American Writers in Europe: From Washington Irving to Walter Abish

foreign languages
general courses

The basic assumption of the course is presentation and analysis of the cultural perception of European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy) by nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writers.

Classroom
Remote learning

Since the moment when the United States became really independent, which was in 1783, when the War of Independence came to an end, till the end of the Great War outstanding makers of American culture suffered from an inferiority complex in respect to Europe, caused mainly by the lack of long tradition and the dependence on the culture of Britain, whose vehicle was the language. Many of them visited the Old World out of obvious curiosity and because of the wish to confront their imaginary Europe with reality: the monuments of architecture and art, mores, political institutions, etc. Their experience has been recorded in private journals, correspondence, essays, journalism, and sometimes non-fiction books based on memories. Primary literature includes, e.g., texts by the painter Washington Allston, the journalist Margaret Fuller, the novelist Mark Twain, and twentieth-century writers such as the Afro-American writer James Baldwin and the postmodern novelist Walter Abish, born in Vienna.

List of classes (authors and texts):

1. Introductory: subject matter and scope of the course

2. Washington Allston: painting (PowerPoint presentation), excerpts from letters

3. Washington Irving: The Sketch Book ("Rural Life in England," "A Sunday in London," "John Bull")

4. James Fenimore Cooper: Gleanings in Italy, Gleanings in France (excerpts)

5. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (excerpts), English Traits ("Manners," "Character," "Result," "Speech at Manchester")

6. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The English Notebooks, The Italian Notebooks (excerpts)

7. Margaret Fuller, "These Sad but Glorious Days" Dispatches from Europe 1846-1850 (Dispatches 8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 33)

8. Herman Melville, Journals 1856-1857 (excerpts), "Statues in Rome"

9. Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad chapters 10-16)

10. Henry James, Italian Hours ("Venice," "The Grand Canal")

11. Henry Adams, Mont Sant Michel and Chartres ("Saint Michiel de la Mer del Peril," "The Virgin of Chartres"), The Education of Henry Adams ("Berlin," "Rome")

12. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

13. James Baldwin. Notes of a Native Son ("Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown," "A Question of Identity," "Equal in Paris")

14. Walter Abish, Double Vision ("New York, Traveling to Germany," "Vienna," "Munich," "Berlin")

The reading for each class is ca. 30-40 pages.

Secondary literature:

Baker, Paul, R., "The Fortunate Pilgrims. American Writers in Italy, 1800-1860" Harvard UP, 1964

Capper, Charles and Cristina Giorcelli, "Margaret Fuller. Transatlantic Crossings in the Revolutionary Age" U of Wisconsin P, 2007

Earnest, Ernest, "Expatriates and Patriots. American Artists, Scholars, and Writers in Europe" Duke UP, 1968

Kasson, Joy S., "Artistic Voyagers. Europe and the American Imagination in the Works of Irving, Allston, Cole, Cooper, and Hawthorne" Greeenwood P, 1982

Lease, Benjamin, "Anglo-American Encounters. England and the Rise of American Literature" Cambridge UP, 1981

Lockwood, Allison, "Passionate Pilgrims. The American Traveler in Great Britain, 1800-1914" Associated UP, 1981

Mulvey, Christopher, "Anglo-Amercan Landscapes. A Study of Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Travel Literature" Cambridge UP, 1983

Mulvey, Christopher, "Transatlantic Manners. Social Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Travel Literature" Cambridge UP, 1990

Stowe, William W., "Going Abroad. European Travel in Nineteenth-Century American Culture" Princeton UP, 1994

Vance, William L., "America's Rome" vols 1-2 Yale UP, 1989

Wright, Nathalia, "American Novelists in Italy. The Discoverers: Allston to James" U of Pennsylvania P, 1965

1. The student is able to identify and understand cultural differences between the United States of America and the countries of Western Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

2. The student is able to analyze cultural differences between the United States of America and the countries of Western Europe in the above period recorded in various literary and non-literary genres.

3. The student develops competence useful to identify and understand cultural differences in the present world.

Term paper on a subject chosen from a list to be provided (no more than 12 pages): 50%

Participation in class discussion of the texts included iin the reading list: 50%

None