|
THE MYTHS OF VENICE: Images in Art, History, Literature and Film
Four Weeks: May 13 – 15, Ramapo and May 18 – June 7, Venice
300 level course for Undergraduates, Graduate course for MALS
With its lacy skyline of steeples floating above
sparkling waters, Venice has lured countless
generations of travelers. The magic of the city
defies description: there are as many responses to its
magnetism as there are writers and filmmakers. The
extraordinary magic of the city has defied definitive
description: there are as many responses to its
magnetism as there are writers and filmmakers. The
artists and architects who defined this great renaissance
republic left a unique environment which continues to
capture the imagination. Six hundred years since the
dawn of its dominance, its economic power, and its
special position at the cultural and commercial
crossroads of Europe and the east, Venice continues to work its magic on the thousands of tourists who wander
her glittering byways and dream in her unearthly
light. We know her for her canals and gondolas, her
palazzi and over 400 bridges, magnificent to be sure. A
small city made up of over 115 islands, it takes less than
an hour to walk from one end to the other. But what
has made Venice so captivating to the creative spirit?
How is it that this special city holds the promise of
romance, beauty and knowledge at the same time as it
threatens with the risk of death and destruction?
Studying in Venice
This seminar, “The Myths of Venice”, will attempt to
answer these questions by enabling to students to “live
like Venetians” for three weeks, truly an unforgettable
experience in a location where the centuries of a
dazzling past coexist vibrantly with the world of the 21st century. We will study the unique historical and
artistic role of Venice, considering how this question is
treated by writers such as James, Proust, Mann and
Twain, painters such as Tiepolo, Canaletto, Titian and
Tintoretto, and filmmakers from Woody Allen to
Visconti, Mazursky to Welles. The lagoon city of Venice, “la Serenissima,” has for
centuries been the cultural and commercial nexus of
eastern and western Europe. A carefully designed
program of films, readings, and activities will bring
students into the local community and promote their
understanding of Venice as an extraordinary city with an
environment unlike any other. Forced to slow their pace
by climbing tiny bridges and wandering narrow streets
along canals and through colorful markets, students will
pursue projects using Venice as a case study for the
coexistence of different traditions, Western and Eastern,
Jewish, Moslem and Christian. Starting from Venice in its
former position as the Queen of the Adriatic at the center
of an empire, we will consider varying views of the city
from the renaissance to the present, through literature,
film, art, architecture and history.
Requirements satisfied by this course:
General Education:
300 level, Topics in Arts and Humanities
Contemporary Arts:
Upper level core course
American and International Studies:
300 level: Upper Level Elective with International Focus
(International Studies Major)
300 level: Elective, Area Studies/Europe concentration
(International Studies Major)
Experiential/Study abroad requirement (International
Studies Major)
200 level: International/Comparative Western elective
(International Studies Major)
MALS: basic course distribution (requires additional
seminar and project), taken as independent study.
Our course of study
The first week of the course will take place at Ramapo for
an initial immersion in the unique nature of the city as
an object of historical, cultural, artistic and personal
reflection. We will start to plan our final research
projects, and prepare for our three weeks in Venice
armed with an initial grounding in the various myths
surrounding the city: erotic, artistic, historical, theatrical
and sociological.
Once we cross the Atlantic for our 3 week stay in Venice,
we will gain a solid understanding of the story of Venice,
in all its richness and variety, its dramatic evolution and
special place in history. The works of filmmakers and
great writers of different eras and cultures will allow us
to see how they have used and envisioned Venice to
understand their own history and value systems.
Students will complete their final projects using library
and internet facilities in Venice.
Through study and our daily lives in the city, we will
begin to appreciate how its varied facets can reflect and
illuminate our own situation, contemporary culture and
value systems, perhaps explaining its perpetual appeal to
tourists through the ages. Ultimately, we will understand
how, in many ways, the shifting currents of life in Venice
mirror the great shifts of western culture generally over
the past 500 years, including the technological
revolution, globalization, and the environmental
problems facing all of us.
Life in Venice and Beyond
After the initial week of study at Ramapo, students will
live in groups for three weeks in apartments in Venice,
responsible for their own meals. Classes will meet for
three mornings per week and students will be
encouraged to explore the city independently. On the
fourth day of each week, the group will visit the
significant historical and artistic venues of the city
accompanied by scholar Dr. Marina Karem, including
such sites as St. Mark’s Cathedral, the Doge’s Palace, the
Academia and Guggenheim museums, and the Palazzi
Ca D’Oro and Ca Pesaro.
There is much to enchant in Venice itself. But, long
weekends have been preserved for further exploration:
it’s very easy, and not very expensive, to travel for a
long weekend to Rome, only 4 1/2 hours away, and
Florence, 3 hours away. It’s even quicker to take the
short train ride to Verona to see the grand opera in the
2000 year old Roman arena, or to the mountains of the
Lake Garda district.
Life in Venice is unlike life anywhere else on earth.
Silent, but for the sound of feet walking on narrow
streets, the periodic motor boat, muffled conversation
and the occasional singing gondolier, Venice fosters
contemplation and a humane pace of life- leisurely
strolls through markets, 15 minute vaporetto rides to
the beach at the famed Lido, easy boat excursions to the
outlying islands, wonderful concerts, relaxed
conversation in sidewalk cafes. No traffic jams, no
fumes, no gas, no cars, no pollution… just “boat buses”
and gondolas and feet and starry nights. They will
certainly not be alone, but will meet tourists and
students who converge on Venice from every corner of
the globe- Venice has been a magnet for the young for
centuries!
Program Cost: $3800
Program Cost Includes:
Housing in apartments (with kitchen facilities),
admission to sites in Venice, vaporetto pass for
transportation within Venice, tuition (4 credits,
undergraduate or graduate), administrative fees
(Program cost does not include food, airfare and
transportation outside Venice)
Eligibility
All Ramapo College students in good academic and
judicial standing with a minimum G.P.A of 2.75 (those
below will be assessed on a case by case basis) are eligible.
Students of other U.S. colleges or universities, alumni,
teachers, and members of the community are also
eligible.
For further information, contact
THE ROUKEMA CENTER
FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
RAMAPO COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY
505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ 07430
Attn: Susi Rachouh
Telephone: (201) 684-7533
E-mail: srachouh@ramapo.edu
Faculty
Dr. Kathleen Sunshine, Professor of Literature and
Communications, received her Ph.D. in
Literature from Harvard University. At
Ramapo, she has served as Associate
Dean/Director of the School of
Contemporary Arts, and Director of the
International Telecommunications
Center. A member of Phi Beta Kappa,
Dr. Sunshine has done considerable
consulting on international education,
particularly in Russia, China, Africa, and India. She
studied in Venice with a summer Institute of the
National Endowment for the Humanities, and had two
Fulbright Senior Academic Specialist Grants, in Ukraine
and Thailand. She was the recipient of a Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship and has taught at Harvard
University, Queens and Brooklyn Colleges of The City
University of New York, and Manhattan College, as well
as several institutions abroad.
At Ramapo, Dr. Sunshine teaches courses in the
adaptation of literature to film, creative writing, and
thematic sources, in myth and legend, of contemporary
film. She is the author of “Early American Literature and
the Call of the Wild: Nature and the Indian in Fiction
before Cooper,” and “Live Poetry,” an anthology of
political and socially critical poetry of the Viet Nam era.
She was executive producer of “Intercultural
Perspectives,” a television series on New Jersey Public
Television, has worked as a journalist in India, and is
currently completing a novel and a documentary.
Professor Dr. Marina Del Negro Karem is a native
Venetian. She received her Ph.D. in Art
History from the University of
Louisville, and is an expert on the uses
and propagandistic contexts of the
representation of the Lion of St. Mark in
Venetian art. Although she has lived
most of her life in the U.S., she
maintains a home in Venice and returns
there every summer.
Dr. Karem speaks the Venetian dialect fluently and is
familiar with research facilities and procedures in the
State Archive and major libraries of the city. She has
taught abroad several times for the University of
Louisville and the University of Georgia. For four years,
she was the Director of the Study Abroad Program in Italy for the Kentucky Institute for International Studies.
Location and Contact Information
The Office of Study Abroad is located in the Anisfield School of Business, room ASB-123. Our phone number is (201) 684-7533. E-mail - goabroad@ramapo.edu
[ return to top ] |
