Course Catalogue

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This course explores how Italian contemporary fiction portrays a plurilingual reality embedded in issues of migration and what happens to this complex linguistic dimension when these works are adapted into films/tv series. Issues discussed include language as a political tool, cultural translation, language and marginality, and the target readerships of these texts.

1 x 2 hour seminar over 11 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into one of the SMLC Honours programmes, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Essay (2500 words) - 60%

■ Presentation (7 minutes) - 20%

■ Reflective Journal (1000 words) - 20%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the Essay, but extensions to the deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

■ Recorded presentation (video or audio) or PowerPoint with substantial presentation notes as alternative to

  the Presentation

■ There is no alternative to the Reflective Journal, but extensions to the deadlines can be

offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ Examine the political use of language in literary texts and their adaptation 

■ Investigate the use / reference to dialects, minority languages and migrant languages in relation to marginality 

■ Explore intermedia adaptation as a form of translation and its capacity to increase/ diminish the multilingual dimension of the text  

■ Evaluate the ideological effects that inclusion/ exclusion of different languages might achieve  

■ Encourage students to think critically about how texts and adaptations can contribute to the sustainability of dialects and minority languages 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Question the connection 'language/ nation', understand the process of centralisation and suppression of minority languages and dialects in the shaping of standard Italian

■ Evaluate the inclusion/ exclusion of languages in novels and films, and the ideological effects and social criticism of these choices 

■ Analyse critically the studied texts in relation to their respective historical and socio-political context 

■ Undertake independent research, engage with secondary sources and apply critical tools to the analysis of primary texts 

■ Communicate research findings effectively and concisely both orally and in writing