Core 2606

Sturm Hall 134

The Grand Tour: English Travelers in Italy in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Dr. McNees, Sturm Hall 486C, ext. 2855, emcnees@du.edu

Winter 2002

Syllabus

“In planning his Giro d’Italiathe Tourist was advised to arrange his journey so as to be in Venice for the Carnival, in Bologna for the Octave of the Sacrament, and in Rome for Holy Week” notes Christopher Hibbert in his book, The Grand Tour (1969). While the class will not literally be in these Italian cities during these times, we will attempt via travel journals, diaries, novels, maps and poems to recreate the Grand Tour of the English tourist during the 18th and 19th centuries. We will focus principally on Rome, Florence and Venice, seats respectively of Italian classicism, Renaissance and powerful city state. You will complete a variety of assignments from short essays to a hypothetical version of your own tour based on the class readings. 

Week One: Introduction to Italy and the Grand Tourist: Routes to Italy

Thurs.1/3Lecture & Slides

Week Two: Early Grand Tourists

Tues. 1/8Sitwell, “Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples”; Lassels, The Voyage 

Of Italy; Addison, “From Rome to Napels”; Sharp, Letters From Italy;

Starke, Travels in Europe; Trollope, A Visit to Italy (Copy Packet)

Thurs. 1/10Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy

Week Three: Rome

Tues. 1/15*Letter in imitation of Lassels, Addison, Sharp, Starke or Trollope due (2-3 pgs.) Piozzi, “Rome” fr. Observations and Reflections; Jameson, “Journey 

To Rome” & “Rome”; James, “A Roman Holiday” (Copy Packet)

Thurs. 1/17Mme de Stael, Corinne, or Italy

Week Four: Rome Continued

Tues. 1/22Mme de Stael, Corinne, or Italy

Thurs. 1/24Byron, Fr. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Week Five: Rome Concluded

Tues. 1/29James, Daisy Miller

Thurs. 1/31 * Paper Due: De Stael vs. James on Rome and Romance (3-5 pgs.)

Film

Week Six:Florence

Tues. 2/5Addison, “Florence”; Piozzi, “Florence”; Jameson, “Florence”;

James, “Florentine Notes”

Thurs. 2/7Rogers, “Italy”; E.B. Browning, “Casa Guidi Windows” (Copy Packet)

Week Seven: Florence

Tues. 2/12R. Browning, “Fra Lippo Lippi,” “Andrea del Sarto”; Vasari, “Fra

Filippo Lippi,” “Andrea del Sarto” (Copy Packet)

Thurs. 2/14Oliphant, The Makers of Florence” (Copy Packet)

Week Eight:Florence Concluded

Tues. 2/19Forster, A Room With a View

Thurs. 2/21Film

Week Nine:Midterm & Venice

Tues. 2/26*Midterm Examination

Thurs. 2/28Piozzi, “Venice”; Jameson, “Venice” (Copy Packet); James, 

“From Venice to Strasburg”

 

Week Ten:  Venice Concluded

Tues. 3/5Dickens, Pictures from Italy

Thurs. 3/7McCarthy, Venice Observed

Tues. 3/12*Final Presentations

Thurs. 3/14*Final Examination

Your final presentation should be interdisciplinary in nature, combining a variety of genres and media such as the memoir, letter, diary entry, formal travelogue, Xeroxed photographs or computer images, drawings, maps. You will present orally to the class (and in written form to me) your own Grand Tour of Italy based partly on the readings and partly on your own research about the sites and history of Italy. You may choose to focus more on one city than another; you may also choose to include sites not studied in the class such as Naples, Pisa, Sicily, Milan, etc. 

Significant Details: Attendance and participation in class discussions are expected. More than 2 unexcused absences WILL result in a lowered grade. Papers are due at the beginning of class and will not be accepted later. Remember as you read the assignments to investigate the authors’ intentions and attitudes, especially the specifically “English” attitude toward a foreign and largely Roman Catholic culture. As a corollary you are encouraged to examine your own preconceptions of both Italian and other cultures and people. If you choose to employ a persona other than yourself for your final presentation, you should reflect and justify that persona’s cultural biases.