Articolo
Abstract

The journey to Italy represents for the Goethes a cultural heirloom which is passed down through three generations (Johann Caspar, Johann Wolfgang, August). It is a real learning experience discovering classical antiquity, where their mindscape and emotional world become wider. Naples embodies the culmination of their Italian journey, since the city in Southern Italy was usually the last destination of the Grand Tour in Italy. Foreignness means a positive articulation of cultural difference as such. In their trip journals, the Reise nach Süden shapes itself as a perilous voyage to an unknown land: in Naples they cross inner and outer thresholds between life and death, heaven and hell. My aim in this essay is to investigate both the different explorations in their journals and their different cultural relationship with the Fremde, which is connected to their own stories, time and social roles.

In questo numero