Hans Christian Andersen's Italy (some reflections on the 19th century "Italian travel") Cover Image

Italia Hansa Christiana Andersena (z rozważań nad XIX-wieczną „podróżą włoską”)
Hans Christian Andersen's Italy (some reflections on the 19th century "Italian travel")

Author(s): Olga Płaszczewska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego

Summary/Abstract: Some records from Andersen’s journeys to Italy, included in his En Digters Bazar (A Poet’s Bazaar, 1842), are worth reading as examples of Italian travel writing set in a wider context of literature of the Romantic period (from Goethe and Madame de Staël to E.T.A. Hoffmann and Heinrich Heine). Furthermore, the text deserves attention because of the multiple literary genres used (description, anecdote, adventure story-telling, dialogue, impression, fairy tale, lyrical fragments and reportages). Its apparently chaotic form is partially explained by the title of the book, where the term „bazaar” indicates the variety and diversity of proposed plots and subjects. Within these plots and subjects there is enough place for lyrical exaltation and journalistic terseness. Finally, the schema of the Italian travel proves to be a frame which permits the narrator to create many-sided vision of Italy which is independent of conventional standards.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 81-96
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish
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