COM2150 - Inscribing Italy: travels and imaginings

Leader(s): Robin Gerster

Offered

Not offered in 2009

Synopsis

This unit maps the roots and routes of English-language travel in Italy, from the aristocratic travel of the English Renaissance, to the Grand Tourists of the twentieth century, to the rise of middle-class tourism and the travel genre in the nineteenth century, to the mass tourism and cyber travel of today. In an eclectic range of sources, including travel books, essays and fiction, a central focus will be on contemporary or near-contemporary cultural responses to Italy (including those articulated in guidebooks), and also how the country is 'packaged' for the consumption of foreign travelers in the discourses of the tourism industry.

Objectives

On successful completion of this unit students will have:

1. a clear understanding of the place of Italy in the imagination of English-language travelers
2. a critical sense of the historical development of cultural responses to Italy articulated in a range of texts
3. knowledge of the relationship between travel and ideology, especially in specific cultural (including gendered) contexts
4. an informed grasp of contemporary critical and theoretical approaches to the diverse discourses of travel and representation
5. a grasp of the changing practices of travel and tourism
6. critical perspectives on the processes of the production and reception of travel texts.

Assessment

Major essay (3000 words): 50%
Examination (2 hours): 30%
Oral presentation: 20%

Contact hours

Three 2-hour seminars per week for four weeks

Prerequisites

First year Communications sequence or other first year sequence as approved by co-ordinator

Prohibitions

COM3150