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| Expatriate Writers in Rome: 1800 to Present | |
| ENGL 288E / 388E |
Seminar Description: From the classical grand tourist to the modern expatriate, this seminar focuses on the attitudes and responses of British and American writers to Rome and the influence of Rome in their works. Through representative novels, poems, travel essays, and short stories, we’ll explore the way writers have looked at Rome from the 18th century to the 20th.
Objectives:
1) To define tourist, traveler, expatriate; to distinguish these definitions within works we read
2) To interpret a text through close reading
3) To recall-- from readings, walks, discussions—major works and figures within the historical context of Rome
Grading:
Quizzes 30 points 30 points
Literary Salon 10 points 10 points
Walks & Class Participation 20 points 15 points
Final Exam 40 points 30 points
Project -- 15 points
A 94-100 A- 90-93 B+ 87-89
B 83-86 B- 80-82 C+ 76-79
C 70-75 D 60-69 F 0-59
Arrival by Train: From the main train station ( Stazione Termini) to your hotel is a short (15 minute) walk or you can take bus 36, 84, 16. On map look at distance from Piazza della Repubblica to Via XX Settembre.
Arrival from Fiumicino Airport:
Major flights to Rome arrive at Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO) commonly known by the name of its location, Fiumicino, 30 km (19 mi) southwest of the city. In the airport, follow signs to the railway station.
At the airport station, buy a ticket to Stazione Termini, the main train station at the newspaper shop (opposite ticket counters), from a vending machine, or at ticket counters (usually a long line of people; I go to the newspaper shop). One ticket is 9.50 euros.
Arrival from Ciampino Airport:
Rome's other airport is Ciampino (CIA) on Via Appia Nuova, 15 km (9 mi) south of downtown. Ciampino is a civil and military airport used by some international flights and most charter companies like Ryan Air or EasyJet. A bus connects the airport with the Anagnina Station of Metro line A; then take metro line A to central train station. Buses depart from in front of the airport terminal around 25 times a day between 6:50 AM and 11:40 PM. The fare is EUR1 and your ticket is also good for the Metro. Have change handy for the ticket machine, which is not always working. There is also a shop inside the terminal that can sell you a ticket, but it keeps erratic hours. If both purchasing options fail, board the bus and offer to pay the driver. Ryan Air usually has its own bus which drops you off next door to the Stazione Termini or main train station.
Taxis: Since October 2006, the city of Rome has fixed rates for taxis: A taxi from Fiumicino is 40 euros or Ciampino is 30 euros to the city center.
Tickets for transport in the city: You can use the same ticket for Bus, tram or metro ( Metrebus biglietti). Each ticket costs 1 euro and can be used for 75 minutes except when riding the metro when the ticket is good for one trip, one way. You can buy tickets anywhere an ATAC (Rome’s Public transportation Authority) sign is displayed, in metro stations, at street kiosks or newsstands (edicola) and tobacconist shops( tabaccaio), at train stations, and at airport train station. (A limited number of ticket machines can be found in the street, next to main bus stops, and many at Termini Station where they use a multi-language touch-screen selection system, easy to use!)
(Or you can buy a weekly ticket (Carta Settimanale, or CIS) for 14 euro at an ATAC booth or automatic ticket machine.)
We will be using public transportation almost daily, so, please, buy at least five single tickets when you arrive, or the weekly ticket only if you plan lots of extra sightseeing.
Hotel:
Our class will be held in the historical center of Rome at the Hotel Giotto Flavia, Via Flavia 84 Tel. (39) 06 42011651. If you look on a map of Rome’s historical center, you’ll see Piazza della Repubblica which is in front of the main station, and above it via XX settembre. Via Flavia runs parallel to XX Settembre just behind it. (See city map below.)
Hotel Giotto Flavia is a small, quiet hotel on the Via Flavia, on the second floor. We will actually be in two hotels. The Hotel Salustia is on the third floor in the same building. The staff speak English. I assume you’ll stay at these hotels, though you are not obliged to. Let me know, asap!). In previous courses, students have found staying at same hotel has helped. They study, review, and discuss the course together. All lectures will be held at the Hotel Giotto Flavia.
Payment and costs:
You will pay the hotel directly for your room. Given the fluctuation of the dollar, costs are approximate:
-7 nights with continental breakfast, in double or triple occupancy room (depending on the number of students, male or female) 60-65 euros per night per person or about 450 euros for the week.(1.48$=1 euro).
-Bring EURO 50 to Rome to cover the following: (if the dollar drops further, prices may rise)
-Visits to the Caffe Greco, Keats-Shelley House, Forum , Colosseum, Baths of Caracalla, and the Palazzo Barberini Museum
-Literary Salon
Texts and Readings
Texts: Be sure to bring the relevant handouts and books on the walks; we will often read from them, or lecture on site when you'll want to annotate them!
Smollet,Tobias. Travels Through France and Italy 1766
Byron, Keats, Shelleys. Letters,poems, play 1816-1821
Fuller, Margaret. Letters (xerox) 1847
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Marble Faun. 1860
Twain, Mark. Innocents Abroad. (xerox) 1869
James, Henry. Daisy Miller 1878
Wharton, Edith. "Roman Fever."( xerox) 1934
Other Activities
You’ll be invited to a literary salon during the course; salons were a regular way for foreigners and expatriates to meet local aristocracy, other artists, and well connected travelers passing through the eternal city. To experience a “sense of place,” you are asked to come as a character in one of our works, one of the authors we are reading, or a “person” who fits into the literary and historical framework of our course ( British, American or Italian from 18th century to the present!) You cannot come as yourself. Therefore, bring a prop (hat, a shawl, a jacket) or simple costume to assist your “transformation.” Students will begin signing up for the salon on Tuesday morning on a first come first serve basis—please have an alternative in case someone else chooses “your” character first!
All upper level students will complete a project while in Rome. Rather than write a traditional term paper, you’ll have a chance to experience the inspiration of Rome as all our writers did .( P. B.Shelley, for example, wrote “Prometheus Unbound” in the Baths of Caracalla while Hawthorne started his novel in Rome after an inspiring visit to the Capitoline Museum!) On Saturday, we’ll go over guidelines for the project (which might be a short story, a series of poems, travel essays , or vignettes with illustrations), and UL students will have a small reference library available throughout the week. While acknowledging the limitations of time and place, students are asked to consider the project as an academic equivalent of a more traditional term paper. On Friday, UL students will present their projects informally to the class.
All students will complete two in class quizzes and one quiz in the city, and a final essay examination on Saturday. The class will end at 1:00 pm on Saturday 22 March.
|Please note: Sunday, march 23 is Easter. If you want to stay in Rome through Sunday please let me know ASAP!
When in Rome:
Pick up a free city map at any green information kiosk (or, at any McDonald’s, but you lose points for eating there!).
We’ll be walking a lot, so wear comfortable shoes to cushion the impact of sampietrini (cobblestones). Remember, however, that Rome is an elegant city and Italians are more formally dressed, especially downtown, than Americans tend to be.
Have small change ( spiccioli, spicci) since shopkeepers always seem short of change; if you only pay with big bills you might get incorrect change or at least you’ll have to wait while some rushes off to change your 50 euro note! Unfortunately, like other large European cities, Rome has flair ups of petty crime; just be aware of your surroundings and don’t walk around with all your money and your passport in pockets: You are perfectly safe, but pickpockets would like to relieve you of small change or your bag.
Eating in Rome is a delightful experience, but you should note the difference in prices. A ristorante is relatively expensive and more formal than a trattoria which serves delicious local food (medium priced). A Tavola Calda is cafeteria style( price depends on what you chose to eat) while a bar or caffe besides serving coffee or other kinds of drinks, often serves hot lunches, or fairly inexpensive “fast food:” Tramezzini ( flat sandwiches), panini (sandwiches in buns) or le paste ( a variety of sweet rolls). At many bars, you’re charged a high cover fee for sitting down rather than standing at the bar. Romans prefer standing.
The weather is usually mild in mid-March but one year we had snow, so bring layers!
Class Schedule
Day One
18:00- 19:45 Orientation & Intro to Major Themes of Course
Day Two The Grand Tour
8:45 Meet at Hotel in lobby
9:00-12:45 Walk I: The Grand Tour: Republican and Imperial Rome Readings: Smollett Letters XXII, Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV, stanzas 128,139,140 James Daisy Miller, Chp. 4, Hawthorne The Marble Faun, Chp. XVII, XVII
12:45-2:00 Lunch & back to hotel
2:15 - 5:00 Smollet and The Grand Tour: Travels in France& Italy
Day Three The Romantics in Italy (Salon sign up sheet)
8:45 Meet in front of the Keats-Shelley House 26, Piazza di Spagna (Take the 63 bus from hotel to 2nd stop on via del Tritone & and turn right to walk into Piazza di Spagna)
9:00 - 10: 00 Lecture& Visit at Keats-Shelley House: The Romantic Revolution Letter of John Keats, M. Shelley; “Adonais,” P.B. Shelley; Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV, Byron.
10:15- 11:30 Lecture & Visit: The Caffe Greco; Discuss The Cenci & Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Twain's Innocents Abroad
11:30- 12:30 Buy lunch and to the Baths (weather permitting)
12:30- 2:00 Picnic: The Baths of Caracalla & discussion: The Romantics in Italy
2:30- 5:30 Walk II: Baths of Caracalla, Protestant Cemetary
Readings: Smollett, Letter XXXII, M. Shelley “Preface,” Shelley "Adonais" stanzas I, VII, XLVIII, XLIX, L LI, LV
Day Four 18-19th century Americans in Rome
9:15 - 9:45 Quiz I: the Romantics
9:45- 10:30 from Twain’s Innocents Abroad, Fuller Dispatch 31
10:50 -12:30 The Marble Faun
12:30- 1:30 Lunch
1:30- 3:00 The Marble Faun, Daisy Miller
3:00- 5:00 Walk III: Hawthorne’s ramble-- Santa Maria della Concezione (Church of the Cappuccini) to Trajan’s Forum Readings: Hawthorne, Chps. XX, XVI
Day Five Nineteenth century Literary Rome
9:00 –12 :30 Walk IV: Palazzo Barberini to Pincian Gardens
Meeting Point: Palazzo Barberini at 8:50 a.m. sharp! Via delle Quattro Fontane (Take 63 bus to Piazza Barberini; walk half way up via Quattro Fontane; on left is entrance to the palazzo—or walk up Via XX Settembre to Via Quattro Fontane and turn right). Readings: Shelley The Cenci pp. 127-128, Hawthorne, Chp. VII, James, Chp. 3
12:30-- Use afternoon for Quiz III and projects
6:00- 7:00 Literary Salon (location to be announced)
Day Six A Modern View of Rome (& The Ides of March, 44 BC)
9:00- 2:00 Work on Quiz III, UL project
( Bring lunch to class if you want to save time)
2:00-2:40 Quiz II: The Marble Faun
2:50 -3:45 Wharton: "Roman Fever"
3:45- 5:15 Groups: Review Questions
Day Seven Review of Major Themes
9:15-10:30 UL project presentations
UL Projects due
10:50-1:00 Groups: Present review questions
Day Eight
9:15-12:30 Final Examination (essays)
Quiz III due
Departure (check out of room before exam)
******************
"[Sunday] was the day fixed for our departure from Rome, and after breakfast, I walked to the Pincian, and saw the garden amid the city, and the Borghese Grounds, and St. Peter's, in an earlier sunlight than ever before. Methought they never looked so beautiful; nor the sky so bright and blue.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1858
Notes & More Information
1. Read the syllabus often. Note days we have scheduled a “working lunch.” Working lunches save us all time in a dense week!! Buy a sandwich, takeaway pizza etc. before we leave for walks. Bring lunch to the Baths where we will picnic together as a group on Monday ( weather permitting). You can purchase picnic food at pizzicherie or salumerie (delicatessans), alimentari ( grocery shops), latticini (mostly dairy products), and fornai (bakeries). Sandwiches( panini) are made on request at alimentari: just pick out the bread and point to ingredients you want.
2. On Monday we’ll be using the metro and tram so have tickets beforehand; if you didn’t get a week long ticket, buy some at a kiosk or in a tabaccheria. (1 euro= 1 ticket).
3. You are responsible for being on time. When we leave from a meeting point, if you aren’t there, you miss the walk. Bring appropriate texts (always check syllabus) and a notebook—you are responsible for everything we cover on a walk or at a special lecture. We’ll be doing readings at different sites, so check syllabus to have the right books or handouts with you.
4. I’ll be happy to discuss your project, your quizzes, your observations of what we’re reading throughout the week. Just let me know and we’ll set up a time or make time during a walk or at breaks.
Anglo-American Bookstores in Rome:
Just off Piazza Repubblica: Fetrinelli International, 84/86 via Emanuele Orlando
Near Piazza di Spagna: Anglo American Book Company, via della Vite, 102
In Trastevere: The Almost Corner Bookshop, Via del Moro, 45
Open Door Bookshop, Via Lungaretta
- Pick up a copy of Romac’e’, a weekly guide to the city. It lists museums, restaurants, caffes, night life (you have no time !), and has a section in English. Costs 1 euro.
I look forward to meeting you Sunday afternoon at 18:00 at the Hotel Giotto Flavia.
A Presto,
Pauline Fry
PSC 817, Box 102
FPO AE 09622
Email: p.fry@flashnet.it
Tel./fax: (00 39) 06 5814437
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