Unit NATIONS AND NATIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE
- Course
- Lingue e culture straniere
- Study-unit Code
- A003406
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Emanuela Costantini
- Teachers
-
- Emanuela Costantini
- Hours
- 36 ore - Emanuela Costantini
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Base
- Area
- Discipline storiche, geografiche e socio-antropologiche
- Sector
- M-STO/04
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The course examines the emergence and evolution of the concepts of nation and nationalism in the contemporary world. Through the reading and discussion of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, together with other key historiographical works, students will acquire the theoretical and methodological tools needed to understand the formation of national identities and the major interpretations of nationalism. Alongside the theoretical framework, the course explores a range of case studies and different forms of national representation. Students attending the course will also take part in a workshop-based activity culminating in a multimedia presentation on the representation of the nation in popular music, encouraging reflection on the relationship between mass culture, collective memory, and the construction of national identity.
- Reference texts
- Attending students
Benedict Anderson, Comunità immaginate. Origini e fortuna dei nazionalismi, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2018 (latest available reprint).
Material on Unistudium on the History of Serbia.
Students attending classes may replace the material on the history of Serbia with a practical activity involving the creation, either individually or in small groups, of a multimedia presentation
Non-attending students
Benedict Anderson, Comunità immaginate. Origini e fortuna dei nazionalismi, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2018 (latest available reprint).
Stefano Cavazza, Nazione, nazionalismo e folklore. Italia e Germania dall'Ottocento a oggi, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2024. - Educational objectives
- To develop a critical understanding of the concepts of nation and nationalism.
- Prerequisites
- A basic knowledge of modern or contemporary history.
- Teaching methods
- ectures; screening of multimedia content; creation and discussion of multimedia content.
- Learning verification modality
- Oral. For students with learning difficulties, to be agreed with the teacher according to individual needs.
- Extended program
- The course examines the emergence, development, and transformations of the concepts of nation and nationalism from the modern to the contemporary era, exploring the main historiographical interpretations as well as the political, cultural, and social processes that have contributed to the construction of national identities. Particular attention will be devoted to the relationship between nationalism, citizenship, collective memory, national symbols and myths, and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that have accompanied the definition of national communities.
Through the reading and discussion of Benedict Anderson's Comunità immaginate, the course will explore the nation as a historical and cultural construct, focusing on the role of print culture, language, educational systems, civic rituals, and cultural practices in the formation of national identities. The book will provide the theoretical framework for examining the major interpretations of nationalism and for reflecting on the processes through which national communities have emerged and developed in the contemporary world.
The course will also examine the ways in which literature, cinema, the visual arts, music, and other forms of popular culture have contributed to representing, disseminating, and sometimes challenging national identities, providing students with the critical tools needed to analyse the relationship between cultural production and the national imagination.
Students attending the course will participate in seminars and workshop-based activities focusing on selected case studies. In particular, drawing also on Leonardo Varasano's Nazione pop. L'idea di patria attraverso la musica, they will complete individual or group projects on the representation of the nation in popular music. The results of their research will be presented through multimedia presentations and class discussions. These activities are designed to strengthen students' skills in source analysis, oral presentation, and collaborative work, while encouraging independent reflection on the relationship between popular culture, collective memory, and the construction of national identities. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- The course falls under Goal 16, as it aims to provide the knowledge needed to understand the current geopolitical landscape.