particular focus on relations between institutions and the market, the configuration of the editorial system, the circulation of knowledge, the structure of the cultural information system, developments in the fields of film and theatre, cultural institutions, government and party policy in the field. A second section , of a monographic nature, corresponds to unit C, and aims to prose a reflection on the delicate question of the relationship between intellectuals and ideologies in the twentieth century, on the basis of some exemplary cases.

By the end of the course, students will need to learn about the history of culture, cultural industry and cultural policies in Italy between the early nineteenth and second-half of the twentieth centuries in the context of the history of European culture, at the same time identifying the stages and grasping the complexity of the moments of transition between continuity and disruption. They will also need to be able to grasp the links between the history of culture and political, economic and social history, the role of the protagonists of cultural discourse in their reciprocal relationships and the elements of cultural systems in their dynamics. Finally, critical and interpretive skills will have been strengthened, thanks to repeated calls to investigate the complexity of the development of cultural systems in the modern age through the analysis of documents and the use of different historiographic interpretations.