Teaching and research
Greetings and welcome to my web page, where I hope you will find materials and on-line courses that might be of interest to you!
I am Dr. Marja Härmänmaa, Adjunct Professor of Modern Italian Literature at the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku, Finland, and fellow of Clare Hall College at the University of Cambridge, UK.
I have been teaching Italian language and culture at the University of Helsinki for over twenty years, acting as a visiting lecturer, professor and researcher in various universities of Italy, the UK and Poland.
I have shared my research in a number of international conferences and publications, including books, articles and blogs. For more information regarding my background, education, work experience and publications, please consult my CV and the following links:
https://www.utu.fi/en/people/marja-harmanmaanmaa
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8837-6445
I am an Italianist first and foremost, a researcher of the Italian language and culture. My research interests focus especially on the Italian avant-garde movement known as Futurism, Fascism (with emphasis on its cultural policies), the writer and poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, and the history of Venice. In general, I am a specialist in the Italian literature and culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In this forum I hope you will find materials of interest including blogs that are offered free to the public, on-line courses as well as articles and books that can be accessed at low cost.
My studies and research have led me to spend close to ten years in Italy. For this reason, I can offer plenty of personal experience about Italy in addition to the information I have learned from books.
Would you be interested in knowing more about the language, culture and literature of Italy? Or about avant-garde art? Perhaps the myth of Mussolini in the 1930s might intrigue you?
Should we learn about them together?
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email, or by means of a call or a message in WhatsApp.
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Kind regards, Marja
Courses
Italian Cinema under the Fascist Regime (1919 – 1945)
Aesthetics of a Totalitarian State Between Classicism and Modernism – The Arts in the Fascist Italy”
Avant-Garde: An Introduction
Italian Fascism (1919 – 1945)
This course is an overview of Italian fascism from its foundation till Mussolini's death in 1945. It contains several lessons (videos, PowerPoint slides and quizzes) that you can either complete linearly and get a certificate, or pick only the subjects you are interested in. For the month of July you can buy it for half price: 49,90 € instead of 89,90 €!
Latest articles
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Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! (What Scoundrels Men Are! 1932) – A “Fascist” Comedy Film
During the fascist regime Camerini also directed one propaganda film Il grande appello (The Great Appeal, 1936), and after the war romantic comedies, melodramas and adventure films. Still, history remembers him most of all for one of his early comedies, Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! was one of the so-called “white telephones”
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Young Italians and Work. Case Study: *Out of My League* (*Sul più bello*, 2020 – 2022) – or few words about global female fantasies
This blog is based on the paper I presented in the 55th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association, March 9, 2024, in Boston, MA, USA, in a session organized by professor Paola Sica, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA, and entitled “An Exploration of Work through Literature and / or Film”. https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html In
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Tytus Czyżewski – the man who wanted to try it all
Written by Gabriela Łukasiewicz Tytus Czyżewski was born the 28th December, in 1880, and he died in May 1945. Czyżewski was a Polish painter, art theoretician, Futurist poet, playwright, member of the Polish Formist movement, and the Colorist movement. Tytus Czyżewski was an artist with a true French spirit, always looking for and trying out
