tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2359917450688978581.post1621609030118207110..comments2024-03-13T18:46:15.935-05:00Comments on strange and random happenstance: Book Review - E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to TreadMiss Elizahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868271853570489005noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2359917450688978581.post-47838278528187177952015-09-03T16:12:26.853-05:002015-09-03T16:12:26.853-05:00The angle of the idealization of the Italian Renai...The angle of the idealization of the Italian Renaissance is an interesting angle to it. Especially because being a student of art history, though in the US, there really wasn't any idealization of it, other than their perfection of certain art forms and principles. Miss Elizahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07868271853570489005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2359917450688978581.post-13079498133443753652015-09-02T19:10:57.825-05:002015-09-02T19:10:57.825-05:00A lot of the English fascinating with Italy that c...A lot of the English fascinating with Italy that crops up in Forster's novels probably comes with the fascination Italian history--especially Renaissance Venice and classical Rome--held among upper and middle class educated gay Englishmen of his time. I can't recall if it's something Wendy Moffat touches upon in her biography of Forster, but Graham Robb's Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century and Yvonne Ivory's The Homosexual Revival of Renaissance Style, 1850-1930 both analyze it to some extent. The Grand Tour plays a role, as you say, but it's also the idea of sexual and social license associated with Carnival and the idealization of the Italian Renaissance in English and German art historical writings. <br /><br />Venice was also the site of a lot of sexual tourism. If I'm remembering correctly, John Addington Symonds's memoirs talk a bit about prostitution among the gondoliers. So I'd say it's probably the combination of the reverence for culture and reputation for sexual freedom. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com