The American Dream: in Literature and Italian Music

The course aims to analyze the history 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 root (Pavese and Vittorini), to the concreteness of an America as a place of work and travel (Cecchi, Soldati, Arbasino). In studying the fascination for "beyond the ocean", particular reference will be made to music, focusing on those singer-songwriters who from the seventies sang the autogrill America, the escape, the redemption, the thousand lights (Guccini, De Gregori , Dalla, Conte). In a continuous confrontation between hope and disenchantment, illusion and disillusionment, America functions as a mirror, a screen on which to project aspirations and desires. Through the reading and analysis of essays, diaries, letters, stories and texts of songs, the course aims to discover how the Italian identity has also been built through the American myth.