Impressions of Southern Italy British Travel Writing from Henry Swinburne to Norman Douglas Routledge Research in Travel Writing Series
Auteur : Ouditt Sharon
Naples was conventionally the southernmost stop of the Grand Tour beyond which, it was assumed, lay violent disorder: earthquakes, malaria, bandits, inhospitable inns, few roads and appalling food. On the other hand, Southern Italy lay at the heart of Magna Graecia, whose legends were hard-wired into the cultural imaginations of the educated.
This book studies the British travellers who visited Italy's Southern territories. Spanning the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the author considers what these travellers discovered, not in the form of a survey, but as a series of unfolding impressions disclosing multiple Southern Italies. Of the numerous travellers analysed within this volume, the central figures are Henry Swinburne, Craufurd Tait Ramage and Norman Douglas, whose Old Calabria (1915) remains in print. Their appeal is that they take the region seriously: Southern Italy wasn't simply a testing ground for their superior sensibilities, it was a vibrant curiosity, unknown but within reach. Was the South simply behind on the road to European integration; or was it beyond a fault line, representing a viable alternative to Northern neuroses? The travelogues analysed in this book address a wide variety of themes which continue to shape discussions about European identity today.
Introduction 1. Naples: Liminal City 2. Cities of the Dead: Pompeii to Paestum 3. Magna Graecia 4. Ways of Seeing: Earthquakes and Landscapes 5. Politics and Revolutions 6. In Praise of Baroque 7. Myths and Legends 8. Africa and the Orient Conclusion
Sharon Ouditt is Reader in English at Nottingham Trent University, UK. She is the author of Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War (1993) and Women Writers of the First World War: An Annotated Bibliography (1999), and editor of Displaced Persons: Conditions of Exile in European Culture (2002).
Date de parution : 12-2013
15.2x22.9 cm
Date de parution : 12-2019
15.2x22.9 cm
Thème d’Impressions of Southern Italy :
Mots-clés :
Southern Italy; Norman Douglas; Naples; Southern regions; European civilisation; Magna Graecia; Craufurd Tate Ramage; Henry Swinburne; unified nation state; politics; European identity; Sharon Ouditt; Grand Tour; Old Calabria; travel writing; travelogue; Baroque; the Orient; myths; legends; revolutions; Africa; earthquakes; landscapes; Young Man; South Italy; Charles III; Buff Aloes; Compton Verney; Vice Versa; Virgil’s Tomb; Parthenopean Republic; Manna Ash; Robert Guiscard; Lady Blessington; Ionian Shore; Salvator Rosa; Brian Hill; Frederick II; Tyrrhenian Coast; Darker Places; Alaric’s Burial; Baroque Art; Petrol Pump Attendant; Lusus Naturae; Ramage's Day; Thunder Storm; Iron Foundry Workers