In the Footsteps of Giants: Anglo-American Travel Writing and Student Travel to Italy
Proposal Description
Italy has long been a destination for British and American travelers. It was an obligatory stop on the Grand Tour for eighteenth century aristocratic youth and became one of the prime destinations for the early packaged travel tours of the American and British middle-class. Italy was the inspiration for the romantic writers of the early nineteenth century; American pilgrims in Italy were the target of Mark Twain’s sharp wit by mid-century; and Italy was the dramatic backdrop for E.M. Forster’s British expats by the turn of the century. At the interdisciplinary intersection of literature, language, and history, this paper looks at the impact that Anglo-American travel literature has had and how American tourists and students alike have experienced Italy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It argues that this literary genre serves as a powerful interpretive lens to this day by shaping (and misshaping) direct American travel encounters with Italian language, culture, and society. As such, it speaks to the power of literature in informing our lived realities and in framing our direct experiences with other peoples and culture. The paper concludes with a discussion of my own student study abroad experiences in Italy in which students follow in the footsteps of past literary giants and add their own new pages to the storied genre.
In the Footsteps of Giants: Anglo-American Travel Writing and Student Travel to Italy
Italy has long been a destination for British and American travelers. It was an obligatory stop on the Grand Tour for eighteenth century aristocratic youth and became one of the prime destinations for the early packaged travel tours of the American and British middle-class. Italy was the inspiration for the romantic writers of the early nineteenth century; American pilgrims in Italy were the target of Mark Twain’s sharp wit by mid-century; and Italy was the dramatic backdrop for E.M. Forster’s British expats by the turn of the century. At the interdisciplinary intersection of literature, language, and history, this paper looks at the impact that Anglo-American travel literature has had and how American tourists and students alike have experienced Italy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It argues that this literary genre serves as a powerful interpretive lens to this day by shaping (and misshaping) direct American travel encounters with Italian language, culture, and society. As such, it speaks to the power of literature in informing our lived realities and in framing our direct experiences with other peoples and culture. The paper concludes with a discussion of my own student study abroad experiences in Italy in which students follow in the footsteps of past literary giants and add their own new pages to the storied genre.