O Dio Che Bella: A novella project

The question—what happens to emotionally repressed, distracted, detached, freedom-loving Anglo-North American visitors who come to Italy and actually encounter the alleged freedom that Italy offers?—is examined by means of research-creation—fiction writing: in the form of a novella, a synthesis of major GLS themes—combining artistic expression and scholarly investigation using a bricolage method of constructing objects from everyday materials by quoting from and alluding to texts: including the Prometheus Myth, Freud, and Mudford, and seventy others from GLS course syllabi. Part one shows the disorienting influence of Italian culture on the tourist; part two shows the effect of this on the visitor’s memory—seeking refuge in the everyday in thought and action can’t prevent the assault of the past on the present, and by the end the visitor’s interior world is radically changed. Theoretical influences on the novella are discussed in the preceding Statement of Intent.