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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "EN 282"
COURSE NAME: "Italian Visions: Perceptions of Italy in Literature"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2025
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Alessandra Grego
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 11:30 AM 12:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 110 with a grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course considers the importance of Italy for non-Italian writers, particularly European, British and American writers from the eighteenth century onward. Topics considered include: a critique of the perception and construction of Italy and Italians, the development of genres like the gothic or novels of national identity, the gendering of nationality, imperialism, the use of art and history in literature. Consideration is given to the ways in which these works are in dialogue with each other in terms of cultural assumptions and influence. This course is an alternate course to EN 278. If taken in addition to EN 278, it may count as a major elective. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
Italy and its major cities, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, has been a place of the imagination for European and American writers since the Middle Ages. The site of the Roman Empire, the center of Christianity, the cradle of the Renaissance, was at once the birthplace of western civilization and a backwater of bigotry and oppression, politically fragmented, volatile and dangerous. The visitors to Italy, always a tourist destination, were inspired and repelled, humbled by the history, seduced by the beauty, horrified by the poverty, shocked by the art as Italy became an imaginary construct and the stage of so many contrasts and projected anxieties. The course will explore a few of these literary constructs while reflecting on the way we experience place through the imagination.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students will become familiar with eighteenth and nineteenth century British, American, and European literary engagement with and about Italy. They will be able to identify the important trans-cultural relationships between these writers which their encounters with Italy expose.  They will have a greater appreciation of the way cultural stereotypes both persist and evolve in time. Students will also become familiar with the cultural challenges of travelling and travel writing, through the production of their own reading journals.
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
The ItalianAnn RadcliffeOUP978-0-19-283254-2     
The Italian JourneyJohann Wolfgang GoetheOUP978-0-14-44233-5     
Daisy MillerHenry JamesOUPISBN-10: 0199538565     
Corinne Mme de StaelOUP9780199554607     
The Innocents AbroadMark TwainPenguinISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0142437085     
Where Angels Fear to TreadE.M. ForsterPenguin978-0-14144145-0     
Pictures from ItalyCharles Dickensanyonline     
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberComments
The Empire of Stereotypes : Germaine de StaëL and the Idea of Italy.Casillo, Robert. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983213. available from the Frohring LIbrary
Cultural capitals and cosmopolitanism in eighteenth-century Italy: the historiography and Italy on the Grand Tour.Naddeo, B. A.Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 10(2), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545710500111322 available from the Frohring Library

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberComments
City of the Soul : Rome and the Romantics. The Morgan Library & Museum : The Foundation for Landscape Studies Pinto, John A., et al. The University Press of New England, 2016http://site.ebrary.com/id/11222145.  
Romantics and the Monumental Figure. Haley, Bruce. Living Forms State University of New York Press, 2003,http://site.ebrary.com/id/10587207  
Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains : Peaks of VeniceBainbridge, William.Amsterdam University Press, 2020, 9789048539314.  .
The Victorians and Renaissance Italy. Fraser, Hilary. Blackwell, 1992.9780631149491  
The Victorians and Italy : Literature, Travel, Politics and Art. Vescovi, Alessandro, et al. Polimetrica, 2009.9788876991639  
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
First Essay1500 words in length25%
Second Home PaperResearch paper - minimum 3 peer reviewed sources. 2000 words in length25%
JournalA journal of each student's reactions to the reading and the on-site visits. 15%
Participation 10%
Final exam 25%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

There are five on-site classes in this course and attendance is mandatory. Absences will be counted as a missed class. Payment is required for some of our visits, but the fees can vary depending on Museum approvals for free entry. When fees are required, students should pay for the trip in advance of the visit. The fees for all 5 on-site visits are not expected to exceed 20 euros and might be as little as 10 euros or free. Confirmation on costs should be available by the first week of the semester.

 

 WEEK 1 The Grand Tour - An Introduction

Introduction to the Course and Requirements

We will go through the virtual tour of Italy and the Grand Tour constructed from the 2001 exhibition at the Getty Museum.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/grand_tour/

WEEK 2    Pre-Revolution Travellers and the European Artists Abroad

Goethe's Italian Journey

WEEK 3 Transformations continued  

Blake and Dante and Milton - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

FIRST FIELD TRIP:  Casa di Goethe Via del Corso 18 Meet there at 11:30 a.m. for our scheduled tour in English  (lasts one hour; Entry to the museum is 5 euros per person, including a private and free guided tour in English). 

WEEK 4 Italy and the Romantics

Byron - Childe Harold Bk. IV 

Lord Byron Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage Canto IV especially stanzas cxxviii-cxxxi; cxxxviii-cxlv) http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/chpl10h.htm

Timeline: http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/chrono.html#1822

Aesthetic and psychological categories: The Sublime and the Picturesque Background Reading: The concept of the Sublime on the Victorian Website http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/sublime/sublimeov.html

Edmund Burke excerpts from essay on the Sublime http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_1/burke.htm

Gilpin on ideas of the Picturesque for Romantics http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic%5F1/riverwye.htm

WEEK 5 The Italian woman in the Romantic imagination

P.B. Shelley - The Cenci

  

WEEK 6 

Percy Byssche Shelley  The Cenci

Keats Shelley House: Meet at the Museum on the Spanish Steps at 1:15 pm for a scheduled tour (cost is 6 euros). 

WEEK 8 Victorians in Italy

Charles Dickens Pictures from Italy

Read:  Excerpts from Dickens’s Pictures from Italy, including chapters entitled:  Italian Dream, Rome, and A Rapid Diorama:   e-text available on Project Gutenberg.

George Eliot. Extracts from Middlemarch 

WEEK 7 Americans and Italy

Read:  Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad (Chapter 17-31 and Conclusion)

 

Read:  Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad (Chapter 17-31 and Conclusion)

 

WEEK 9 Modernists and Italy New Woman Travellers, Mediterranean Paganisms and the Modern Imagination

E.M. Forster - Where Angels Fear to Tread

Henry James - Daisy Miller

Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms

  

WEEK 10 Italians and Americans after WWII

Cesare Pavese:  The Moon And The Bonfire : Pavese, Cesare : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

  

WEEK 11 

   Italo Calvino: American Lessons

WEEK 12

 

WEEK 13  

 

WEEK 14

 

FIFTH FIELD TRIP - Protestant Cemetery (Piramide). Donation required.  Meet at Keats's graveside at 1:15pm