Visit the magnificent vistas of Switzerland beloved by tourists from around the world including literary giants whose great works were inspired by these beautiful locations. Visit Mont Blanc, Reichenbach Falls, Villa Diodati, Montreux Palace Hotel and many more places of beauty and interest and find out which literary greats were inspired to immortalize these places in the compositions not least of which include Byron, Shelley and Doyle.

DELIVERY MODE

• Hybrid (F2F & Online simultaneously)

SUGGESTED READING

• Jean Jacques Rousseau. Julie, The New Heloise
• George Gordon Byron. The Prisoner of Chillon
• Mary Shelley. Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus
• Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley. History of a Six Weeks’ Tour
• Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mont Blanc
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Devil’s Bridge
• Arthur Conan Doyle. The Final Problem
• Hugo Ball. Dada Manifesto
• Tom Stoppard. Travesties
• Brian Boyd. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years

COURSE OUTLINE

• Idealistic scenery by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Extracts from Julie, The New Heloise.
• Lord Byron inspirations in Switzerland: Chateau de Chillon.
• Byron’s travels by Switzerland.
• Byron, Polidori and Shelleys’ summer, 1816, in Villa Diodati. Extracts from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Vampyre by John Polidori.
• Shelleys’ travels by Switzerland. Extracts from History of a Six Weeks’ Tour and Mont Blanc.
• Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem by A.C. Doyle.
• The Devil’s Bridge by H.W. Longfellow, and General Suvorov’s marsh across the Alps.
• Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich: Dadaistic performances and coffee breaks for Vladimir Lenin.
• Nabokov in Switzerland.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Know the names of the writers who lived and worked in Switzerland
2. Know their texts inspired by/written in Switzerland
3. Know the particular places associated with the history of literature and understand where these places are on the map of Switzerland