I just joined yesterday and I already have a very general question for
everyone involved in Italian Studies. I have been professor of Italian
at the California State University, Long Beach, for 15 years. Our
program is small, but we are now working to establish a Major. It seems
to me that presently the tendency is to go towards Italian Studies
majors rather than a more traditional one in Language and Literature.
What is, however, the interpretation(s) given to "Italian Studies" and
to "Italian Culture"? I believe that the base for it should still be
literature, understood in a large comprehensive sense, but I worry that
very often other areas of studies, such as history, are given too much
emphasis. I would hate to see "literature" take a second place behind
history or other disciplines, under the mistaken notion that literature
is too "difficult" and "alien". Literature is an indispensable
instrument to understand all aspects of any culture and an enjoyable one
as well (see Leopardi’s literary politics!) Am I wrong? I would like
to open a debate on this issue and hopefully I can receive ideas to
support my point inside my institution!
Write back in Italian or English! Thanks!
Irene Marchegiani Jones
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