‘Have I never told you that Corfu is Prospero’s island?’: marvels of the Levant and the Venetian colonial imagination, Anastasia Stouraiti

I'm sorry I won't be able to go to this interesting lecture.

Monday 9 November, 17.30-19.00

Council Room (K2.29), King’s Building, Strand Campus

‘Have I never told you that Corfu is Prospero’s island?’: marvels of the Levant and the Venetian colonial imagination

"Anastasia Stouraiti (Goldsmiths, University of London) will explore the relationship between wonder and empire building in early modern Venice. Drawing on a broad array of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printed texts and images, this talk will examine how and under what circumstances ordinary Venetians, who never set foot on their city’s overseas territories or the Ottoman lands, consumed strange and fantastic stories about their empire that recast colonial expansion into rare experiences of wonder: monster births, meteorological and geological events, and natural curiosities. The paper will argue that approaching Venice’s maritime state as a marvel machine offers an original perspective on the links between the emotional, the cultural and the political in the history of early modern Mediterranean encounters".

This event is open to all and free to attend. Booking is not required.

Part of the Modern Greek Studies seminar series.

See also: Corfu - Prospero's Island?