Dickens and the Italians in 'Pictures from Italy'

117 Pages·2020·1.272 MB·English

by  Germana Cubeta

Dickens and the Italians in
‘Pictures from Italy’
Germana Cubeta
Dickens and the Italians in ‘Pictures from Italy’
Germana Cubeta
Dickens and the
Italians in ‘Pictures
from Italy’
Germana Cubeta
University of Messina
Messina, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-47428-7 ISBN 978-3-030-47429-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47429-4
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To my Marisa, with love
P
reface
Travel is an encounter between the self and ‘the other’ and travel writing
introduces us to countries and peoples we might have little previous
knowledge of. It was not the case of Charles Dickens with Italy as when he
visited the country in 1844–1845, a well-established tradition of travel
books had contributed to setting a canon of representation and had spread
stereotypes about people and places.
This volume examines Dickens’s view of the Italians as it appears in
Pictures from Italy (1846); it argues that his experience in the country was
different from other travellers’ mainly for his intention to understand the
new cultural paradigms. An intersectional approach to Pictures from Italy
alongside a corpus linguistics analysis displays that the writer reflects a new
way to interpret the country and contributes to the construction of a value
system that formulates principles of integration and solidarity towards ‘the
other.’ It argues that the innovative aspect of Dickens’s representation lies
in his interest in the Italians and in his attempt to deepen the reasons that
led them to the contemporary state of poverty and decay. It sheds light on
his concern and strategies of featuring their identity and social organiza-
tion. Carl Thompson claims that ‘all travel requires us to negotiate a com-
plex and sometimes unsettling interplay between alterity and identity,
difference and similarity’ (2011). Dickens’s journey reveals his open atti-
tude when facing alterity and his quest for Italian identity. The book
debates that the writer looks beyond single-axis category representations
and recognises plurality as an epistemological and ethical imperative. It
discusses that British travellers usually combined their accounts with previ-
ous ideas and social constructions about Italy; they depicted the beauty of
vii
viii PREFACE
the territory but considered its inhabitants dissonant with the context.
The book claims that, as other travellers, Dickens praises landscapes and
art but he also investigates the multidimensionality of the Italians. It dis-
cusses that the writer tries to go beyond canonical representations and that
he explores culture. His spotlight is on the Italians; he depicts a composite
gallery of human types that offers an intersectional view of the land.
Differently from other travel books, in Pictures from Italy, the observation
of their miserable living conditions is always tempered by the writer’s
appreciation for their kindness and strength to resist to adverse conditions.
The book also argues that corpus methods combined with literary lin-
guistic approaches may produce new insights into the interpretation of
Pictures from Italy. It emphasises the relationship between top-down and
bottom-up processes in creating textual meanings and aesthetics effects. It
debates that a corpus analysis displays the mechanisms that govern this
book and provides textual data that help confirm Dickens’s interest in
Italian people. The book offers examples of the collaboration between
linguistics and literature, and debates that it may broaden the interpreta-
tive scope of the stylistic analysis. An intersectional approach alongside a
corpus linguistics analysis sheds new light on Dickens’s role of traveller
and social commentator in contact with new cultural paradigms.
Messina, Italy Germana Cubeta
a
cknowledgements
During the writing of this book I have incurred debts of gratitude to many
people who, in various ways, have offered me valuable help and encour-
agement. I am greatly indebted to Professor Gianni Bonanno for believing
in me and supporting my work over the years. My deepest thanks go to
Professor Maria Grazia Sindoni who gave me the original impetus to
undertake this research and who has always offered me constructive advice.
My thanks go to Professor Michele Stanco, whose kind words encouraged
me to push forward with this project. The warmest thanks go to my
beloved husband Guglielmo and our daughter Emma for their patience
and loving support. Last, but not least, I wish to thank my dear sister
Cristina for her tireless care and my friends Nines and Micaela for their
constant encouragement.
ix
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
References 5
2 The Lure of Italy 7
2.1 The British and Italy 8
2.2 Italy in Travel Writing 11
2.3 The Cumbersome Italians 15
References 18
3 Transcultural Views 21
3.1 Transnational Connections: Dickens and Mazzini 22
3.2 Letters from Italy 25
3.3 Italian Views 37
3.4 Food in Italy 42
3.5 Italian Words in Context: Dickens Reads Manzoni 44
3.6 Back to Italy 47
References 54
4 Italy Seen from New Angles 57
4.1 Pictures from Italy and Travel Writing 58
4.2 New Forms of Shaping Italy 59
4.3 Visual Italy 61
4.4 Relating the Unfamiliar to the Familiar: Similes in Picture
from Italy 63
xi
xii CONTENTS
4.5 Italy in Light and Colour 63
4.6 A Priest-Ridden Country 67
References 74
5 The Italians in Pictures from Italy 77
5.1 Pictures from Italy: A Corpus Linguistics Analysis 78
5.2 Dickens and the Italians 79
5.3 Words as Shapers of Culture 85
5.4 Featuring ‘the Other’ 91
5.5 Italian Bodies 92
References 101
6 Conclusions 103
Index 107