Week 2 assignment

 In what ways does Goethe's portrayal of the Roman Carnival, in which members of different social classes and nationalities mix freely, challenge the apparent hegemony or dominance of Northern Europe?


Goethe's portrayal of the Roman Carnival, in which members of different social classes and nationalities mix freely, challenge the apparent hegemony or dominance of Northern Europe by thoroughly showing what is happening in Roman Carinival that can not be happening in Northern Europe: the abolition of social order. Goethe says that " the difference between the social orders seems to be abolished for the time being; everyone accosts everyone else, all good-naturedly accpt whatever happens to them, and the insolence humour"(Goethe 447). Compared to the Northern Europe where abolition of social order is not allow and might even lead to prosecution,  Roman Carnival makes people to take particular role and stick with that role whether or not if you are in high or low social order.

January 20th Assignment

 After he crosses "the dividing line between north and south," what elements does Goethe associate with Italy and Southern Europe as opposed to the Northern Europe he leaves behind?  Give examples from the text.

As he crosses "the dividing line between north and south," Goethe describes his experience of entering Italy and Southern Europe as going back in time to an undeveloped Northern Europe. When Goethe reaches the forty-eight parallel, the division between Southern and Northern Europe, he feels as if “the mountains slowly drew nearer, a new world opened before me.” What Goethe means by a new world is not just a place that he has never been to, but also a place that is strikingly undeveloped and premature. Southern Europe’s primitive society stood in great contrast with the developed Northern Europe where Goethe had came from.