IT2IF: Italian Fascism: Ideologies, Resistance, Legacies

Module code: IT2IF

Module provider: Languages and Cultures; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: 5

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Daniela La Penna, email: d.lapenna@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 26 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module introduces students to the causes, experiences, and afterlives of Fascism in Italy. The module aims to explain why Fascism emerged and gained support, and how it transformed politics, society, and everyday life. You will explore how the regime shaped institutions such as schools and universities, workplaces and industry, and ideas about race, gender, family, and religion, as well as its impact on Italy’s landscapes and colonial environments. We will also examine how Mussolini and his movement were received on the world stage, including the building of alliances and the ways the regime challenged, ignored, and provoked the League of Nations. The module highlights resistance to Fascism and asks what happened to fascist beliefs and networks after 1945. Students will also work with unique archival resources held in the ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø’s Special Collections. By linking history to present-day debates, you will develop critical skills in analysing power, ideology, and political memory. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

• Explain the social, economic and political factors that enabled Fascism to emerge and consolidate power in Italy. 
• Analyse how fascist ideology shaped institutions and everyday life in Italy and its colonial contexts, and critically evaluate forms of resistance to Fascism, including how fascist ideas and supporters were challenged, reworked, or sustained in Republican Italy after 1945. 
• Critically engage with major historiographical debates and shifts in the study of Italian Fascism, and communicate clear, persuasive historical arguments in written and oral forms using appropriate academic conventions and supporting evidence. 
• Locate, interpret and critically use archival and Special Collections materials related to Fascism, demonstrating awareness of context, provenance, and the limits of historical evidence. 

Module content

The module examines the rise of Italian Fascism in its social, economic, and political context, tracing its establishment as a dictatorship and its impact on everyday life. Topics include propaganda and ideology; the weaponisation of First World War memory; the regime’s mobilisation of the Roman past; education and universities; labour, industry, and welfare; racist thought and policies both in Italy and across the colonial empire; gender, family, and religion; and the remaking of the built and natural environment in Italy and its colonies. We also explore Mussolini’s international ambitions, including diplomacy, alliance-building, and confrontations with the League of Nations, as well as his role in shaping a transnational supremacist alliance. The module analyses resistance and anti-fascism, post-war justice and memory, and the legacies and transformations of fascist ideas in Republican Italy to the present 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching is delivered through interactive lectures and student-led seminars structured around specific research questions and close analysis of historical documents. Selected sessions take place in the ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø’s Special Collections, developing hands-on archival research skills. Students prepare through short critical readings and a curated podcast list. Active engagement in discussion is expected throughout. 

Study hours

At least 26 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: /cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Class participation and discussion on pre-circulated texts and artefacts 

Reassessment

Additional costs