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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "EN 282"
COURSE NAME: "Italian Visions: Perceptions of Italy in Literature"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring Semester 2012
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Russell Shannon
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: TTH 11:30-12:45
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 110 with a grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS: To be arranged

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Course Description:

“A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see.” Samuel Johnson [who did not make it to Italy] 1776

 

This course attempts to chart the incredible influence of Italy on the imaginations of British, American and European writers of the 18th and 19th centuries.  In addition to reading, students will make on-site visits to places relevant to the literature studied, including:   Keats Shelley House, Goethe House, the Protestant Cemetery, the Palazzo Barbarini and the Capitoline Museum.  We begin with the European “discovery” of Italy through accounts of the Grand Tour. From there we consider the ways in which Italy existed as a destination for the emotional transformation of artists. From our discussion of Goethe through the gothic novel and on to the Romantics, we will consider the changing landscape of pre and post-revolutionary Italy. Victorian responses both to Rome’s imperial past, to its art, and to the Risorgimento will follow. We will look at how the “otherness” of Italy is involved in the definition of Euro-American values in this period. The historical changes in Europe and America which inform the way writers encounter the culture of Italy will provide the map for our understanding of the literature of the period. The relationship between constructions of gender and nationalism in this literature will also be a focus. By the end of the course, we will be able to appreciate how much these writers are influenced not just by Italy, but by each other’s responses to its rich resources, despite their very different cultural or historical perspectives. Students should develop an appreciation and awareness of importance of the transcultural and transnational relationships between these writers. 

 

 

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
See above, reading list and course schedule
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students will become familiar with eighteenth and nineteenth century Biritish, American and European literary engagement with and about Italy.  By the end of the course, they will be aware of Italy's role in questions of national and personal identity for these writers.  The importance of the trans-cultural relationships between these writers will also be a focus.
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
Daisy MillerHenry JamesOxford World's Classics9780192835437     
Corinne, or ItalyMadame de StaelOUP0-19-282505-4     
Where Angels Fear to TreadE. M. ForsterPenguin Classics141441453     
Italian JourneyGoethe, J. W.Penguin Classics0140442332/978-0140442335     
The ItalianAnn RadcliffeOxford World's Classics0-19-283254-9     
The Marble FaunNathaniel HawthorneOUP or Penguin0000     
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberComments
Pictures from ItalyCharles DickensPenguin0-14-043431-3 http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/650 E-text for Pictures from Italy
The Innocents AbroadMark TwainPenguin9780142437087 http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3176 e-text for Innocents Abroad

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberComments
John Bull's Snakes and Ladders: English Attitudes to Italy in the Mid-Nineteenth CenturyAnnemarie McAllisterCambridge Scholars9781847 182623 Please place on reserve
Off the Beaten TrackJames Buzard 00000  
Disorienting FictionJames Buzard 0000  
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
2 Essays 6-8 typed pages50% (25% each)
Reading Journal (Minimum 15 typed pages)A journal account of responses to our reading alongside your own responses to Italy, travel or cultural encounters.20%
ParticipationParticipation is key to doing well in this class.  All contributions in class are welcome and encouraged.  Students are required to attend all 4 of the Friday on-site classes and if they fail to do so, the final mark for the course will be affected.  If students unavoidably miss a field trip they will be required to provide proof (receipts) that they have gone to the sites on their own and they will also be required to write an additional essay of 4-5 typed pages for which they must receive a B grade or higher.10%
Final Exam 20%
Honors Component Assignment for those who are registered as Honors students onlyHonors students will devise the nature of their Honors credit with me in the first week.  Students can choose to write longer essays, or a separate essay, or can make a special presentation on the reading assignment.   

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
Students are assessed on both their critical competency and their writing ability.  Class participation is essential and is also graded.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
 

See the handbook for policies on Attendance. 

NOTE:  Final grades will be affected after 4 unexcused absences.  Two late entrances to class count as 1 absence.

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

COURSE SCHEDULE Spring 2012

 

There will be THREE Friday on-site classes (Jan. 27, March 2 and April 20th).  ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY and our visits have been pre-booked.  Payment is required in advance of the visit.  Total cost for all of the field trips is 24 euros in total.  Please do NOT plan trips away for these Fridays.  In the event that you do miss a field trip,  proof of illness or emergency must be submitted to the Dean's office.  In addition, students will be required to provide proof (receipts) that they have attended the sites on their own at a later point, and they will also be required to write an additional essay of 4-5 typed pages due one week after the trip, for which they must receive a grade of B or higher to cancel out the absences (note that field trips count for 2 classes in terms of attendance values).   Absences of 4 classes or more in the term will automatically result in a lowering of the overall grade for the class by one grade level.  In lieu of these required field trips, 6 classes in the regular schedule have been cancelled.  See schedule below for details.

WEEK 1

Tues. Jan. 17

Introduction to the Course and Requirements

The Grand Tour - An Introduction

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

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

http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/topic_4/tour.htm

Review: Three views of the Grand Tour in Norton Anthology

http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/topic_4/tour.htm

Thurs. Jan.  19

 

The Grand Tour continued:  The Anti-Italy Travellers   Tobias Smollett Selections from Travels through France and Italy (1766) http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Texts/Smollett/Travels/25.html

Read Letters 29-35 (letters on Rome and final letter in which he sums up the effect of his travels).

 

WEEK 2    Pre-Revolution Travellers and the European Artists Abroad

Tues. Jan.   24  

Read:  Laurence Sterne A Sentimental Journey   (Project Gutenberg or any other free ebook edition)

Thurs. Jan. 26 

Read:  Goethe Italian Journey  Part One (especially the section on Rome)  Required reading is the two sections on Rome in the book, but please feel free to read the entire book.

Fri. Jan. 27  FIRST FIELD TRIP

Read:  Italian Journey Part Three:  Second Roman Visit  

FIRST FIELD TRIP:  Casa di Goethe Via del Corso 18 Meet there at 10:30 (Cost:  3 euros and free scheduled guided tour in English).  Following that visit we will make our way to the Capitoline Museum where we will visit the Pinacoteca and the Sculpture Gallery.  Our visit there is relevant particularly to our reading of Corinne and the Marble Faun.  Following our viewing of certain things, you will be free to wander on your own.  The museum is well worth the visit so you should plan to spend some time.

 

WEEK 3 

Tues. Jan. 31:  Italy and the Female Gothic

Read:  Ann Radcliffe The Italian (Volume 1).  Please read carefully, the prefatory story that introduces the novel.

Thurs. Feb. 2 

Submit Journal Entries to Date for Assessment

Read:  Radcliffe The Italian (Volume 2)

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 4  

Tues. Feb. 7  Class is Cancelled in lieu of field trips.

Read:  The Italian (Volume 3)

Thursday Feb. 9 Class cancelled in lieu of field trips. (Begin reading Corinne)

Read:  Madame de Stael's Corinne; or Italy  Books 1-8

 

WEEK 5

Tues. Feb. 14  Finish discussion of The Italian and begin discussion of Corinne

Read:  Madame de Stael's Corinne; or Italy  Books 9-16

Thurs. Feb. 16

Read:  Corinne (Books 17-20)

WEEK 6 The Romantics in Italy

FIRST ESSAY DUE THIS WEEK

 

Tues. Feb. 21 First Essay Due

Read:  Percy Bysshe Shelley’s  The Cenci

http://web.bilkent.edu.tr/Online/www.english.upenn.edu/jlynch/Frank/PShelley/cencitp.html

Thursday Feb. 23 Class cancelled in lieu of field trips.

WEEK 7

Tues. Feb. 28

Read:  Keats’s “Happy is England”  and Byron’s Beppo

http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Bp48.htm

(Not required reading, but you may want to look at “Childe Harolde Canto 4” 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

Thursday March 1  Class cancelled in lieu of field trips. Begin reading Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun.

Friday March 2   SECOND FIELD TRIP This is our most extensive field trip and should take us until lunchtime to complete.  We will visit three sites. Meet at the Palazzo Barberini at 9:30 am.  Cost is 5 euros to be paid in advance.  Following our visit there, we will walk to the famous "bone church’:   the Church of L'Immocolata Concezione, Via Vittorio Veneto 27 (Metro Barberini or Bus to Piazza Barberini).  Cost is free but a donation is recommended.   After that we will walk to the Keats Shelley House on the Spanish Steps where we will be given a talk.  Cost is 4 euros to be paid in advance of visit.

 

WEEK 8 

Tues. March 6  

Read: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun  (Chapters 1-16)

Thurs. March 8 

Read:  The Marble Faun  (Chapters 17-35)

 

WEEK 9

Tues. March 13 No class in lieu of field trips.

SUBMIT JOURNALS FOR GRADING BEFORE THE BREAK

Thurs. March 15 

Read:  The Marble Faun  (Chapters 36-end)

WEEK 10  MARCH BREAK  19-23  Read ahead over the break

 

Week 11 

Tues. March 27

Read: Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (Chapters 17-31 and Conclusion on Italy).

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/TwaInno.html

Hypertext of map of Twain’s journey http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/innocent/iamaphp.html

Thurs. March 29

Read:  Excerpts from Dickens’s Pictures from Italy, including chapters entitled:  Italian Dream, Rome, and A Rapid Diorama:   e-text available on Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/picit10h.htm

WEEK 12 

Tues. April 3 

Read:  Henry James’s Daisy Miller

Thurs. April 5 No class in lieu of field trips.

 

WEEK 13 SECOND ESSAY DUE THIS WEEK

Tues. April 10 

Read: Henry James’s Daisy Miller

Thurs. April 12 

Read: E. M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread (Chapters 1-3)

 

WEEK 14

Tues. April 17  SECOND ESSAY DUE

Read: E. M. Forster Where Angels Fear to Tread (Chapters 4-6)

Thurs. April 19

E. M. Forster Where Angels Fear to Tread  (Chapters7-end)

Friday April 20 THIRD FIELD TRIP  Meet at the Protestant Cemetary (Piramide) at 10:30 am.  Donation of 2 euros recommended to be paid to me in advance of visit.

WEEK 15

Tues. April 24

Read: EdithWharton’s “Roman Fever” http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/whartonromanfever.html 
OR
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ewharton/bl-ewhar-roman.htm

Summing up

Thurs. April 26 No class in lieu of field trips

SUBMIT JOURNAL FOR FINAL GRADE

Note: No journal will be accepted after the last day of class.


SessionSession FocusReading AssignmentOther AssignmentMeeting Place/Exam Dates