LT 333 - The Grand Tour of Tuscany in Literature

The aim of this interdisciplinary course is to analyze the Grand Tour as it took shape in Italy from the XIX century to the contemporary period, especially referring to the representation of Siena and Tuscany in Anglo-American literature. The course has two parts. In the first part students are introduced to the object of research and its socio-historical and cultural contexts, in addition to the literary one. Students are also provided with literary methodology and conceptual tools (concepts of culture/identity, creation/narration, representation/inner projection, and stereotyping process). The second part of the course is focused on readings and textual analyses of entire books and excerpts from books, in chronological order, by Anglo-American writers such as E. M. Forster, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Francesca Alexander, Henry James, George Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Iris Origo, Mary McCarthy, Anne Fortier and Kate Simon. The structure and the format of the course have the students methodologically draw the maximum advantage from the local context, and take advantage of the holistic 3-D student learning model, with the conceptual cognitive aspects of academic learning integrated into the intra-personal and inter-personal levels for the development of skills regarding inter-personal and inter-cultural competences.