A History of British Attitudes to Italy.

Part II

Second half of Seventeenth cent.

• An eclipse of the interest for Italy in English literature.

• Major exception:John Milton– Proficient in Italian. Wrote poetry in Italian– Drew inspiration from Italian sonnets and authors,

Della Casa, Tasso, Diodati, Galileo.– Wrote sonnet “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont”

Valdesians

• Restoration comedy and tragedy inspired by French models atrher than Italian

Eighteenth Century

• Age of classicism. Great presence of Italy.– Travel writing. Accounts of the Grand Tour.

• Gothic romance.

An Italy without Italians

• XVIII century: Veneration for Italy but contempt for Italians– Admiration for the cultural residue of Antiquity

and the Renaissance.– Italy considered the cradle of European

culture.• Europe’s museum

– A common legacy yet unconnected to eighteenth century Italians

Italians as Betrayers of their Legacy

• Decadence compared to past splendour

• Neglect of their splendid ruins

• Misuse of remains (Roman palaces built with marble from the Forum)

• Absence of heroic stances among the people

Common complaints about modern Italy

• Indigence– Poor living conditions, lack of hygiene– Beggars, diseased people

• Crime: – stories of dishonesty, cheating and theft at the expense of the

poor tourist– banditti

• Social and political unrest, • Corruption• Sexual hot spot

– A country of go-betweens where young English gentlemen lose their innocence.

– cicisbeismo

Sense of Superiority of British Travellers

• Early Modern double rhetoric about Italy (fascinating but wicked) continues but at a level of lower intensity.– Italians no longer Machiavellian demons but poor devils – Their religion no longer a threat but a source of contempt and

amusement– Political life no longer a school of diplomacy but something to be

ignored • Focus on conditions of life described as primitive.• Neglect of any examples of Italian hospitality, generosity.• No interest for present day culture and politics• Ridicule of Catholic religion.

– Superstition– Ceremonies seen as folklore or exotic shows

• Roman Holy Week

Cultural colonialism

• Italy considered as a land to exploit– Paintings, antiquities, objects from excavation brought back to

England as souvenirs– Excavations (e.g. Pompei: involvement of Lord Hamilton)– Interference in politics (Sardinia, Naples)

• Symbolic colonization: not an actual conquest but a cultural discourse imposing imaginary qualities and prerogatives onto places and people (see Orientalism by Edward Said).

• British rhetoric about Italy similar to rhetoric about other countries considered inferior – Ireland, – Colonies (what we now call third world)

Italy and Gothic Romance

• Italy played a fundamental role in the Gothic novel and the Gothic novel made Italy familiar to many non-travellers

• Italy, with its sublime scenery which mixed loveliness and terror, offered an ideal background for stories where Burke’s “delightful horror” was quintessential.

• Gothic romances are often fictionalized travel narratives in sublime scenery and provoking sublime emotions.

• The setting of the first Goithic romances is Italy (Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian and The Mysteries of Udolpho).

What is the Gothic romance

• A story containing mystery, the irrational, ghosts, supernatural events.

• A story containing violence and passion • Revolt against the moderation, the balance and the

rationalism of the preceding years• Born out of revulsion from neoclassicism (reintroduces

what cannot be explained by reason)• Characteristic of the age of the sublime rather than of

neoclassical harmony• Influential from the 1760's to 1820's

– superseded by in the 1820’s by Scott’s historical romance– 1850’s realistic rewritings (Brontes etc)– Revival in the Victorian age Horror stories (Stevenson, Wilde

Structural Elements Connected to the Italian Stereotype

• Character types– A pure virginal heroine – A villain (corrupt aristocrat or clergyman):a perverted, Machiavellian

character (Italian stereotype:)– Debased families (Italian stereotype)

• Situation – Persecution, torture and/or Imprisonment of the heroine (cf. Early

Modern Italian tragedies)– Flight, travel from place to place (a revisitation of the grand tour)

• Setting– Sublime or picturesque scenery (typical of Italy)

• Frightening nature• Castles dungeons, ruins

– Mysterious, unfamiliar places– Often the Catholic church, with its monasteries and convents, and its

Inquisition provides the backdrop – Exotic countries (especially Italy and Spain)

The Italy of the Romantics• Romantic England “smitten with Italomania” (C.P. Brand )• Travellers flocked to Italy in large numbers trying to compensate for

the years they had lost during the Napoleonic wars. • The Italian language and literature formed part of young men’s and

women’s education.• Scarcely a poet failed to travel to Italy (Wordsworth, Coleridge,

Byron, Shelley, Keats)• Many poetical and fictional works connected with Italy (e.g. Byron’s

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV, his and P.B. Shelley’s plays, Mary Shelley’s novel Valperga and many more)

• Artists. e.g. Turner

Fascination with Italy• In an age when the love of nature is so important, Italy fascinates

artists and writers because of its natural variety and beauty and for the presence of sublime and picturesque scenery.

• Also became fascinating for its history– Classical past (excavations in Pompei and Herculaneum evoked cycles

of creation and destruction) – Idealization of the Italy of the republics and of the city-states

• Interest for the present. Many English writers lived and participated in political events (carbonari meetings, insurrectional movements)– English Romantics took to heart the political aspirations of the Italians. – The burgeoning Italian risorgimento was perceived as a European

renascence.