Cultural Studies in Italian Upper Secondary Education: A (Genuine) Tempest?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/30976Keywords:
teaching of English literature and culture; Cultural Studies; Italian educational policy; power; William Shakespeare; The TempestAbstract
This paper seeks to explore the potential of applying the British tradition of Cultural Studies to the teaching of English language and culture in Italian upper secondary schools. Drawing on the theoretical and pedagogical legacy of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, this study highlights how the culturalist approach—historically committed to overcoming the hierarchies between “high” and “low” culture, and thus to valuing the intersections between canonical texts and popular cultural productions—can be translated into teaching and training practices within current Italian educational state regulations. Furthermore, the article also intends to demonstrate how the literary text—even that of the most canonical author, such as William Shakespeare—can become the starting point for an interdisciplinary critical reading that interrogates power relations, processes of identity construction, and forms of cultural representation, thereby fostering the development of complex interpretative competences and critical thinking among students.
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