In 2016 it was considered a radical change to propose a curriculum review which put the transnational at the centre of what we teach. Today, 'transnational' is a common descriptor in module titles across Modern Languages in the UK. The transnational has facilitated new approaches to the discipline that put migration, mobility, translation, and the legacies of empire at the heart of what we do. It has encouraged teachers and learners to think about the way that cultures and communities have been shaped by their interactions with others, and about the power dynamics inherent in these exchanges. At its best, the transnational is a powerful tool for interrogating not only what we learn and teach but also how we situate ourselves and how we create and disseminate knowledge. However, in practice it can be more complex to achieve these ideals, and embedding the transnational in teaching runs the risk of dilution and vagueness.My reflections in this article come from three interlinked perspectives: institutional, disciplinary, and as a citizen of a devolved nation. At institutional level, I led a curriculum review in the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University in the UK in 2016. As Director of Learning and Teaching, I spearheaded a wholesale re-thinking of every module in every language programme. One of the key goals was to embed transnational thinking and practices into compulsory 'culture' options in year 1 and 2, in line with the ethos of the 'Transnationalising Modern Languages' (TML) project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). 1 The second perspective comes from my experience of organising and attending symposia and workshops on transnationalising (and decolonising) the curriculum through work with the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML), the Institute for Modern Languages Research (IMLR), and the AHRC Creative Multilingualism project. 2 The final perspective comes from my situated experience as a white Welsh academic working in a Welsh institution in a UK context. Many of the debates in the sector in the UK quite naturally focus on the English context, given the relative sizes of England and Wales. However the landscape in Wales, while informed by this broader UK framework, is also shaped by the different transnational and (de)colonial histories of Wales, and by the politics of the current devolved government. 3 Compared to the UK government in Westminster, the Welsh government has a more
In 2005, over a century after Italians began to settle in Wales, a body of texts emerged that could be read as the first examples of Italian Welsh narrative. This article seeks to introduce and analyse this writing, exploring whether it represents a delayed expression of ethnic identity, or whether the texts are more usefully read comparatively, as part of wider cultural trends. These include the commodification of Italian-ness in the commercial sector in Wales and internationally, and transnational debates surrounding the interplay between class and ethnicity, with a particular focus on the impact of a subaltern Celtic identity, and its correlation with the working class, in British hierarchies.
Gli italiani negli Stati Uniti del XX secolo is split into two very distinct parts. In the first part, 'Il ruolo dei fasci italiani nelle comunita`italo-americane negli anni Venti: un quadro sociale', Pretelli charts the impact of the fasci orgainisations in the American-Italian community in the 1920s, assessing their success in spreading fascist propaganda. Pretelli's analysis draws on a wide range of groups and institutions, examining actions and responses of political figures, trade unions, community leaders and cultural organs. Part two, Ferro's study 'Continuita`e trasformazione dell'identita`etnica. Studio etnografico degli italo-americani a Boston' is very different, examining ways in which 15 second-and third-generation American-Italians in Boston are able to articulate their ethnic identity in the late 1990s. Pretelli's study is divided into three chapters. His introduction examines existing scholarship on the relationship between fascism and American-Italians, indicating an absence of research on the 1920s, when the Italian government sought to use the fasci as a means of obtaining the consensus of American-Italians, before the policy was abandoned in the 1930s to avoid confrontation with the American government. Chapter 1, 'Sviluppo dei fasci negli Stati Uniti d'America', examines the composition of the American-Italian community during the 1920s and explores the popularity of fascism in America. Pretelli suggests that the rise of the Republican Right explains Italian fascism's popularity with Americans, while the positive response of the pro-Democrat American-Italian community was due to Mussolini's success in raising the international standing of Italy. Chapter 2, 'L'affermazione dei fasci nella communita`italo-americana: un percorso difficile', contrasts support for fascism and hostility towards the fasci organizations. Reluctance to be seen as anti-American, the limited standing of the fasci leaders in the community and close links between the fasci and Rome prevented strong support for the groups. Chapter 3, 'Propaganda fascista negli Stati Uniti d'America', charts the attempts of the fasci to promote ideas of italianita`, discipline, the family and religion through the press, journals, schools, cultural organizations, trade unions and dopolavoro clubs, underlining the limits of each medium and the continued dominance of existing, non-fascist, cultural structures. Pretelli concludes that the fasci failed to build consensus both in the American-Italian community and in American public opinion due to their extremism and the perception that they impeded American-Italian integration. Ferro's ethnographic study comprises ten chapters. Chapter 1, 'Considerazioni teoriche sulla questione dell'etnicita`', traces debates on ethnicity in America, where large numbers of ethnic groups have been assimilated over a short period of time. Chapter 2, 'La presenza italiana negli Stati Uniti, Boston e il quartiere italiano', outlines the demographics of the Italian presence in America (leading to some overlap with P...
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