OSIE 488 – 5 credit hours transferable from the University of Oregon

Taught by English Professor John Gage, University of Oregon

The 20th Century’s most influential modernist poet, Ezra Pound, lived much of his life in Italy and derived inspiration from Italian literature, history, and art. In this course, students will study selections from his poetry in connection with Italian figures who profoundly influenced his ideas about art and politics, from the classical to the modern period.

How did living in Venice shape his early poems? How did Pound’s modernist ideas relate to the Futurist movement of Marinetti? What ideas about translation did he invent to create modern versions of Propertius and Catullus? Why did he model his epic poem Cantos after Dante’s Divine Comedy? How were his ideas about politics related to Renaissance Italian figures? Why did Pound become tragically connected with Italian Fascism and support Mussolini before World War II? How did this lead to the writing of his famous Pisan Cantos after being incarcerated on charges of treason?

This fascinating and difficult writer-in-exile is made more understandable in light of his many connections to Italy. Students in the class will visit places he lived and wrote about, including Venice, Florence, Pisa, and other locales around Siena. Pound, perhaps more than any other twentieth century writer, illustrates the intercultural nature of modern literature.

This course will be taught entirely in English. Students enrolled in the Siena program also take Italian language courses at their own level. They will therefore have the option of reading some of the assignments (e.g. Dante) in Italian or translating some of Pound’s Italian writing into English.

For more on Pound, visit: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pound/pound.htm

To explore Siena, visit: http://www.comune.siena.it/

Email Professor Gage with your questions about this course: jgage@uoregon.edu

To find out more about the AHA Siena study abroad program, visit:
http://www.aha-intl.org/program.php?place=siena2004

To ask questions about the AHA Siena program contact Roger Adkins at: radkins@uoregon.edu or visit the Study Abroad office on your campus.

Application deadline for Siena courses in Winter 2005: November 1, 2004

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