Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Italy, Fascism and Jews
Instructor(s): Shirley Smith, Foreign Language and Literatures
Mussolini marched on Rome in 1922 with a group of Black Shirts. What happened before
and after this historic moment is the subject of this seminar. Who challenged the
legitimacy of the government? How was Mussolini's Fascism able to last twenty-two
years? Italian Jews were an integral part of the political process until the Racial
Laws in 1938, but who are Italy's Jews? We explore the history and culture (holidays
and cuisine) of Jews from the first colony in Rome till the end of World War II. Historic
texts, novels, memoirs, films, and political science treatises uncover different perspectives
on the rise and fall of Fascism, anti-Semitism, and the survival of Italy and the
Italian Jewish community.
Course offered