Italian Culture, English Heritage: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Aurora Leigh

Adina Ciugureanu (Ovidius University Constanta) [BIO]

Email: adina.ciugureanu@seanet.ro or aciugureanu@univ-ovidius.ro

 

ABSTRACT:

This paper is concerned with an analysis of the relation between the English background and the adopted Italian culture and of the well-known Victorian poetess, Elizabeth Browning, in Aurora Leigh. When Robert and his wife settled in Florence, Elizabeth started writing Aurora Leigh in which he mixed the fascinating Italian culture, Elizabeth deeply worshipped with the English culture she had so solidly acquired at home. Elizabeth’s self-imposed, never to regret exile meant living in Florence after traveling to France and staying for a while in Pisa. Elizabeth’s famous heroine, Aurora Leigh, is born in Florence. Her destiny compels her to become an expatriate and live in England for her adolescence and youth, thus covering her author’s path in reverse. My purpose in this discussion is to compare the two paths and to show, through citation (quotes from Aurora Leigh and EBB’s private letters), what the two countries (the one of birth and the one adopted) signified to the real lady and to her fictional heroine. In this way I will attempt to show to what extent Italian culture subverts and/or completes English heritage.