Viaggia(u)tori inglesi in Italia. la 'culla della civilta'' nelle rappresentazioni del Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. 1850-1900

Abstract

Following the concept of culture expressed by Williams, the idea of the text identified by McEnzie and the theoretical developments of Colonial Studies and New Historicism, the essay aims at identifying the discoursive paradigms through which the Blackwood’s Edinburgh Review textualizes, from 1850 to 1890, the encounter between British ‘viaggia (u) tori’ (travellers and authors at the same time) of the second half of the XIX century and Italy with particular reference to the configuration of the spaces and identity of the Other. The travelogues analysed, which had a wide diffusion according to the spread of the Victorian periodicals during the century, despite focussing on Italy without completely overlapping it to the Far East, and therefore to the colonized par excellance, seem to support the cultural systematization of an Italian identity capable of defining the clear contours of a British identity as superior, more civilized and inevitably linked to modernity. Even if partially, on the part of the British travellers, the texts emphasise an oriental approach both towards Italian space and identity.