Program Description

Join other UW-Madison students for a four-week faculty-led summer program in the beautiful city of Vasto, located in the Abruzzo region of Italy. With a population of 35,000, Vasto is located on the shores of the Adriatic sea on the eastern coast of Italy. The town provides easy access to the beautiful beaches of the Adriatic as well as to both Roman and medieval ruins in the Province of Chieti. Though Vasto is a popular holiday and beach town, it is also known for traditional industries such as glass and ceramics manufacture, brick-making, candle-making and wine production. Vasto offers visitors famous Italian culinary dishes, such as the scapece, a fish dish flavoured with saffron local to the region.

The city of Vasto has a rich history reflected in its diverse architecture. Originally a Roman town known as Histonium, remains of ruins such as the San Antonio thermal baths, the Piazza Rossetti amphitheatre, as well as Augustan villas, can still be seen. Later medieval settlements, including a 13th century castle and church buildings, can also be found, as well as 18th century architecture which is prominent in the city. The ancient picturesque buildings, stunning sea views, and good Italian food are just some of the many attractions available in Vasto.

Academics

The program entitled “Verism, Decadence and Symbolism: Gabriele D’Annunzio” will focus on the crucial figure of D’Annunzio, born in the city of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. D’Annunzio is a late Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-century writer, poet, playwright, political figure and man of action who shaped the literary, cultural and political life of Italy in the Twentieth century. The course will explore some of D’Annunzio’s writings for some aspects of the change in perspective that developed between the end of the Nineteenth and the beginning of the Twentieth centuries. In literary terms, D’Annunzio went through the three main stages of Italian and European culture at the end of the Nineteenth century: Verism (the Italian version of French Naturalism), Decadence (the crucial cultural movement that received the derogatory term by which it is defined) and Symbolism (a definition that more constructively focuses on the rhetorical strategies employed in the art of the period).

This course provides participants with an opportunity to study issues of modernity and modernism in Italian culture. Students will read some of the author’s short stories, novels, plays, and poems, as well as visit some of the sites that formed the background of D’Annunzio’s works. Such trips will include: the towns of Guardiagrele and Francavilla (where D’Annunzio actually wrote some of the works and where the Museum of his friend and painter Francesco Paolo Michetti resides), Pescara (where the Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo and the Museo Cascella maintain much late Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-centuries art that directly relates to D’Annunzio’s writings and, more importantly, to the issues of his time), Chieti, Sulmona, and L’Aquila. Participants will earn four credits for Literature in Translation 410. Students interested in reading and discussing some of the literature in the course in Italian may do so. They will meet two hours per week with the instructor and will earn one more credit (course number: Italian 699).

Housing

Housing will be provided for participants and is included in the program fee. Students will be housed in Vasto at a local hotel or bed and breakfast in double- or triple-occupancy rooms.

Excursions and Activities

Upon arrival in Italy, students will participate in an orientation session to the program and the city of Vasto. Students will participate in multiple fieldtrips relating to D’Annunzio’s work. In addition, the program organizes a trip to Rome to visit sites relating to the course content.