Inscribing Italy: Travels and Imaginings
Study at the Monash University Prato Centre in Tuscany, Italy
What better way to study travel writing about Italy than to be in Italy itself? The country - and especially the region of Tuscany in which Prato is centrally located - has for centuries been a major travel magnet, embraced as both a source of cultural enrichment and a seductive site of escapist fantasy.
This subject provides a cultural history of foreign, English-language travel to Italy, from the Renaissance, through the 'Grand Tour' of the eighteenth century and the beginnings of tourism in the nineteenth, to the mass tourism of today. In addition to examining examples of factual and fictional travel literature, students will engage in guidebook studies, both in class and through individually selected field trips in the local Tuscan region, in and near Prato.
Counting this unit towards your course
This unit is available to students in any undergraduate course provided that they meet unit and course requirements. You can choose to study just for interest or as part of a specialised sequence called a minor or major (Area of Study). Applications for non-Arts students are administered through the home faculty. You should consult your home faculty for advice on whether you can include one or more of the Arts in Prato offerings among your elective units.
Monash University Handbook information
Study activities
Engage in an intensive two-weeks of lectures and seminars.
Week 1
- A cultural history of travel to Italy
Week 2
- An intensive survey and analysis of guidebook constructions of Italy, with collective classroom study and local independent field trips (including a choice of Lucca, Florence, Siena)
- Australia & Italy - travels and impressions
Readings
- A comprehensive unit reader containing extracts of travel writing about Italy will be supplied by the unit coordinator
- Kent, Pesman and Troup, Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions
- Peter Robb, Midnight in Sicily
- Please acquire at least one contemporary guidebook to Italy and/or Tuscany
Further information
Unit details
Contact the unit coordinator Professor Robin Gerster.
Application procedures
How to apply for Prato Winter Semester units
Fees and funding
University and Faculty information
University and Faculty Arts in Prato information