Literature project Rome-Houten 2016
1. General idea:
Students become aware of cultural differences and moreover similarities between Italy and The
Netherlands in general and Rome and Houten in particular. They combine their experiences in an illustrated
short story.
2. General outcome:
Students make in international pairs an illustrated short story inspired by the stories of Utrecht in
Citybooks.net.
The best short story receives a price and all the short stories will be published in a small book.
3. Steps:
3.1 Before Rome:
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Students read the stories of Longo and Brick Scholtz. www.citybooks.net
They make a short analyse of point of view, theme, idea of the writer,…
Students answer the following questions:
Brink Scholtz, The return
A. In this short story, many street-names and places in Utrecht are referred to. An
opposition is created between places in city-center and ‘Leidsche Rijn’. (You can
look up the differences between both by using Google Streetview for example.)
What is the importance of this opposition and these locations?
One of the characters in this story, Andries, returns to South Africa from Utrecht. An
excerpt from the text:
‘He says that it came as a shock to him to realise the extent to which he did
not fit into Dutch society. […] No matter how much tolerance there is – if you
don’t know the codes, it doesn’t work. And the codes are often very subtle.’
B. Try to formulate in your own words why Andries has left Utrecht. What are
‘codes’ in your interpretation? Are there certain Italian or Dutch codes that are
difficult to understand for an outsider, or do you think these codes are more or less
the same in European societies? And how about ‘codes’ in your school? Are there
‘subtle codes’ there as well?
C. Can you discern cultural stereotypes about the Netherlands in the story by
Schulz? (See question D from the previous story for more information on cultural
stereotypes.) What do you think is the nature of a cultural stereotype? Is it based on
some form of ‘truth’? Why do we need cultural stereotypes?
3.2 In Rome
3.2.1 Session of three hours:
 1 hour: Talking about the analyse questions. Instructions for the discussion
questions
 1¼ hour: discussion questions (See Below)
 ½ hour feedback on the discussions
 ¼ hour: instruction on the picture assignment and the creative writing
assignment