The Lure of Italy

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The Lure of Italy: Travels to Italy in German and European LiteratureThis course explores the unique attraction that Italy has held for those hailing from lands north of the Alps over the past centuries. In particular, the course focuses on how this “spell of Italy” is reflected in travel writing by German, British, and French writers, with an emphasis on the German tradition. Travel literature, in this context, is understood broadly to encompass a variety of genres from letters, travel accounts, and guidebooks to fictional works such as novels, novellas, and poems. Given that travel writing is inherently transcultural and transnational, the course lends itself to comparative analyses of such central issues as national identity, cultural practices, gender, and class in European travel literature.