Unit information: Travelling to Rome in 2011/12

Unit name	Travelling to Rome
Unit code	CLAS37021
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Emeritus Professor. Kennedy
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None,
Co-requisites	None.
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The 'Grand Tour' traditionally had its climax in a visit to Rome, where visitors viewed the city's ruins and immersed themselves in its cultural heritage and life to complete their education.

From the late eighteenth century and to the present day, an experience traditionally restricted to an aristocratic elite has been extended to an increasingly broad social spectrum and has generated a distinctive tradition in travel literature, fiction and film. For some, like Goethe or George Eliot's Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch or Henry James, the experience is one of (sometimes ecstatic) self-realization, for others, such as Keats, the characters in the novels of Hawthorne and James, or Stourley Kracklite in Peter Greenaway's film The Belly of an Architect, it ends in disaster.

In this unit, we will explore the history of travel to Rome in this period, and examine how its cultural significance has been developed in literature and film.

The aims of this unit are:

• to familiarise students with the historical phenomenon of travel to Rome from the late eighteenth century to the present day; with the topography and landmarks of the city, and especially the remains of antiquity as they would have been experienced in this period; and the uses to which the city’s antiquities and heritage have been put in a range of artistic media.

• to develop skills in reading and interpreting different kinds of texts and visual material in relation to a distinctive and intense episode in the reception of classical antiquity.

• to enable students to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the reception of antiquity by visitors to Rome.

• to develop student skills in oral and written communication.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

• be familiar with the history of travel to Rome in this period and its representation in literature and film.

• have developed their skills in reading and interpreting different kinds of texts in relation to their responses to the city of Rome in this period.

• be able to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the interpretative issues raised by the representation of Rome in the texts studied.

• have had the opportunity to develop their skills in oral and written communication, in making seminar presentations, taking part in seminar discussions, and producing an essay and a written examination.

Teaching Information

Seminars

Assessment Information

One essay of 3,000 words (50%) and one examination of 90 minutes (50%).

Reading and References

Selections from Goethe, Italian Journey; Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Canto IV; Madame de Staël, Corinne, or Italy Book IV

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun

George Eliot, Middlemarch Chapters 19-22

Henry James, Roderick Hudson

Frederico Fellini, Roma

Peter Greenaway,The Belly of an Architect