STORIA DEL VIAGGIO E DEI VIAGGIATORI IN MEDIO ORIENTE
(objectives)
Learning targets: The Travel accounts of the European travelers in the Middle East have represented in the course of time an invaluable source of documentation for a reality of which otherwise very little was known, but also a strong contribution to the shaping of a stereotyped vision of the Middle Eastern world in the Western culture. The objective of the course, concentrated mainly on the accounts of travel to Iran, is to provide students with the basic tools (1) to know social and cultural realities in Iran in some phases of its history, through the analyses of the experiences of some Italian travelers in three very different historical periods and the documentation they have left of these experiences; (2) to understand the interdisciplinary value of the information they have transmitted; (3) the recognize the socioculture environments of provenance and the ideological formations of the travellers, that have influenced strongly their experiences and analyses reproduced in their accounts. It will be examined in detail: (1) the figure of the Roman patrician Pietro della Valle and his Letters from Persia, a literary work which constitutes a very rich source of information on Safavid Iran (17th c.); (2) the 1862 Italian mission to Iran and the travel report by F. de Filippi; (3) the figure and work of Vincenzo Bianchini, a physician native of Viterbo, who also was an artist and writer, and who practiced medicine for several years in some villages of rural Iran in the half of twentieth century; (4) the figure and work of Terence Ward, an American expert in the Middle East, who, with the story of his travel to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the late 90s and his exciting existential experiences, takes on the task of fighting the stereotypes and the isolation to which Iran is condemned.
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the course students will acquire a preliminary knowledge of the historical and cultural realities of some phases of history of Iran - in particular, Safavid (17th c.), Qajar (19th c.) and Pahlavi (20th c.) periods and critical faculties to read travel accounts, being able to recognize stereotypes generated by the cultural and ideological backgrounds of the travellesr; they will be able to use the acquired knowledge to better understand, analyse and describe the contemporary political processes in the investigated geo-political area; they will be able to take a critical approach in reading texts concerning Iran and other Middle Eastern countries; they will have flexibility of judgement, ability to compare and evaluate.
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Code
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17415 |
Language
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ITA |
Type of certificate
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Profit certificate
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Credits
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8
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Scientific Disciplinary Sector Code
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L-OR/14
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Contact Hours
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48
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Type of Activity
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Related or supplementary learning activities
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Teacher
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FILIPPONE Elina
(syllabus)
• Introduction to the problems characterizing the study of travel literature • Outline of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Achaemenid Empire in the second half of the 4th century • The figure of Alexander and his conquests; genesis of a myth. • Reading and commentary of passages from Arrian’s 'Anabasis of Alexander’ and ‘India’; further documentation relating to Alexander’s enterprises and travels in Greek and Roman literature. • The exceptional fortune of The Romance of Alexander in the European Middle Ages, in the Islamic world and in other areas of the world; comments on the figure of Alexander in art and media (until contemporary times). • Introduction to the problems characterizing the study of the Iranian and Islamic world, in particular Shiite (introduction aimed at placing the proposed themes in a critical historical framework) • Safavid Iran and the figure of Shah Abbas I. • Pietro della Valle’s life and works. • Le Lettere dalla Persia of Pietro della Valle; reading and analyses of selected passages. • The Islamic Republic of Iran and Mohammad Khatami’s Presidency. • Terence Ward, US Middle East expert, and his work "In search of Hassan"; reading and analyses of selected passages.
(reference books)
C. Mossé, Alessandro Magno. La realtà e il mito, Economica Laterza 2005.
Arriano, Anabasi di Alessandro. Vol. I-II, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla / Arnoldo Mondadori Editore [Introduzione e brani scelti]
Arriano, L'India, BUR 2000 [Introduzione e brani scelti]
I Viaggi di Pietro della Valle. Lettere dalla Persia I, a cura di F. Gaeta e L. Lockhart, Roma 1972 [Introduzione e brani scelti]
C. Masetti, Città varie e costumi il fin prescrisse. La Persia di Pietro Della Valle (1617-1623), Franco Angeli 2017
E. Filippone, Appunti e riflessioni sulla figura e sugli scritti di Pietro della Valle, il Pellegrino. In: (a cura di): MANCINI M. , Esilio, Pellegrinaggio e altri Viaggi, Viterbo, 2004. p. 219-247
T. Ward, Alla ricerca di Hassan. Il volto svelato dell'Iran, sec. edizione, Libreria editrice fiorentina, 2017
Further teaching material will be distributed during the course and made available on the Moodle platform. Non-attending students are required to contact the teacher.
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Dates of beginning and end of teaching activities
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From 01/10/2020 to 08/01/2021 |
Delivery mode
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Traditional
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Attendance
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not mandatory
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Evaluation methods
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Written test
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