Study Literature in Italy

Experience the Real Italy: Join Professor Cecilia Feilla to study Shakespeare in Italy and have the option of selecting an additional course from Umbra’s list of summer classes. All of Umbra’s summer courses are approved for transfer credit to MMC and most of them can fulfill requirements in your major, minor, or general education. So next summer, you can take advantage of the Umbra Institute’s beautiful location in historic Perugia, Italy, as you study Shakespeare with Prof. Feilla and have an unforgettable experience as Perugia becomes your classroom. Of course, you’ll also have ample time to travel elsewhere in Italy and Europe.

Course Description: Shakespeare's Italy: A Literary Journey

Shakespeare set more than a dozen of his plays in Italy, the first English playwright ever to give central importance in his drama to the Mediterranean nation. Capitalizing on the Elizabethan fascination with the land of Machiavelli and the Papacy, on the one hand, and of Petrarch’s love poetry and Renaissance humanistic learning, on the other, Shakespeare’s Italy is as imaginary and mythical as it is real. Its diverse cities and countryside allowed the Bard a freedom of expression, a thrill of cultural exchange, and a perspective on national difference—enriched by European exoticism—that gave rise to some of the greatest masterpieces of English literature.

This course explores the many Italian settings of Shakespeare’s plays across a variety of genres, from the “fair Verona” and Mantua of his early tragedy Romeo and Juliet to the darker forces of Venice in Othello and The Merchant of Venice, and from the university town of Padua in the comedy, Taming of the Shrew, to the carnival atmosphere of Sicily’s Messina in Much Ado about Nothing. Throughout his career Shakespeare returned again and again to Italian settings. Our aim is to study the Italian sources, theatrical forms, and settings that inspired Shakespeare in order to understand the ways in which his plays combine England and Italy, refashioning and reconfiguring the familiar—London spaces and types, stock characters and plots—and relocating them in foreign contexts.

Live like an Italian: Learn to appreciate the Italian lifestyle. Umbra provides students with shared apartments within a 5-minute walk of the Institute, allowing for innumerable opportunities to enjoy mid-day siestas, eat a panino on the fountain steps, and walk the city center like a native. Apartments are furnished with full kitchens so that you can try to duplicate your favorite new Italian dish. WiFi is provided both within the Institute and in each student apartment.

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Here you can see the main square in Perugia. The beautiful fountain and the entrance of Umbra Institute.

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Student Profiles

Bianca Rogers
Marymount at Umbra

“Umbra brings you to the heart of Italy. Each of my experiences through the Umbra Institute, whether it was visiting a legendary butcher in Tuscany, a trip to the beautiful island of Capri, or simply photographing Perugia in my photography class, were committed to showing me the rich vitality that defines Italy.”

Emil Lendof
Marymount at Umbra

“Studying abroad through the Umbra Institute taught me about appreciating a rich and thriving culture of food, music, and art. What an amazing place to study and to experience the real, authentic Italy. To me Perugia was more than just a place of learning, it was a home.”

Marymount-Nicole-Theroux Nicole Theroux
Marymount at Umbra

“I could not have asked for a better experience studying abroad than at the Umbra Institute. My appreciation for the history of Italy and what it means to be fully immersed in another culture grew in ways that I never could have imagined previously.”

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