Travellers' Tales: Italy in the British Imagination

ITAL30582 Travellers' Tales: Italy in the British Imagination 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 3 Stephen Milner Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 This interdisciplinary course unit is designed to appeal to students in Italian, History, History of Art, English and American Studies and those interested in cultural heritage and museum studies. It examines the centrality of the cultural and political heritage of the Italian peninsula to the British cultural imaginary: from the neoclassicism of the Grand Tour and Joshua Reynolds to the Romanticism of Keats and Shelley and the burgeoning obsession with landscape and ruin; from the Gothic revival of Pugin to the medievalism of the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian Aesthetic Movement; from the social critique of John Ruskin to the socialism of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. In many ways, Italy provided the mirror with which Britain fashioned a variety of political and social imaginaries prior to WW1. The analytical focus of the course will be on key moments in this process through the examination of travel writing, literary and artistic texts, buildings, artefacts and collections produced by those mediating the translational encounter.  This interdisciplinary unit examines key moments in the British encounter with Italy in the mid-late Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. In its early stages, this encounter was mediated through the institution that was a rite of passage for the British ruling classes and landed aristocracy: the Grand Tour. The stately homes of Britain are storehouses of Italian cultural artefacts and texts and invariably designed and landscaped on Italian models. But the revolution in transport that accompanied the Industrial Revolution enabled the new mercantile middle classes to follow in the footsteps of the aristocracy and their Italian voyages in pursuit of culture, health, pleasure and spiritual inspiration. This traffic produced a voluminous body of work in the form of travel journals and diaries, letter collections, prints, and paintings and led to a series of re-workings of Italy’s political, cultural and literary heritage within British social, political and ethical discourse. It was also formative in the emergence of new forms of cultural production and display as the distribution of wealth diversified during the Industrial Revolution and financial and symbolic capital began to migrate from the private stately homes of the aristocracy to the collections of Britain’s industrial magnates and find a home in the newly built public museums, galleries and libraries of Britain’s major urban and industrial centers. The encounter of this new class with Italy took place during a time when Italy was going through the convulsions of nation state building and the resolution of the ‘Roman question’ of church/state relations. Religious controversies in Britain between Roman and Anglo Catholics and between non-conformists/dissenters and supporters of the Established church found their political equivalents in the socialism and radicalism of the chartists, the Free Trade and the Arts and Crafts movements, all of which were inspired by the militant republicanism of Italian ‘patriots’ in their war against Papal authority. Through all these controversies, various Italian aesthetics were mobilized by different constituencies (predominantly in neo-classical-Renaissance and Gothic-medieval forms) and conditioned the style and forms of cultural production and display in Britain prior to the First World War: in literature, architecture, printing, painting and design. These cultural representations in the multiple spaces and discourses of the British public sphere prior to WW1 domesticated Italian culture in the fabric of the everyday where they largely remain to this day. This unit will be as object-based as it will be text-based and appeal to students in several disciplines, including History, English, History of Art and Politics. Close-up sessions will be organized at the JRRIL and Whitworth Gallery and a trip organised to the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool. Extensive use will be made of digital resources from ‘The Grand Tour’ Adam Matthew Digital Database to which the UoM subscribes and to the online collections of institutions such as the Keats Shelley House in Rome, the BSR and the Society of Antiquaries.  This course aims to provide students with: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an awareness of the centrality of Italian culture in conditioning British self-fashioning in the 18th and 19thC; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an ability to engage critically with the genre of travel writing and its subject positioning;  </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an insight into the migration of Italian culture in GB from the stately homes of the ruling classes to the new sites of public education and entertainment;  </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an awareness of the imbrication of Italianate cultural heritage into the political, critical, artistic and cultural debates of Victorian Britain; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an ability to read and analyse ‘texts’ broadly defined in different media in great detail; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="6" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an awareness of the political, social and cultural landscape of 19th-century Britain and Italy </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="7" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an insight into the genesis and evolution of the Grand Tour; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="8" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">a broad knowledge about successive cultural movements in 19th-century Britain and their debt to Italy; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="9" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="19" role="listitem">an overview of 19th-century European cultural trends </li></ul> On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="10" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="20" role="listitem">discuss various British artistic movements and their relation to the Italian experience; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="11" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="20" role="listitem">discuss the relationship between Italian arts, politics and religion and d On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="21" role="listitem">analyse the selected texts in detail;  </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="21" role="listitem">use different analytical and digital languages; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="21" role="listitem">move across diverse analytical frameworks; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="21" role="listitem">understand the concerns of reception studies and cultural translation; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="21" role="listitem">demonstrate a critical awareness of historiography and intercultural theory. </li></ul> On successful completion of this course unit, students will possess: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">an ability to carry out independent research; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">an ability to recognise the importance of social and historical contexts in the study of travel writing, literature, cinema, and the visual/plastic arts. </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">an ability to deal with abstract ideas; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">an ability to engage with different type of texts; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">an ability to use different analytical languages; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="6" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">a solid historical understanding of the history of the reception of Italian culture in Britain; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="7" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="25" role="listitem">a critical awareness of the relationship between the arts and society. </li></ul> On successful completion of this course unit, students will possess: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="23" role="listitem">the ability to communicate ideas and sustain an argument, using relevant critical material, in discussion, essays, and seminars; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="23" role="listitem">an ability to present complex ideas in clear form; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="23" role="listitem">an ability to sustain public debate; </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="23" role="listitem">an ability to work in a team </li></ul> On successful completion of this course unit, students will possess: <ul role="list"> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="24" role="listitem">an ability to work towards deadlines </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="24" role="listitem">an ability to communicate and discuss ideas in public fora </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="24" role="listitem">an ability to write complex arguments </li> <li aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="¿" data-listid="24" role="listitem">an ability to critically assess conceptual problems </li></ul> Other On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to: Initiate and carry out projects; Manage a project independently and work in a team; Manage time and meet deadlines; Deal with personal responsibility and autonomous planning; Demonstrate good presentation, writing, and language skills; Demonstrate power of analysis dealing with a variety of media. 0 Other 100% Essay - 60%Travel Book Review - 40% <table aria-rowcount="4" border="1" data-tablelook="480" data-tablestyle="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody> <tr aria-rowindex="1" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Feedback method  </td> <td data-celllook="4369" role="columnheader">Formative or Summative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="2" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Oral feedback and collective online feedback </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Summative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="3" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Written feedback on essays  Written feedback on essays will be available within 15 working days of the submission date. Global feedback on commentary and essay will be posted on Blackboard.  </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Summative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="4" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Additional one-to-one feedback (during the consultation hour or by making an appointment) </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Formative or Summative </td> </tr> </tbody></table> Y Primary sources  Collections: digital and paper archives; casts, prints and picture collections ‘The Grand Tour’, Adam Matthew Digital Database. Huge digital resource of texts, diaries, letters, prints, paintings of British Traveller’s to Italy and continental Europe 1550-1850 (<a href="http://www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk.manchester.idm.oclc.org/default.aspx" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">http://www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk.manchester.idm.oclc.org/default.aspx</a>)  Digital collections: Society of Antiquaries (<a href="https://www.sal.org.uk/collections/explore-our-collections/collections-highlights/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.sal.org.uk/collections/explore-our-collections/collections-highlights/</a>) Digital collections: Keats Shelley House, Rome (<a href="https://ksh.roma.it/collections-en" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://ksh.roma.it/collections-en</a>) Digital Collections: British School at Rome <a href="https://www.bsrdigitalcollections.it/collections" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.bsrdigitalcollections.it/collections</a> Lord Spencer, Piranesi Collection, University of Manchester (JRRIL) William Roscoe Collection and Classical Casts Collection, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool  Indicative texts from which seminar material will be selected: Mariana Starke, Letters from Italy between the Years 1792 and 1798 The Italian Journal of Samuel Rogers (1814-21), ed. J.R. Hale Mary Shelley, Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (London: Moxon, 1844)  Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy (1844) John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice (1851-53) Mrs Mary Carter’s Letters (1860), ed. F. Nelthorpe E. M. Foster, A Room with a View (1908). Film version, 1985 (dir. James Ivory)  Selected secondary bibliography  Richard Mullen and James Munson, The Smell of the Continent: The British Discover Europe (London: Macmillan, 2009) Lin Lectures 11 Seminars 22 0 167 Independent study hours: 20 credits minus (contact hours plus assessment hours) Following successful completion of the first summative assessment, it is recommended that students continue working on their independent essay writing and gather information for the final summative assessment.