ENG 2097 Victorian Tourists in Rome
This course for the Duchesne Alliance summer program addresses this year's theme-Civilization-by focusing on what in nineteenth-century British and American culture was considered one of the most "civilizing" experiences that an individual could have: an extended trip to Rome. Over the course of the three-week program, this class will introduce students to a variety of nineteenth-century British and American works of literature set in and around Rome as well as travel guides and other types of touristic publications aimed at Victorian travelers exploring the environs of the Eternal City. The course's focus on scenes of intercultural encounter-of nineteenth-century British and American tourists exploring the sites, citizenry, art and artifacts, and customs of the "Old World"-will provide the students with myriad opportunities to interrogate and think critically about their own experiences in Rome, as they visit many of the same sites described in the literature they will be reading in the course. The trip will include texts (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and film) and walking tours of specific neighborhoods in Rome, visits to museums, churches, and other sites of historical significance, and a day-trip to Pompeii. The course will be taught in English.