VICTORIAN LITERATURE IN ITALY
VICTORIAN LITERATURE IN ITALY

PROLEGOMENA TO TRAVEL WRITING -THE EXAMPLE OF DICKENS

Summary/Abstract: This article reveals the complex relationship between British Literature and Italian Literature, British Culture and Italian Risorgimento, Roman Catholicism and Italian history and art. It aims at explaining what Dickens and other Victorian writers tell us about the history and theory of travel, and travel writing. Furthermore, at a time when what can be called modern visual culture began to take shape, the focus shifts to comparing written and visual descriptions of experiences “overseas” in general, and in Italy in particular. It also aims at showing that, by examining how Victorians imagined Italy, we can better understand some of the stereotypes that continue to shape modern tourism. One of the most interesting aspects of Victorian literature reflects the conflict between religion and a rapidly accumulating movement named the Enlightenment. In the Victorian era, poets were encouraged to argue with each other in the heat of Enlightenment. Romantic versus Victorian literature initially becomes a problematic subject.

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