Postcolonial Anglophone Cultures I
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
Il corso è orientato a fornire strumenti di analisi della produzione culturale e delle pratiche espressive dei paesi anglofoni - con un riferimento specifico alle narrazioni e alle forme di creatività popolare - utilizzando la strumentazione degli Studi Culturali e Postcoloniali. Nello specifico, ci si concentrerà sul retaggio imperiale e sulle culture del Commonwealth, con particolare riferimento all'espressività artistica e culturale nelle ex-colonie e nei protettorati britannici. Ci si concentrerà sul processo di formazione e modellamento delle identità locali nel passaggio dall'impero alla costituzione degli stati-nazione, identificando le conseguenze testuali del processo, nei vari ambiti della produzione artistica. Metodologicamente, si privilegerà l'analisi dei meccanismi e delle narrazioni inclusive e plurali, con lo scopo di evidenziare le istanze che , nei paesi che hanno subito processi di colonizzazione, hanno messo in atto un processo di ridefinizione identitaria che ha coinvolto vari aspetti della cultura e della lingua. Lo scopo consiste nel favorire l'acquisizione di capacità avanzate di comprensione profonda dei meccanismi operanti nel contesto del Commonwealth britannico e delle ex-colonie, di cognizioni critiche sui medesimi, e nell'individuazione di una strumentazione metodologica adeguata a interagire efficacemente in inglese in un contesto attento all'inclusività e alla conservazione della diversità.
Gli obiettivi includono:
- Conoscenza avanzata e comprensione critica di una varietà di pratiche culturali, di produzioni testuali e artistiche spontanee e codificate in lingua inglese attinenti alle tematiche della diversità e dei processi di ibridazione culturale a essa connessi.
- Utilizzo efficace degli strumenti degli Studi Culturali e Postcoloniali, applicati al contesto dei paesi anglofoni contemporanei, ma anche individuazione dei percorsi storici che hanno determinato il configurarsi attuale di problematiche specificamente legate ai temi affrontati nel corso.
- Capacità di applicazione delle pre-conoscenze acquisite nel triennio e relative alle nozioni di otherness, decolonizzazione, immigrazione, diaspora, e alla contemporaneità, con la conseguente problematizzazione dei concetti di razza, etnia, multiculturalismo e cosmopolitismo, potere, ideologia, egemonia, pratiche discorsive e di costruzione del consenso.
- Capacità di analisi critica dei modelli comunicativi, in vari media, sui temi dell'identità, dell'inclusività, della diversità. Individuazione delle buone e delle cattive pratiche applicate nel contesto corrente, e motivazione del giudizio formulato.
- Capacità di ricerca, selezione, sintesi e raffronto di informazioni rilevanti; di discutere in aula e in gruppo testi e argomenti di studio.
- Capacità di formulare un giudizio autonomo e criticamente motivato su una varietà di produzioni culturali e testi letterari. Capacità di stabilire comparazioni e collegamenti tra i diversi contesti di classe, di etnia, di genere e di altra natura, allo scopo di sviluppare una consapevolezza autentica e pragmatica dei meccanismi del rispetto identitario e dell'inclusione.
Gli obiettivi includono:
- Conoscenza avanzata e comprensione critica di una varietà di pratiche culturali, di produzioni testuali e artistiche spontanee e codificate in lingua inglese attinenti alle tematiche della diversità e dei processi di ibridazione culturale a essa connessi.
- Utilizzo efficace degli strumenti degli Studi Culturali e Postcoloniali, applicati al contesto dei paesi anglofoni contemporanei, ma anche individuazione dei percorsi storici che hanno determinato il configurarsi attuale di problematiche specificamente legate ai temi affrontati nel corso.
- Capacità di applicazione delle pre-conoscenze acquisite nel triennio e relative alle nozioni di otherness, decolonizzazione, immigrazione, diaspora, e alla contemporaneità, con la conseguente problematizzazione dei concetti di razza, etnia, multiculturalismo e cosmopolitismo, potere, ideologia, egemonia, pratiche discorsive e di costruzione del consenso.
- Capacità di analisi critica dei modelli comunicativi, in vari media, sui temi dell'identità, dell'inclusività, della diversità. Individuazione delle buone e delle cattive pratiche applicate nel contesto corrente, e motivazione del giudizio formulato.
- Capacità di ricerca, selezione, sintesi e raffronto di informazioni rilevanti; di discutere in aula e in gruppo testi e argomenti di studio.
- Capacità di formulare un giudizio autonomo e criticamente motivato su una varietà di produzioni culturali e testi letterari. Capacità di stabilire comparazioni e collegamenti tra i diversi contesti di classe, di etnia, di genere e di altra natura, allo scopo di sviluppare una consapevolezza autentica e pragmatica dei meccanismi del rispetto identitario e dell'inclusione.
Expected learning outcomes
Coerentemente con la visione del corso di laurea magistrale in Lingue, contesti e culture per la diversità e per l'inclusione come un perfezionamento delle competenze linguistiche e culturali di mediazione acquisite nel triennio, il corso di Culture Postcoloniali Anglofone I è orientato a condurre studentesse e studenti a problematizzare la nozione di identità e a collegarla utilmente alle culture post- e neo-coloniali di lingua inglese nella loro configurazione attuale, ovvero alla molteplicità di influssi, ideologie, religioni, pratiche culturali che sono emerse nel tempo lungo il processo di decolonizzazione e costituzione degli stati-nazione. Ci si aspetta altresì che studentesse e studenti imparino a selezionare, nel corredo complessivo delle categorie critiche e dei metodi degli Studi Culturali e Postcoloniali, la strumentazione che maggiormente si presta all'analisi dei prodotti culturali proposti. Alla fine del corso, studentesse e studenti dovranno disporre, oltre che di una competenza linguistica adeguata, anche di un catalogo di strumenti metodologici che consenta loro di selezionare, organizzare e comprendere in modo critico testi di vario tipo, mediatici, performativi, musicali e letterari, tutti legati alla contemporaneità. Ci si attende inoltre che studentesse e studenti siano in grado di individuare gli elementi compositivi di un testo per poi poterlo destrutturare e imparare a produrre una struttura analoga. Parte integrante del lavoro sarà costituita dal team working, dunque ci si aspetta che studentesse e studenti sviluppino anche capacità concrete di organizzazione e di lavoro condiviso, in lingua inglese.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
TITLE: On the land of arrival. Mediating between cultures and languages in the Anglophone worlds
The course works on how the British Empire and its gradual dissolution produced an impact on former colonies and more specifically on the increasing migration flow to what is still perceived as a "safe place". Within the context of the migratory journey, the land of arrival is not a final destination but a liminal territory where different cultures converge and collide. Following the methods of cultural studies, we will articulate the meaning of such keywords as discourse, power, ethnicity, mimicry, third space, inbetween space, identity, belonging. Exploiting theories by Stuart Hall, H.K. Bhabha, Paul Gilroy, M. Inghilleri, Loredana Polezzi and many others, we will work on translation, cultural translation, mediation, representation and the shaping of new identities
MIGRATION AND TRANSLATION (20 HRS)
The unit is focused on migration as a process of translation working at several levels. Code-switching is only a small part of what happens to migrants once they get to a place where they expect to be relocated. Other more complex factors have to be taken into account, and they are often related to the culture and the social and political system operational in the country of arrival.
PRISONS (20 HRS)
Refugee camps and migrant detention centres often overlap. They are both designed to manage populations in transit, and they should differ in purpose and conditions. However, at a close look, they seem to posit serious humanitarian concerns. First-hand testimony often show the many ways in which they overlap, even when they take different names and shapes.
BORDERS (20HRS)
This unit investigates the evolving nature of borders, moving beyond the notion of "fixed lines on a map" to explore them as dynamic postcolonial social constructs, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, sites of cultural negotiation, and zones of (new) identity formation. Drawing on perspectives from Border Studies and Cultural Studies, we will examine how borders operate not simply geopolitical demarcations but also as complex cultural and epistemic formations -"borderscapes" that shape, control, and resist contemporary regimes of power and belonging-, "Third Spaces" or "borderlands" that are generative, zones of cultural hybridity, creativity, and solidarity that challenge dominant/imperialist structures.
The course works on how the British Empire and its gradual dissolution produced an impact on former colonies and more specifically on the increasing migration flow to what is still perceived as a "safe place". Within the context of the migratory journey, the land of arrival is not a final destination but a liminal territory where different cultures converge and collide. Following the methods of cultural studies, we will articulate the meaning of such keywords as discourse, power, ethnicity, mimicry, third space, inbetween space, identity, belonging. Exploiting theories by Stuart Hall, H.K. Bhabha, Paul Gilroy, M. Inghilleri, Loredana Polezzi and many others, we will work on translation, cultural translation, mediation, representation and the shaping of new identities
MIGRATION AND TRANSLATION (20 HRS)
The unit is focused on migration as a process of translation working at several levels. Code-switching is only a small part of what happens to migrants once they get to a place where they expect to be relocated. Other more complex factors have to be taken into account, and they are often related to the culture and the social and political system operational in the country of arrival.
PRISONS (20 HRS)
Refugee camps and migrant detention centres often overlap. They are both designed to manage populations in transit, and they should differ in purpose and conditions. However, at a close look, they seem to posit serious humanitarian concerns. First-hand testimony often show the many ways in which they overlap, even when they take different names and shapes.
BORDERS (20HRS)
This unit investigates the evolving nature of borders, moving beyond the notion of "fixed lines on a map" to explore them as dynamic postcolonial social constructs, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, sites of cultural negotiation, and zones of (new) identity formation. Drawing on perspectives from Border Studies and Cultural Studies, we will examine how borders operate not simply geopolitical demarcations but also as complex cultural and epistemic formations -"borderscapes" that shape, control, and resist contemporary regimes of power and belonging-, "Third Spaces" or "borderlands" that are generative, zones of cultural hybridity, creativity, and solidarity that challenge dominant/imperialist structures.
Prerequisites for admission
Ss must have some familiarity with the core concept of cultural studies or related research field (sociology, anthropology and the like). Adequate fluency in English is required. A working knowledge of Italian is very welcome
Teaching methods
Classes will be built on a collaborative method, occasionally involving guest-speakers. Ss are supposed to develop team-working abilities as to train them for the professional profile they are expected to acquire. Through close reading, writing, and class discussion, students will work on issues such as colonialism and postcolonialism, migration, identity, power, location and relocation, belonging. They are also required to share the output of their teamwork with classmates. They are to participate actively through the proposed in-class team activities (presentations, case-studies, discussions of particular topics, flipped classroom activities).
Teaching Resources
MIGRATION & TRANSLATION (20 HRS)
Case Studies:
Fedda, Yasmine, Dir., Queens of Syria. UK. (2014, Documentary film)
Anders Lustgarten, Lampedusa (2015; play)
Mahmoud Darwis, Who Am I without exile? (2008; poem) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52549/who-am-i-without-exile
Shire, Warsan, Conversation about Home (2011; poem)
Saint Levant, From Gaza with Love (2023; song)
Saint Levant, 5 am in Paris (2024; song)
Tools and methods (Migration & translation + Borders)
Bertacco, Simona, & Nicoletta Vallorani, The relocation of culture. Literatures, cultures, translation. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. (Selection of passages from Introduction & ch. 3)
Bhabha Homi K., The Location of Culture, London & New York, Routledge, 1994 (excerpts)
Hall, Stuart, "Minimal Selves", in Lisa Appignanesi (ed.) Identity: The Real Me, ICA Document 6, London: ICA, 1988, pp. 44-6.
Polezzi, Loredana, "Translation and Migration", Translation Studies, 2012, pp. 345-368
Vallorani, Nicoletta, "Travelling Muses: Women, Ancient Grammars and Contemporary ARTivism in Refugees' Tales," Lingue e linguaggi, 64, 2024, 15-30.
NON FREQUENTANTI
Queens of Syria is not included in the syllabus
Bhabha Homi K., The Location of Culture, London & New York, Routledge, 1994 (Chs 1, 2 & 3)
PRISONS (20HRS)
Case Studies
Boochani, Behrouz, No Friend but the Mountains: The True Story of an Illegally Imprisoned Refugee, 2019, London: Picador. (excerpts)
Jacir Emily, A Mediterranean Via Crucis (installation, 2016)
Amnesty International, Israel/OPT: Two months of humanitarian aid ban in Gaza is genocide in action - harrowing testimonies from residents, 2 May 2025
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israelopt-two-months-humanitarian-aid-ban-gaza-genocide-action-harrowing-testimonies
Tools and methods
Bertacco, Simona, & Nicoletta Vallorani. 2021. The relocation of culture. Literatures, cultures, translation. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Selection of passages from ch. 1
Galetto Manuela, Chiara Martucci, & Nirmal Puwar, "Space invaders: "Dissonant bodies" in positions of power: A conversation with Nirmal Puwar
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/13675494241265607?fbclid=IwY2xjawKpugVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHojAr52APT9rvf_l0Cod0dYodowG-B8wFImz_9xM_j-QrEF-uth3TJQUGoAz_aem_sBVRNUfEROvwbX1NOTUo0g
Gilroy, Paul, "Lecture I. Suffering and Infrahumanity." In Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Yale (USA): Yale University, 2014.
NON FREQUENTANTI:
Full reading of: Boochani, Behrouz, No Friend but the Mountains: The True Story of an Illegally Imprisoned Refugee, 2019, London: Picador.
BORDERS (20 HRS)
Tools and methods:
See unit 1 and unit 2
Case studies:
All texts will be included in an online booklet:
Poems: "Look, We Have Coming to Dover!" and "In a White Town" by Daljit Nagra (2007); "Refugee Blues" by W. H. Auden (1939); "Here Stand Before Us the North and the South" by Theresa Lola (2024);
Novels (excerpts): Lustgarten, Anders, Three Burials (2024); Smith, Zadie, White Teeth (2000); Farah, Nuruddin, Maps (1986); Emecheta, Buchi, Destination Biafra (1983); Hosseini, Khaled, Kite Runner (2003)
Art: Francis Alӱs, "The Nightwatch 2024", video, two maps, printed papers, seven drawings and book, duration 19:00 minutes, 234x284x60, Tate London https://francisalys.com/the-nightwatch/; "The Calais Jungle" (photographs by Rob Pinney https://www.robpinney.com/the-calais-jungle); Mona Hatoum, "Exodus II 2002", compressed card, leather, metal, human hair, TATE, London; Tania Bruguera, "Tatlin's Whisper #5", 2008, performance, TATE MODERN, London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7L1s_GWn3o; Issam Kourbaj, "Precarious Passage" (2016/2023) and "Dark Water, Burning World" (2016), British Museum, London; Tam Joseph "The Hand Made Map of the World" (2013), Shilpa Gupta, There is no border here (2006).
Songs: "One Day I Went to Lidl" Afrikan Boy (2021); "Hussel" M.I.A. ft Afrikan Boy (2007)
Newspaper article: the Scramble for Africa, the Times 1884
Play: Hutchinson, R. "Durand's Line" (2009) in AAVV, The Great Game Afghanistan, Oberon Modern Plays (2009), pp. 31-48
NON frequentanti:
a. Entries "Border as Method", "Border Thinking", "Borderlands", "Borderscapes" e "Migration" from "Border studies, digital glossary", https://center-border-studies.uni-gr.eu/en/ressources/glossary-entries
b. A Chronology of the History of Nigeria and Afghanistan (1850 to the Present).
NIGERIA: 1830 Richard Lander's expedition, 1854 William Baikie's expedition, the formation of the Nation and the Scramble for Africa 1884, 1963 the Independence and the Commonwealth, the post-independence years, the colonial rule, the Nigerian Civil War and the Republic of Biafra, oil wars, present entrenched corruption, socioeconomic inequality and security threats in contemporary Nigeria
AFGHANISTAN: the Great Game, 1893, the three Anglo-Afghan Wars, 1919-1973, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the communist regime, The Taliban regime, 9/11, 2011 - President Obama announces the death of Osama Bin Laden, The new Taliban regime from August 2021 on
Case Studies:
Fedda, Yasmine, Dir., Queens of Syria. UK. (2014, Documentary film)
Anders Lustgarten, Lampedusa (2015; play)
Mahmoud Darwis, Who Am I without exile? (2008; poem) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52549/who-am-i-without-exile
Shire, Warsan, Conversation about Home (2011; poem)
Saint Levant, From Gaza with Love (2023; song)
Saint Levant, 5 am in Paris (2024; song)
Tools and methods (Migration & translation + Borders)
Bertacco, Simona, & Nicoletta Vallorani, The relocation of culture. Literatures, cultures, translation. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. (Selection of passages from Introduction & ch. 3)
Bhabha Homi K., The Location of Culture, London & New York, Routledge, 1994 (excerpts)
Hall, Stuart, "Minimal Selves", in Lisa Appignanesi (ed.) Identity: The Real Me, ICA Document 6, London: ICA, 1988, pp. 44-6.
Polezzi, Loredana, "Translation and Migration", Translation Studies, 2012, pp. 345-368
Vallorani, Nicoletta, "Travelling Muses: Women, Ancient Grammars and Contemporary ARTivism in Refugees' Tales," Lingue e linguaggi, 64, 2024, 15-30.
NON FREQUENTANTI
Queens of Syria is not included in the syllabus
Bhabha Homi K., The Location of Culture, London & New York, Routledge, 1994 (Chs 1, 2 & 3)
PRISONS (20HRS)
Case Studies
Boochani, Behrouz, No Friend but the Mountains: The True Story of an Illegally Imprisoned Refugee, 2019, London: Picador. (excerpts)
Jacir Emily, A Mediterranean Via Crucis (installation, 2016)
Amnesty International, Israel/OPT: Two months of humanitarian aid ban in Gaza is genocide in action - harrowing testimonies from residents, 2 May 2025
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israelopt-two-months-humanitarian-aid-ban-gaza-genocide-action-harrowing-testimonies
Tools and methods
Bertacco, Simona, & Nicoletta Vallorani. 2021. The relocation of culture. Literatures, cultures, translation. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Selection of passages from ch. 1
Galetto Manuela, Chiara Martucci, & Nirmal Puwar, "Space invaders: "Dissonant bodies" in positions of power: A conversation with Nirmal Puwar
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/13675494241265607?fbclid=IwY2xjawKpugVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHojAr52APT9rvf_l0Cod0dYodowG-B8wFImz_9xM_j-QrEF-uth3TJQUGoAz_aem_sBVRNUfEROvwbX1NOTUo0g
Gilroy, Paul, "Lecture I. Suffering and Infrahumanity." In Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Yale (USA): Yale University, 2014.
NON FREQUENTANTI:
Full reading of: Boochani, Behrouz, No Friend but the Mountains: The True Story of an Illegally Imprisoned Refugee, 2019, London: Picador.
BORDERS (20 HRS)
Tools and methods:
See unit 1 and unit 2
Case studies:
All texts will be included in an online booklet:
Poems: "Look, We Have Coming to Dover!" and "In a White Town" by Daljit Nagra (2007); "Refugee Blues" by W. H. Auden (1939); "Here Stand Before Us the North and the South" by Theresa Lola (2024);
Novels (excerpts): Lustgarten, Anders, Three Burials (2024); Smith, Zadie, White Teeth (2000); Farah, Nuruddin, Maps (1986); Emecheta, Buchi, Destination Biafra (1983); Hosseini, Khaled, Kite Runner (2003)
Art: Francis Alӱs, "The Nightwatch 2024", video, two maps, printed papers, seven drawings and book, duration 19:00 minutes, 234x284x60, Tate London https://francisalys.com/the-nightwatch/; "The Calais Jungle" (photographs by Rob Pinney https://www.robpinney.com/the-calais-jungle); Mona Hatoum, "Exodus II 2002", compressed card, leather, metal, human hair, TATE, London; Tania Bruguera, "Tatlin's Whisper #5", 2008, performance, TATE MODERN, London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7L1s_GWn3o; Issam Kourbaj, "Precarious Passage" (2016/2023) and "Dark Water, Burning World" (2016), British Museum, London; Tam Joseph "The Hand Made Map of the World" (2013), Shilpa Gupta, There is no border here (2006).
Songs: "One Day I Went to Lidl" Afrikan Boy (2021); "Hussel" M.I.A. ft Afrikan Boy (2007)
Newspaper article: the Scramble for Africa, the Times 1884
Play: Hutchinson, R. "Durand's Line" (2009) in AAVV, The Great Game Afghanistan, Oberon Modern Plays (2009), pp. 31-48
NON frequentanti:
a. Entries "Border as Method", "Border Thinking", "Borderlands", "Borderscapes" e "Migration" from "Border studies, digital glossary", https://center-border-studies.uni-gr.eu/en/ressources/glossary-entries
b. A Chronology of the History of Nigeria and Afghanistan (1850 to the Present).
NIGERIA: 1830 Richard Lander's expedition, 1854 William Baikie's expedition, the formation of the Nation and the Scramble for Africa 1884, 1963 the Independence and the Commonwealth, the post-independence years, the colonial rule, the Nigerian Civil War and the Republic of Biafra, oil wars, present entrenched corruption, socioeconomic inequality and security threats in contemporary Nigeria
AFGHANISTAN: the Great Game, 1893, the three Anglo-Afghan Wars, 1919-1973, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the communist regime, The Taliban regime, 9/11, 2011 - President Obama announces the death of Osama Bin Laden, The new Taliban regime from August 2021 on
Assessment methods and Criteria
Assessment is exam-based. The course has a modular structure and there is a test for each element of the course. Midterm exams are however optional and address mostly attending students. Whoever chooses, can sit for the oral exam and be interviewed on the whole of the syllabus. The exam is to be taken in English. The assessment will consider also class participation and engagement (10%) and Group presentation (20 %)
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professors:
Monegato Emanuele, Vallorani Nicoletta
Professor(s)