SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal – The Common Good
1. Name of proponent: Professor Costanza Gislon Dopfel
2. E-Mail address: cdopfel@stmarys-ca.edu
3. Department of proponent: Modern Languages
4. Name of Department hosting the course: Modern Languages
5. Name of Department Chair: Lori Spicher
6. Course Information: ML 186 – Italian Civilization
7. Semester in which the course will be offered: Spring 2014
8. How often is this course taught: Every other year
9. Course prerequisites: None
10. Unit value of course: One
11. Proper audience for course: sophomores, juniors, seniors
12. The learning goals for which the course is being submitted: Engaging the World: The Common
Good
Description of the Course
ML 186 is a unique multidisciplinary course on Italian history and civilization that involves the exploration
of art, literature and music. The course also examines Italian history through the lens of the different
notions of justice in connection to issues of conquest and colonization, and posits questions on how a
culture that is in turn colonizing and colonized struggles to justify its identity and actions through artistic
production. Art, literature and music are analyzed as social and historical messages, with a particular
emphasis on the ideal representation of notions of common good.
The label ML 186 Italian Civilization is generally used to define not one but two semester-long courses, ML
186-1 and ML 186-2 (see the two syllabi), that can be taken independently of each other and can double-dip
for Artistic Understanding core requirements. Students can take ML186-1, ML186-2 or both. Both are
recommended for Italian Studies Minors and Majors, Art History Minors and Majors and all students
planning to spend a semester in Italy.
In ML186-1 students explore Italian history from the foundation of Rome to the Renaissance. Students
analyze Roman ideology and its representation through the republican and imperial ages from the viewpoint
of the Roman concept of Iustitia. After exploring the fall of the Roman Empire and the different waves of
Germanic invasions, students will approach the medieval and early modern period. The multi-disciplinary
context elicits a comparative analysis of both texts and artwork and leads to a deep insight into the ideology
of the era. Students will question to what degree different historical periods approached issues of justice in
terms of the relationship between the individual and society, where society is intended as a place that would
foster the development and happiness of each of its members (Common Good). Conceptions of what
Common Good means permeate history, and in some cases communities assumed these values as their ideal
base. The way different entities declared their belief in social values such as justice, cooperation, the role of
the individual within society, as well as the role of society for the good of the individual was often visual, as
they needed to communicate with the illiterate mass. Students learn to open their minds to different ways
of ‘reading’ artistic statements, as well as different ways of recognizing how the ‘Common’ and the ‘Good’
are understood through the centuries. For example, the Sienese fresco of Good and Bad Government is
clearly a statement of the ideals of Common Good and justice in a society, a statement that is as clear and as
powerful as any modern ideological manifesto. The reappearance of the figure of Roman Iustitia/Justice in
medieval art corresponds with the need of city-states to form a coherent understanding of the relationship
between the welfare of the individual and the good of society, as well as a re-elaboration of a historical
judicial tradition that is at the root of Italian cultural identity. Students will appreciate the difference
between the Roman concept of society and justice - as it evolved from the moral unity of the Republic to
the cosmopolis of the Empire - and that of medieval city-states, while questioning who partakes of the
‘common’ within the historical development of the concept of Common Good.
The second section of the course starts with a brief summary of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and
examines the plight of Italy as a country that has been conquered and colonized by foreign powers – French,
Spanish and German. In this context, students will read Machiavelli’s The Prince from the point of view of a
new political situation that completely changes the notions of morality and justice and invites a revision of
these terms in order to achieve the higher goal of Italian independence. The philosophical influence of the
Enlightment will be approached through Cesare Beccaria’s meditation on the role of justice in relation to
crime and punishment. Italy’s subjugation and the intellectuals’ call for revolutionary action frame the
question of the common good by pinning the social reality of domination against a vision of an idealized,
independent nation. Students will examine the revolutionary movements in 19th century Italy in light of the
ideas formulated by Giuseppe Mazzini in his work On the Duties of Man, which is the first organic
conceptualization of the philosophy of justice in relation and in reaction to the Enlightment-influenced
conception of human rights. Students will have to elaborate on the difference between the medieval
concept of common good, which assumed that the welfare of the individual could not be separated from the
welfare of society, and the new understanding of the separation between the individual’s own rights (and
duties) and society.
The question of Southern Italy is central to the discussion, from the idealistic calls for its ‘liberation’ and
Mazzini’s and Garibaldi’s dream of the creation of a utopian state, to the reality of a different type of
national colonization and oppression. Students will also examine how Mazzini’s ideas of the relationship
between individual rights and individual duties for the creation of a just society were appropriated by the
national socialist ideology promoted by Fascism. Students will read Gramsci’s anti-fascist critique in
concomitance with fascist artistic and literary propaganda, the nation’s acceptance of a totalitarian state and
its promises of reform and common good. The course continues with an analysis of Italy’s position in the
post-WWII years as a vanquished and impoverished country, its cultural and material colonization by the
U.S. and the scourge of different Mafia organizations.
While reading Amara Lakhous’ Clash of Civilizations over an elevator in Piazza Vittorio, students will
analyze the contrast between Italy’s historical identity as a country of emigrants and its new condition as a
country of immigrants, where traditional Italians are neither prepared to face the unending waves of illegal
immigrants from North Africa and Albania, nor are they able to formulate an understanding of the meaning
of common good that could include the new population. Students will reflect on the evolution of the
concept of justice within several millennia of Italian cultural continuity and its potential failure in present
times, which may require a shift in cultural values and identity.
TEACHING: How the course will guide students toward achieving the learning outcomes
Although the focus of this course is the connection between art, literature, music and history, students
realize that public artwork is often connected to the question of the common good, since it visually
broadcasts a pledge to provide safety, happiness and stability for the community. Students discover that art
is one of the most powerful ways for a social system to communicate its ideology and successfully gain
public support in the name of justice. The idea takes specific connotations when formulated either by the
conqueror or by the conquered, and students are encouraged to focus on this characteristic duality of Italian
history. The question of justice, which has been fundamental in Italian history since Roman times, is raised
within its historical context in connection to both texts and artwork.
Outcomes 2 and 3:
Articulate, in prose or through another communicative medium, a critical account of just social order and
Demonstrate a capacity for coherent, principled analysis of concrete social problems.
Students are asked to:
1- choose a work of art (literature, art or music) that represents historical notions of justice and
discuss how such notions inform the creative process. In this exercise, students will be asked to
ignore their preconception of what justice means to them as modern Americans, and try to shift
their point of view to a different historical and cultural environment. Using a comparative
framework of objects, historical facts and ideas, students will demonstrate their understanding of
Italians’ vision of just social order.
2- Analyze the relationship between a concrete social problem in a specific historical period, its
representation and its influence on the concept of justice. This assignment encourages students to
think critically about the way social problems are recognized, understood and represented through
art, as well as their impact on the idea of justice.
LEARNING: How coursework will be used to measure student achievement of the outcomes
Articulate, in prose or through another communicative medium, a critical account of just social order; or
Demonstrate a capacity for coherent, principled analysis of concrete social problems.
Students will fulfill Learning Objectives 2 and 3 through an oral presentation and an essay.