Università Roma Tre

War, Violence and Society: Narratives of the American Civil War and Constructions of National Identity

The course aims to show how cinema can be a source for historical knowledge, a tool for narrating the past and an agent of history.
It is a source for historical knowledge of the present in which the film was filmed and processed: it provides us with information about the ideas and values of the society that produced it.

From the origins, cinema has been inspired by historical contents and events for its productions. The audience has always shown keen curiosity and interest in historical events narrated on screen. The course aims to show how cinema can be: a source for historical knowledge, an instrument to tell the past and an agent of history. Cinema is a source for the historical knowledge of the present in which the film has been shot and processed: it provides us with information on ideas and values of the producing society.
On the other hand, when we talk about cinema as an instrument to narrate the past, we refer to the public use of history, a field in which historians have to compete with other professional figures.

Finally, cinema can be considered an agent of history when studying its capability to influence and construct behaviours, trends, passions and identities.
Understanding the various languages and representations can be an essential tool for historians working in the field of cultural and social history interested in the transmission of values, ideas and representations of the historical past of different eras.

The course focuses on the film and television portrayal of ‘War, Violence and Society’, contextualising it in the period of the American Civil War (1861-1865)' and exploring aspects of the different identity narratives related to the warring parties and the overcoming of the war in a newly reunified national scene.

To this end, the following films and products for television will be analysed; students will have to see and analyse 10 of the following films.

The teaching is organised in seminars, the students will work in teams by deepening topics, readings and ideas related to the films indicated and to a bibliography agreed with the teacher.

• Victor Fleming, Gone with the Wind, 1939
• John Ford, The Horse Soldiers, 1959
• Edward Zwick, Glory, 1989
• Sergio Leone, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, 1966
• Steven Spielberg, Lincoln, 2012
• Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976
• Martin Scorsese, The gangs of New York, 2002
• Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain, 2003
• Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight, 2015
• Gary Ross, Free State of Jones, 2016
• Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled, 2017
• Antoine Fuqua, Emancipation, 2022
• John Amiel, Sommersby, 1993
• Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves, 1990
• D. W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, 1915

Readings for the exam:

A) Both the books:

• Cortini L. (a cura di), Le fonti audiovisive per la storia e la didattica, Effigi, Arcidosso, 2014, pp. 39-60; 97-118
• A. Scurati, Guerra. Narrazioni e culture nella tradizione occidentale, Donzelli, Roma 2003.

B) One book of your choice between:

• Iaccio P., Cinema e storia. Percorsi, immagini, testimonianze, Liguori, Napoli 2000
• Miro Gori G. (a cura di), La storia al cinema. Ricostruzione del passato e interpretazione del presente, Bulzoni, Roma, 1994
• Ortoleva P., Cinema e storia. Scene dal passato, Loescher, Torino, 1991
• Sorlin P., I figli di Nadar, Einaudi, Torino, 2000
• Munslow A., Narrative and History, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, 2007

For historical contextualization, it is recommended reading one of the following texts (available at public libraries), to which can be added other texts chosen by the student:
• Leander Stillwell, La Guerra Civile americana nelle memorie di un soldato comune, Liberty Bell, 2017
• Luraghi R., La guerra civile americana. Le ragioni e i protagonisti del primo conflitto industriale, Milano, BUR, 2013
• Levine B., La guerra civile americana. Una nuova storia, Torino, Einaudi, 2023
• Foner E., Storia degli Stati Uniti d'America. La «libertà americana» dalle origini a oggi, Roma, Donzelli, 2017
• Hobsbawm E. J., Nazioni e nazionalismi. Programma, mito, realtà, Torino, Einaudi, 2002
• Bhabha H. K., (a cura di), Nazione e narrazione, Milano, Meltemi, 2020
• Renan E., Che cos'è una nazione?, Roma, Donzelli, 2004
• Balibar E., Wallerstein I., Razza, nazione, classe. Le identità ambigue, Trieste, Asterios, 2020
• Anderson B., Comunità immaginate. Origini e diffusione dei nazionalismi, Roma-Bari, Laterza 2018
• Chabod F., L’idea di nazione, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2021
• Rosso S. (a cura di), Le frontiere del far west. Forme di rappresentazione del grande mito americano, Milano, Shake edizioni, 2008
• Cartosio B., Verso Ovest. Storia e mitologia del Far West, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2020


Non-attending students must agree a program with the teacher by sending an email to: didattica.merluzzi@gmail.com