Anne Radcliffe
The Italian
Anne Radcliffe
• A bestselling author
• Combined three successful trends
– The fantastic
– Travel literature
– Landscape painting through words
• Had never seen Italy. Based her representation on
landscape painting and travel literature
• Widely influential
– Byron in his representation of Venice. Ruskin. James.
– Many poets borrowed poetic phrases and techinques
fron her
– Most Romantic travellers saw Italy through the lens of
her descriptions
The Italian: A Gothic Romance
• Gothic
– Sublime circumstances
Terror and suspense (but,
on the whole, only isolated
episodes)
– Persecution of innocent
victims (E. and V.).
– Mock-medieval setting,
ruins
– Imprisonment,
claustrophobic situations
– Seemingly Supernatural
events
– Villains, Mysterious,
satanic characters
• Romance
– Improbable situations
– Flat characters (types)
• The victimized innocent
girl
• The villain
– Poetic prose
– Emotion, fantasy
– Disguises, Mistaken
identities, Recognitions
(anagnoresis),
Coincidences
– Mysteries, suspense
Typical Plot
• Coleridge’s parody: “A Baron or Baroness
ignorant of their Birth, and in some dependent
situation –a Castle or a Rock – a Sepulchre – at
some distance from the Rock – Deserted Rooms –
Underground Passages– Pictures – a Ghost, so
believed – or a written record – blood on it! – A
wonderful Cut-throat” (Letter to Wordsworth)
• Leslie Fiedler; “Girl escapes and is caught,
escapes and is caught […] like a nightmare from
which it is impossible to wake” (Love and Death
in American Literature)
• Model: Angelica in Orlando Furioso
Importance of Landscape
• Stands in awe of nature, perceived as powerful
and mysterious
• Landscape is the protagonist of the romance
– Human figures, as suggested by Gilpin or in Salvator
Rosa’s paintings, complete the scenery but do not
dominate it.
– Most human figures static. Do not develop
– Plots too intricate to remain impressed
• Her landscapes correspond to the taste of the day
– Models; Rosa, Claude, Poussin, Richard Wilson
– Aesthetic canons of the Sublime, the Picturesque and
the Beautiful
Travel Narrative
• 2/3 of the text, on the road, away from home
• Abduction, flights, pursuits
• Substitutes the dynamics of travel / escape to the dynamics
of courtship of the realistic tradition.
• “A device to send maidens on distant and exciting
journeys without offending the proprieties” (Moers, 126).
A feminine substitute for the picaresque.
– masculine picaresque vs feminine picturesque)
• Gilpin’s “picturesque travel” in pursuit of an object”
becomes in Radcliffe pursuit of a sexual object.. A
metaphor.
• A picturesque and pictorial travel: “Characters make their
way from canvas to canvas”. Cinematic technique.
Word painting
• Most important feature: Ut pictura poesis.
Imitation of painting with words. Landscape is the
principal character of the novel
• Imitates landscape painters (vedutismo): Poussin,
Claude Lorrain, Salvator Rosa
– Called “the Salvator Rosa of British novelists”
• Creates a marvellous Italy (without having seen it)
from paintings, theatre backdrops and travel books
--the Italy the Romantic poets and future writers
will describe
– Direct line: Radcliffe—Byron—Ruskin—James.
• Puts Gilpin’s theories into practice.
Ambivalence about Italy
• Admiration for the arts, antiquity, music
dominating all .
• Admiration for its nature mixing
picturesque and sublime aspects.
• Imitation of its painters in descriptive
writing.
• Revulsion for its religion and upper classes.
• Belief it is a country of crimes, horror and
cruelty.
Italy as Land of the Sublime and
the Picturesque
• Sublime settings
– ruins,
– Mountains
– The Vesuvius
• Sublime circumstances (manifestations of the
alien nature of Italy)
– Picturesque common people, scenery, and
circumstances
– Music
Italian Clichés in Ann
Radcliffe’s The Italian
• Love story
• Music
• Italy as source of horrifying otherness
– The Italy of Early modern theatre.
– Fearful but sublime circumstances (manifestations of
the alien nature of Italy)
• Italy as land of the physical Sublime The Italy of
Eighteenth cent. Painting
– Sublime settings (ruins, mountains)
• Italy and the picturesque:
– Picturesque common people, scenery, and
Italy as source of horrifying otherness
• Machiavellian characters
– Schedoni
– Spalatro
– The marchesa
• Forces of oppression and containment
– convent discipline,
– Inquisition,
– patriarchal families
• Intrigues, poison
Italy as mirror of England
• Reflection of concern for class prejudice.
• Democracy, love for freedom (England,Ellena,
Vincentio Vivaldi) vs authoritarianism (Vivaldi
family, Abbess).
• Ellena like a Protestant martyr, refuses to
pronounce the vows brving unimaginable horrors
that will be imposed on her.
• Convents allude to seclusion of women in society.
• Rise of new role for women.
– Ellena’s dignity as a working girl(82). Her resourcefulness and
pride of independence(99)j.Conscious of her rights (p. 81)
Italian Clichés in Ann
Radcliffe’s The Italian
• Love story
• Music
• Italy as source of horrifying otherness
– The Italy of Early modern theatre.
– Fearful but sublime circumstances (manifestations of
the alien nature of Italy)
• Italy as land of the physical Sublime The Italy of
Eighteenth cent. Painting
– Sublime settings (ruins, mountains)
• Italy and the picturesque:
– Picturesque common people, scenery, and