“To discover myself in the objects I see”!

So wrote Goethe in his Italian Journey, and I think this will be the theme of my own journey. I leave the springtime in Vancouver for the Italian skies tomorrow and I have no idea how my travels will affect me. I spent the afternoon at Spanish Banks soaking in some rare sunshine and contemplating the fact that I have such an opportunity before me; at the same time, leaving friends and family tugs at the heart and today I said all my good-byes. Most of my affairs have been organized to account for my absence with a few matters dangling in limbo, and hopefully these will wait for my attention when I return.

What am I most looking forward to? Rome and antiquity-this is what draws me, as it did Goethe. The lure of the classical aesthetics: to be standing in “the capital of the world” as Shelley wrote. Behold! he said. What inspirations will I find as I too behold? There is a certain amount of anxiety mixed in with the excitement of a trip like this, and tonight as I check off the final items on my ‘to do’ list, and close my tightly packed suitcase, I go to bed with a small sense of dread of the unknown.

LS 819:  Landscape, Politics and Poetry – English Romantics in Italy

A Simon Fraser University/Graduate Liberal Studies Travel-Study course, 20 May to 19 June 2012

In the 18^th century Switzerland and Italy were the primary destinations for English and European travelers seeking culture, the sublime, intellectual breadth and a taste of antiquity.  In the early years of the 19^th century this lure of all things Italian continued, but with the added feature of Italy being a place of refuge and escape for those opposed to the new conservatism of post-Napoleonic Europe.  In this course we will focus on Goethe’s impressions of Italy during his two year visit (1786-88) and the writing of three dissident exiles in the early 19th century, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley.  Well known as “Romantic” writers, we will assess that dimension of their work but also look closely at the political and philosophic contributions they made to modern European thought.

With the ‘value added’ dimension of ‘being there’ we will endeavour to, on the one hand, read their work as nearly as we can in the places where it was written or at least from whence it was inspired and, on the other, to explore the impact of the landscape and culture on each of us. Our subjects – Goethe, Byron, the Shelleys and others, were primarily interested in the Classical heritage embodied in Italy but they engaged as well with the artistic and cultural heritage of the Italian Renaissance and lived amidst the excesses of the Baroque and Rococo, and we will find ourselves in the same situation. Whether we find ourselves compelled to expand our perspectives to include the era of Mussolini and Berlusconi in our discussions is up to you.