Learning objectives
Provide a general overview of the cultural geography aprroach to local development processes.
Provide a specific knowledge, also from a methodological point of view, of a specific case study area.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
The course
will be devoted to the perspectives that cultural geography can offer to the analyis of the local cultures developed during the twentieth century in the area surrounding the river Po. The spatial turn that characterized social sciences and humanities during the last two decades had among its consequences a renewed interest by geographers for the sense of belonging of the inhabitants to their everyday environments, the cultural perceptions of the regions and the processes of production and circulation of territorial images. The course offers an overview of the geographical tradition of studies about the river Po, analyzing different aspects and using different approaches: the description of the regions that the river crosses, the different typolgies of human actions performed in the areas surrounding the river, the material and immaterial traditions that developed within the different cultures of the river Po. A specific focus will be given to the production of territorial images in four fields of artistic creativity that widely and continuously paid their attention to the river Po: literature, music, photography and cinema.
Full programme
The course will be structured into several didactic units devoted to the following topics:
- a brief introduction to cultural geography
- the research interests of cultural geography: spatial identity, territorial sense of belonging, production of social territorial images, cultural production of geographical imageries
- the territorial specificity of river basins: comparing international examples
- the hydrographic basin of the river Po. main characteristics
- the "cultural basin" of the river Po: administrative partitions, fragmentation of identities, "cultural biodiversity"
- material and immaterial cultural heritage along the river Po
- The river Po in 20th century literature
- The river Po in contemporary folk music (from the 1980s to today)
- The river Po in contemporary photography (from the 1950s to today)
- The river Po in contemporary cinema (from the 1940s to today)
Bibliography
Guido BORELLI, Tracce di Governance. Comunità e sviluppo locale nella Media Valle del Po, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2008
- Giancarlo MOTTA, Carlo RAVAGNATI (a cura di), Alvei meandri isole e altre forme urbane. Tecniche di rappresentazione e progetto nei territori fluviali, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2008, pp. 11-55; 109-144; 164-192; 248-300
- Davide PAPOTTI, Geografie della scrittura. Paesaggi letterari del medio Po, Pavia, La Goliardica Pavese, 1996 (out of print; disponibile in fotocopia presso la copisteria “Giovanni Paolo II”, situata nelle immediate vicinanze del plesso di Borgo Carissimi, in Borgo delle Colonne, 9)
- Paolo MICALIZZI, Là dove scende il fiume. Il Po e il cinema, Florence, Aska, 2010
Teaching methods
Lectures
Use of Power Point presentations
Listening to musical performances
Scrrening of movies and documentaries
Oral presentations by the students
Lectures by invited guests
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral exam
Short take-home assignment
Other information
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