This article explores Grand Tour narratives as discursive spaces where cultural otherness is constructed, comparing texts by eighteenth-century French authors (Montesquieu, Grosley, Barthélemy, Duclos) and the British writer Smollett. It highlights linguistic strategies through which these travellers, despite diverse perspectives, formulate implicit judgments on Italy, oscillating between aesthetic admiration and moral critique. The comparative approach reveals how language reinforces power dynamics and constructs France as a normative cultural model. Drawing on the concepts of ethnocentrism (Said) and “contact zones” (Pratt), the analysis shows how travel writing acts as a tool of classification and symbolic domination. These narratives are not mere descriptions, but powerful discursive acts shaping worldviews. The variety of rhetorical registers—from moralism to satire—invites reflection on the relationship between authorial intention and ideological impact. The study thus offers a critical reinterpretation of the Grand Tour as an intercultural phenomenon and a key site for analyzing the mechanisms of cultural stereotyping.
Regards sur l'Italie: une analyse comparée des récits du Grand Tour
Pellegrino, Rosario
2025
Abstract
This article explores Grand Tour narratives as discursive spaces where cultural otherness is constructed, comparing texts by eighteenth-century French authors (Montesquieu, Grosley, Barthélemy, Duclos) and the British writer Smollett. It highlights linguistic strategies through which these travellers, despite diverse perspectives, formulate implicit judgments on Italy, oscillating between aesthetic admiration and moral critique. The comparative approach reveals how language reinforces power dynamics and constructs France as a normative cultural model. Drawing on the concepts of ethnocentrism (Said) and “contact zones” (Pratt), the analysis shows how travel writing acts as a tool of classification and symbolic domination. These narratives are not mere descriptions, but powerful discursive acts shaping worldviews. The variety of rhetorical registers—from moralism to satire—invites reflection on the relationship between authorial intention and ideological impact. The study thus offers a critical reinterpretation of the Grand Tour as an intercultural phenomenon and a key site for analyzing the mechanisms of cultural stereotyping.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
