ATS2444 - Inscribing Italy: Travels and imaginings - 2017

The 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 eighteenth 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 travellers in the discourses of the tourism industry.

On successful completion of the unit students will have:

1. a clear understanding of the place of Italy in the imagination of English-language travellers
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.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement. + Additional requirements + Field trip - This unit is taught intensively at Prato

See also Unit timetable information

Professor Robin Gerster

Communications and media studies

Global cultural literacies

Literary studies

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.

ATS3444