ITAL 446

Examination of the seismic cultural changes occurring in contemporary Italy through the literature that has been produced by and about migrants entering Europe since the 1990s. How this growing field of literature both charts and contributes to the re-definition of the nation occurring in Italy. Students will analyze literature by migrant authors in several genres - autobiography, short story, poetry, theater, and novels (including a comic murder mystery) - through the theoretical lenses of post-colonialism and feminism in order to confront the issues of racism, national and individual identity construction, and the concept of "otherness."