The focus of this course is on narratives by various authors who travelled to, lived in, and wrote about Italy from the late 18th through the early 20th century, and whose writings were influenced by Italian culture. Authors include Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and D. H. Lawrence. An introduction to the Grand Tour, as well as to the genre of travel writing, will provide students with background information regarding the works analyzed.
Through a close analysis of the texts, students will be engaged in class discussions in order to better define the different images of Italy that emerge from the travel accounts. Students will also be required to compile their own travel journal during the course of the semester. (3 credits)
Learning outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Know key authors and major literary works in the genre of travel writing;
- Gain an understanding of Italian society, art, culture and historical events;
- Develop textual analysis skills;
- Develop the ability to independently research and organize information for the weekly journal entries, and for a documented presentation on the text assigned and the main cultural themes discussed in the text;
- Develop advanced writing ability (in prose/poetry) and other modes of expression (i.e., sketching, photographing, etc.), by creating their own travel journal;
- Exercise critical thought by establishing comparisons among different issues, periods, authors and works of art.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, class discussions, presentations, and field studies.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); travel journal and oral presentation (20%); mid-term exam (30%), final exam (30%).
Details of required work:
Travel Journal: Every week students will be required to prepare one entry for their personal travel journal and will give short presentations of their writings. The journal will be written following an itinerary through Rome and its most important cultural sites. Besides researching and providing cultural information on the sites visited, poems, quotations, photographs, sketches, and music can be used to enrich the journal entries.
Oral presentations: Students will be asked to do one oral presentation on a text assigned, researching and presenting information on the author, travelogue and main cultural themes debated in the text.
Attendance and Participation: The class is partially discussion-based and will demand a high degree of participation from students. Students are expected to come to class prepared and ready to participate actively in class discussions. More than 2 unexcused absences and late entrances will affect the final grade.
Exams: There will be two written, in-class examinations (midterm and final).
Assessment Methods:
A: The exam displays an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content, it is accurate and well-written, and demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory with elements of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading.
B: The exam displays a good knowledge of relevant information or content, it is accurate and well-written, and there is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluate theory and concepts. There is clear evidence of a good amount of reading.
C: This is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited. The student sometimes lacks a coherent grasp of material, and the writing contains some errors.
D: Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included. The exam contains errors and suggests a poor amount of reading.
F: This work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the questions. Most of the material in the answers is irrelevant.
content:
Week 1
Session 1: Introduction to the genre of travel writing and the Grand Tour.
Session 2: In the mind of the traveller: the enthusiastic vs. the melancholy. How to compile a travel journal.
Readings due: The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, pp. 37-50 (ON RESERVE). William Hazlitt, On Going a Journey; Samuel Rogers, Foreign Travel; Wordsworth on Lake Como - sample analysis.
Week 2
Session 3: Notions of Picturesque, Beautiful and Sublime.
Readings due: Notes on compiling a travel journal; Notes on the Sublime; Edmund Burke, excerpts from A Philosophical Enquiry; William Gilpin, On Picturesque Beauty and additional extracts.
Session 4: Picturesque, Beautiful and Sublime in travel accounts.
Readings due: Selected pages from A.L. Spallanzani, P.B. Shelley and Lady Morgan; Goethe, Italian Journey: pp. 192-195.
Journal entry due (1): First impressions of Rome.
Week 3
Session 5: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey.
Readings due: Goethe, Italian Journey: pp. 36-39; 43-48; 57; 70-74; 77-79; 93-97; 102-104; 128-129; 132-134; 136-138; 146-151; 165-166; 168; 189-190; 191-192; 198-200; 217-219; 220-221; 223-226; 345-347; 348-349; 362-363; 434-436; 473-474; 497-498.
Session 6: Goethe, Italian Journey.
Journal entry due (2): Find your own voice or narrative point of view: St. Peter’s Basilica.
Week 5
Session 9: Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence.
Journal entry due (3): How time affects the remains of our past: the Colosseum or the Roman Forum.
Session 10: The Romantic period in English Literature: poetry.
Readings due: Selected poems by Lord Byron and P.B. Shelley; selected pages from The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Journal entry due (4): Narrated story of a place: Castel Sant’Angelo.
Week 6
Session 11: Review for the midterm exam.
Session 12: Midterm exam.
Week 7
Session 13: Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy.
Readings due: Dickens, Pictures from Italy: pp. 5-7; 77-85; 86-121; 183-187. Greenblatt, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: pp. 1236-1239.
Session 14: Dickens, Pictures from Italy.
Journal entry due (5): Waters of Rome: fountains, aqueducts, river Tiber.
Week 8
Session 15: Rome in literary fiction: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Readings due: Hawthorne, The Marble Faun: pp. 3-11; 86-87; 119-128; 254-255; 271-274; 318-320. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 144-156 (ON RESERVE).
Session 16: Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Journal entry due (6): Rome, a day at the museum.
Week 9
Session 17: Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad.
Readings due: Twain, The Innocents Abroad: pp. 1-3; 131-132; 135-139; 153-167; 183-186; 191-197; 225; 239-246. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 195-203 (ON RESERVE).
Session 18: Twain, The Innocents Abroad.
Journal entry due (7): Lend your voice to a place in Rome.
Week 10
Session 19: Henry James, Italian Hours.
Readings due: James, Italian Hours: pp. 3; 7; 10-12; 29-31; 51-54; 92-97; 100-115; 145-151; 168-175; 192-195; 238-239; 255; 308-320. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 210-218 (ON RESERVE).
Session 20: Holiday (no classes).
Week 11
Session 21: Henry James, Italian Hours.
Journal entry due (8): On the road: travelling in Italy.
Session 22: Edith Wharton, Italian Backgrounds.
Readings due: Wharton, Italian Backgrounds: pp. 28-35; 41-53; 85-90; 173-189; 213-214. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 244-246 (ON RESERVE).
Journal entry due (9): Italian foregrounds and backgrounds: Piazza Navona.
Week 12
Session 23: Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence and Italy.
Readings due: Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence and Italy: “The spinner and the monks” pp. 19-31; “Il duro” and “John” pp. 103-119; towards the end of book “Cerveteri” pp. 1-17. Greenblatt, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: pp. 2243-2245.
Session 24: Conclusions and review for the final exam. All journals are due today.
Journal entry due (10): A farewell to Rome: your overall experience and final impressions.
Week 13
FINAL EXAM (TBA)
Required readings:
1. Primary Sources:
Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (London: J. Dodsley, 1782).
Dickens, Charles, Pictures from Italy (Penguin Classics, 1998).
Gilpin, William, Three Essays on Picturesque Beauty (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1808).
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Italian Journey 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics, 1970).
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Marble Faun (Penguin, 1990).
Hazlitt, William, Selected Writings (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970).
James, Henry, Italian Hours (Penguin Classics, 1995).
Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson), Italy (New York: C.S. Van Winkle, 1821).
Lawrence, D.H., D.H. Lawrence and Italy (Penguin Books, 1997).
Rogers, Samuel, Italy: A Poem (London: T. Cadell, 1830)
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (London:
Edward Moxon, 1840), vol. II.
Spallanzani, Lazzaro, Travels in the Two Sicilies and some parts of the Apennines (London:
Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, 1798).
Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence (Calder, 1959).
Twain, Mark, The Innocents Abroad (Penguin Classics, 2002).
Wharton, Edith, Italian Backgrounds (Ecco Press, 1989).
2. Secondary Sources:
Baym, Nina (ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Norton, 2008) – selected pages.
Buzard, James, “The Grand Tour and After (1660-1840),” in Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). ON RESERVE.
Greenblatt, Stephen (ed.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Norton, 2006) – selected pages.
Ruland, Richard, and Bradbury, Malcolm, From Puritanism to Postmodernism. A History of American Literature (Penguin, 1992) - selected pages. ON RESERVE.
Recommended readings:
Black, Jeremy, Italy and the Grand Tour (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2003).
Buzard, James, The Beaten Track: European Tourism, Literature And The Ways to ‘Culture’ 1800-1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Hornsby, Clare (ed.), The Impact of Italy: The Grand Tour And Beyond (London: British School at Rome, 2000).
Leed, Eric J., The Mind of the Traveler. From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (New York: Basic Books, 1991).
Martin, Robert K, and Person, Leland S., Roman Holidays: American Writers And Artists in Nineteenth-Century Italy (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2002).
Ross, Michael L., Storied Cities: A Literary Imaginings of Florence, Venice and Rome (Greenwood Press, 1994).
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Barbara Castaldo is a graduate in Literature from the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” She earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. at New York University, both degrees in Italian Studies. She is editor of Jack London, Zanna Bianca (Milan: Mondadori, 2000), and published articles on contemporary Italian authors (Marco Lodoli, Sandro Veronesi, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini). Barbara was granted the prestigious Pier Paolo Pasolini Award for her doctoral dissertation, and is currently working on a book on Pasolini’s legal trials. Besides teaching at IES, Barbara is Professor of Italian Literature and Culture at other American universities in Rome.
The Grand Tour: Italy And The Literary Imagination
The focus of this course is on narratives by various authors who travelled to, lived in, and wrote about Italy from the late 18th through the early 20th century, and whose writings were influenced by Italian culture. Authors include Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and D. H. Lawrence. An introduction to the Grand Tour, as well as to the genre of travel writing, will provide students with background information regarding the works analyzed.
Through a close analysis of the texts, students will be engaged in class discussions in order to better define the different images of Italy that emerge from the travel accounts. Students will also be required to compile their own travel journal during the course of the semester. (3 credits)
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Know key authors and major literary works in the genre of travel writing;
- Gain an understanding of Italian society, art, culture and historical events;
- Develop textual analysis skills;
- Develop the ability to independently research and organize information for the weekly journal entries, and for a documented presentation on the text assigned and the main cultural themes discussed in the text;
- Develop advanced writing ability (in prose/poetry) and other modes of expression (i.e., sketching, photographing, etc.), by creating their own travel journal;
- Exercise critical thought by establishing comparisons among different issues, periods, authors and works of art.
Lectures, class discussions, presentations, and field studies.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Class participation (20%); travel journal and oral presentation (20%); mid-term exam (30%), final exam (30%).
Details of required work:
Travel Journal: Every week students will be required to prepare one entry for their personal travel journal and will give short presentations of their writings. The journal will be written following an itinerary through Rome and its most important cultural sites. Besides researching and providing cultural information on the sites visited, poems, quotations, photographs, sketches, and music can be used to enrich the journal entries.
Oral presentations: Students will be asked to do one oral presentation on a text assigned, researching and presenting information on the author, travelogue and main cultural themes debated in the text.
Attendance and Participation: The class is partially discussion-based and will demand a high degree of participation from students. Students are expected to come to class prepared and ready to participate actively in class discussions. More than 2 unexcused absences and late entrances will affect the final grade.
Exams: There will be two written, in-class examinations (midterm and final).
Assessment Methods:
A: The exam displays an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content, it is accurate and well-written, and demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory with elements of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading.
B: The exam displays a good knowledge of relevant information or content, it is accurate and well-written, and there is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluate theory and concepts. There is clear evidence of a good amount of reading.
C: This is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited. The student sometimes lacks a coherent grasp of material, and the writing contains some errors.
D: Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included. The exam contains errors and suggests a poor amount of reading.
F: This work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the questions. Most of the material in the answers is irrelevant.
Week 1
Session 1: Introduction to the genre of travel writing and the Grand Tour.
Session 2: In the mind of the traveller: the enthusiastic vs. the melancholy. How to compile a travel journal.
Readings due: The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, pp. 37-50 (ON RESERVE). William Hazlitt, On Going a Journey; Samuel Rogers, Foreign Travel; Wordsworth on Lake Como - sample analysis.
Week 2
Session 3: Notions of Picturesque, Beautiful and Sublime.
Readings due: Notes on compiling a travel journal; Notes on the Sublime; Edmund Burke, excerpts from A Philosophical Enquiry; William Gilpin, On Picturesque Beauty and additional extracts.
Session 4: Picturesque, Beautiful and Sublime in travel accounts.
Readings due: Selected pages from A.L. Spallanzani, P.B. Shelley and Lady Morgan; Goethe, Italian Journey: pp. 192-195.
Journal entry due (1): First impressions of Rome.
Week 3
Session 5: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey.
Readings due: Goethe, Italian Journey: pp. 36-39; 43-48; 57; 70-74; 77-79; 93-97; 102-104; 128-129; 132-134; 136-138; 146-151; 165-166; 168; 189-190; 191-192; 198-200; 217-219; 220-221; 223-226; 345-347; 348-349; 362-363; 434-436; 473-474; 497-498.
Session 6: Goethe, Italian Journey.
Journal entry due (2): Find your own voice or narrative point of view: St. Peter’s Basilica.
Week 4
Session 7: Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence.
Readings due: Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence: pp. 1-8; 11-13; 30-32; 47-49; 53-55; 56-58; 90-91; 98-99; 140-149; 196-201; 213-223; 248-253; 300-308; 329-333; 342-347; 420-426; 457-459; 461-465; 471-473; 479-482.
Session 8: Field study to Goethe’s House.
Week 5
Session 9: Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence.
Journal entry due (3): How time affects the remains of our past: the Colosseum or the Roman Forum.
Session 10: The Romantic period in English Literature: poetry.
Readings due: Selected poems by Lord Byron and P.B. Shelley; selected pages from The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Journal entry due (4): Narrated story of a place: Castel Sant’Angelo.
Week 6
Session 11: Review for the midterm exam.
Session 12: Midterm exam.
Week 7
Session 13: Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy.
Readings due: Dickens, Pictures from Italy: pp. 5-7; 77-85; 86-121; 183-187. Greenblatt, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: pp. 1236-1239.
Session 14: Dickens, Pictures from Italy.
Journal entry due (5): Waters of Rome: fountains, aqueducts, river Tiber.
Week 8
Session 15: Rome in literary fiction: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Readings due: Hawthorne, The Marble Faun: pp. 3-11; 86-87; 119-128; 254-255; 271-274; 318-320. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 144-156 (ON RESERVE).
Session 16: Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Journal entry due (6): Rome, a day at the museum.
Week 9
Session 17: Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad.
Readings due: Twain, The Innocents Abroad: pp. 1-3; 131-132; 135-139; 153-167; 183-186; 191-197; 225; 239-246. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 195-203 (ON RESERVE).
Session 18: Twain, The Innocents Abroad.
Journal entry due (7): Lend your voice to a place in Rome.
Week 10
Session 19: Henry James, Italian Hours.
Readings due: James, Italian Hours: pp. 3; 7; 10-12; 29-31; 51-54; 92-97; 100-115; 145-151; 168-175; 192-195; 238-239; 255; 308-320. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 210-218 (ON RESERVE).
Session 20: Holiday (no classes).
Week 11
Session 21: Henry James, Italian Hours.
Journal entry due (8): On the road: travelling in Italy.
Session 22: Edith Wharton, Italian Backgrounds.
Readings due: Wharton, Italian Backgrounds: pp. 28-35; 41-53; 85-90; 173-189; 213-214. Ruland-Bradbury, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: pp. 244-246 (ON RESERVE).
Journal entry due (9): Italian foregrounds and backgrounds: Piazza Navona.
Week 12
Session 23: Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence and Italy.
Readings due: Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence and Italy: “The spinner and the monks” pp. 19-31; “Il duro” and “John” pp. 103-119; towards the end of book “Cerveteri” pp. 1-17. Greenblatt, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: pp. 2243-2245.
Session 24: Conclusions and review for the final exam. All journals are due today.
Journal entry due (10): A farewell to Rome: your overall experience and final impressions.
Week 13
FINAL EXAM (TBA)
1. Primary Sources:
Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (London: J. Dodsley, 1782).
Dickens, Charles, Pictures from Italy (Penguin Classics, 1998).
Gilpin, William, Three Essays on Picturesque Beauty (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1808).
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Italian Journey 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics, 1970).
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Marble Faun (Penguin, 1990).
Hazlitt, William, Selected Writings (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970).
James, Henry, Italian Hours (Penguin Classics, 1995).
Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson), Italy (New York: C.S. Van Winkle, 1821).
Lawrence, D.H., D.H. Lawrence and Italy (Penguin Books, 1997).
Rogers, Samuel, Italy: A Poem (London: T. Cadell, 1830)
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (London:
Edward Moxon, 1840), vol. II.
Spallanzani, Lazzaro, Travels in the Two Sicilies and some parts of the Apennines (London:
Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, 1798).
Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence (Calder, 1959).
Twain, Mark, The Innocents Abroad (Penguin Classics, 2002).
Wharton, Edith, Italian Backgrounds (Ecco Press, 1989).
2. Secondary Sources:
Baym, Nina (ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Norton, 2008) – selected pages.
Buzard, James, “The Grand Tour and After (1660-1840),” in Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). ON RESERVE.
Greenblatt, Stephen (ed.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Norton, 2006) – selected pages.
Ruland, Richard, and Bradbury, Malcolm, From Puritanism to Postmodernism. A History of American Literature (Penguin, 1992) - selected pages. ON RESERVE.
Black, Jeremy, Italy and the Grand Tour (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2003).
Buzard, James, The Beaten Track: European Tourism, Literature And The Ways to ‘Culture’ 1800-1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Hornsby, Clare (ed.), The Impact of Italy: The Grand Tour And Beyond (London: British School at Rome, 2000).
Leed, Eric J., The Mind of the Traveler. From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (New York: Basic Books, 1991).
Martin, Robert K, and Person, Leland S., Roman Holidays: American Writers And Artists in Nineteenth-Century Italy (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2002).
Ross, Michael L., Storied Cities: A Literary Imaginings of Florence, Venice and Rome (Greenwood Press, 1994).
Barbara Castaldo is a graduate in Literature from the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” She earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. at New York University, both degrees in Italian Studies. She is editor of Jack London, Zanna Bianca (Milan: Mondadori, 2000), and published articles on contemporary Italian authors (Marco Lodoli, Sandro Veronesi, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini). Barbara was granted the prestigious Pier Paolo Pasolini Award for her doctoral dissertation, and is currently working on a book on Pasolini’s legal trials. Besides teaching at IES, Barbara is Professor of Italian Literature and Culture at other American universities in Rome.