The American Dream: in Literature and Italian Music

The course aims to analyze the story of a dream: America seen through the eyes of Italian writers and songwriters of the twentieth century. The lessons will address the different faces of this multifaceted myth: from its exquisitely literary roots (Pavese and Vittorini), to the concreteness of America as a place of work and travel (Cecchi, Soldati, Arbasino, Calvino). In studying the fascination for "across the ocean" we will refer to music, from the fifties onwards; focusing in particular on those songwriters who since the seventies have sung the America of its highrways, of escape, of redemption, of its thousand lights (Guccini, De Gregori, Dalla, Conte). From the continuous comparison between hope and disenchantment, illusion and disillusionment, America thus functions as a mirror, a screen on which to project aspirations and desires. Through the reading and analysis of essays, diaries, letters, stories and song lyrics, the course aims to discover how Italian identity has also been built through the American myth.