Mary Shelly's travelogue Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) is usually read as a travelogue of Italy and its significance as the author's political manifesto is emphasized (Moskal 2003). Indeed, Shelly deals with the Italian struggle for freedom and expresses her own political views. This was made possible not least by the genre of the travelogue, which, in its position between fact and fiction, also enabled women of the time to penetrate the otherwise male-dominated political sphere (Butler 2021). However, Rambles is not only a political book, but also a very personal one, as critics have noted. Around 20 years after the death of her husband, Shelley travels to Italy again for the first time with her adult son and his friends (and again two years later, both trips are described in Rambles), making it an emotionally charged journey. The author also takes an in-depth look at art and life in Italy. However, the travelogue is not only about Italy, but also, as the title suggests, about Germany and Austria. Shelley does not stay long in the latter country; it is after all one of the oppressors of the Italians striving for freedom and is therefore often mentioned critically in the text. And yet the author records her positive impressions of the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. In 1842, Shelley took a six-week cure for her persistent headaches in (Bad) Kissingen, and part of her report is devoted to this stay and the other stops in Germany (including Frankfurt, Mainz, Berlin, Weimar and Dresden). The stay at the spa forms the middle piece of the travelogue and thus lies "within the book's trajectory to Rome" (253), as Jeanne Moskal has noted. However, Shelley's chapters on Germany not only offer insights into the world of German spas, whose descriptions, as Beth Dolan Kautz has shown, are characterized by military metaphors. The author also visits museums – in Berlin and Dresden – and reports on the works of art she has seen. She also listens to music and visits the homes of Goethe and Schiller in Weimar. She comments on all this with references to the authors' works and her own assessment of their works. Although Shelley's primary interest (and apparently also that of her audience) is Italy – even the chapters on Germany are full of comparisons with the bel paese – an entire section of the three-part travelogue is devoted to Germany. In contrast to most analyses of The Rambles, this contribution focuses on this part and asks about Shelley's role as a cultural mediator between Germany and Britain. Both the text and the reception of the report are used for the analysis.
Deutsch-britische Kulturvermittlung in Mary Shelleys Reisebericht Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844)
Sandra Vlasta
2023-01-01
Abstract
Mary Shelly's travelogue Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) is usually read as a travelogue of Italy and its significance as the author's political manifesto is emphasized (Moskal 2003). Indeed, Shelly deals with the Italian struggle for freedom and expresses her own political views. This was made possible not least by the genre of the travelogue, which, in its position between fact and fiction, also enabled women of the time to penetrate the otherwise male-dominated political sphere (Butler 2021). However, Rambles is not only a political book, but also a very personal one, as critics have noted. Around 20 years after the death of her husband, Shelley travels to Italy again for the first time with her adult son and his friends (and again two years later, both trips are described in Rambles), making it an emotionally charged journey. The author also takes an in-depth look at art and life in Italy. However, the travelogue is not only about Italy, but also, as the title suggests, about Germany and Austria. Shelley does not stay long in the latter country; it is after all one of the oppressors of the Italians striving for freedom and is therefore often mentioned critically in the text. And yet the author records her positive impressions of the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. In 1842, Shelley took a six-week cure for her persistent headaches in (Bad) Kissingen, and part of her report is devoted to this stay and the other stops in Germany (including Frankfurt, Mainz, Berlin, Weimar and Dresden). The stay at the spa forms the middle piece of the travelogue and thus lies "within the book's trajectory to Rome" (253), as Jeanne Moskal has noted. However, Shelley's chapters on Germany not only offer insights into the world of German spas, whose descriptions, as Beth Dolan Kautz has shown, are characterized by military metaphors. The author also visits museums – in Berlin and Dresden – and reports on the works of art she has seen. She also listens to music and visits the homes of Goethe and Schiller in Weimar. She comments on all this with references to the authors' works and her own assessment of their works. Although Shelley's primary interest (and apparently also that of her audience) is Italy – even the chapters on Germany are full of comparisons with the bel paese – an entire section of the three-part travelogue is devoted to Germany. In contrast to most analyses of The Rambles, this contribution focuses on this part and asks about Shelley's role as a cultural mediator between Germany and Britain. Both the text and the reception of the report are used for the analysis.
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