We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Italian Department in October 2011. Our incoming students sometimes ask if we are able to recommend some general reading on Italy before they come to Warwick. This page contains some suggestions of material that is aimed to be useful for the first year modules but is above all intended to arouse your curiosity for what is to come. It is worth saying, though, that the list below is only indicative and has been devised for you to get a flavour of aspects of Italian culture studied in the Department (we certainly do not expect you to spend the summer reading the works listed below). It is also worth noting that classes in the Department do not assume any background knowledge of Italy and its culture (and that applies, too, if you are a beginner in Italian language). We hope you have an enjoyable summer before term begins on Monday 3 October 2011.

Background reading

Caesar, Ann Hallamore and Michael Caesar, Modern Italian Literature (Polity, 2007)

Duggan, Christopher, The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796 (London: Allen Lane, 2007)

Forgacs, David & Robert Lumley (eds), Italian Cultural Studies: An Introduction (London: Penguin, 1996)

Ginsborg, Paul, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-1988 (London: Penguin, 1990)

Ginsborg, Paul, Italy and its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State 1980-2001 (London: Penguin, 2003)

Gordon, Robert S.C., An Introduction to Twentieth-century Italian Literature: A Difficult Modernity (Duckworth, 2005)

Lyttelton, Adrian, Liberal and Fascist Italy: 1900-1945 (Oxford: OUP, 2002)

Fictional works/anthologies

Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Volume I Inferno, ed. and trans. Robert Durling and Ronald Martinez (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Calvino, Italo, Gli amori difficili (Turin: Einaudi, 1970) / Difficult Loves (London: Minerva, 1993)

Levi, Primo, Se questo è un uomo; La tregua (Turin: Einaudi, 1963) / If This Is a Man; The Truce (London: Abacus, 1987)

Ammaniti, Niccolò, Io non ho paura (Turin: Einaudi, 2001)

Caesar, Ann Hallamore & Michael Caesar (eds), The Quality of Light: Modern Italian Short Stories (London: Serpent’s Tail, 1993)

Gentili, Alessandro & Catherine O’Brien (eds), The Green Flame: Contemporary Italian Poetry with English Translations (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1987)

Roberts, Nick (ed.), New Penguin Parallel Texts: Short Stories in Italian (London: Penguin, 1999)

Films (most available with subtitles or dubbed)

Fellini, Federico, La dolce vita, 1960

Tornatore, Giuseppe, Nuovo cinema paradiso (Cinema Paradiso), 1988

Moretti, Nanni, Caro diario (Dear Diary), 1993

Benigni, Roberto, La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful), 1999

Michele Placido, Romanzo criminale, 2005

Matteo Garrone, Gomorra, 2008

Luca Guadagnino, Io sono l'amore (I am Love), 2009

Internet

A useful starting point is the website of the Society for Italian Studies: www.sis.ac.uk

By clicking ‘Resources’ on this home-page, you will reach a list of sites of Italian interest, mostly in English, such as ‘Windows on Italy’.

News sources can also be accessed via the internet: RAI (Italian equivalent of the BBC) can be found (with limited pages in English) at: www.rai.it and the newspaper La Repubblica at: www.repubblica.it

Sources of texts

English-language texts and translations:

• large bookshops or university bookshops in major cities and towns, including the Warwick University bookshop
• internet: www.amazon.co.uk

Italian-language texts:

• university bookshops in major cities, including the Warwick University bookshop

Internet: www.ibs.it

Information on Italian language course 

Frequently asked questions