This course will be exploring the history of the Mediterranean islands through the examination of their artistic and cultural heritage and with a particular focus on the middle ages and early modern period. From the large cosmopolitan “Miniature continents,” such as Sicily, Cyprus, Crete, and Rhodes, to the smaller islands of the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic Seas, we will investigate the cultural history, as well as the artistic and architectural heritage of the Mediterranean islands in an attempt to define the multifaceted identity of the Mediterranean insular societies. Moreover, by employing the methodological tools of Mediterranean archeology and by applying the “theory of insularity,” we will analyze concepts often ascribed to island societies, such as insularity, globalization, and “Mediterraneity.”
Due to their geographic particularities, island worlds are viewed as microcosms with idiosyncratic traits that distinguish them from mainland societies and are often discussed in terms of paradoxical contrasts and dichotomies: remoteness versus proximity; insularity versus connectivity; marginality and isolation versus mobility and accessibility. Functioning both as bridges and barriers, islands are defined as contact zones par excellence, allowing at the same time for the preservation of identities and the transgression of boundaries. Owing to their strategic position, the Mediterranean islands stood at the intersection of the cultural and religious orbits of Christianity and Islam, constantly changing hands between different political powers: Byzantine, Crusader, Arabic, Venetian, and Ottoman. Moreover, at the nodes of global maritime networks of trade and travel, the insular societies of the Mediterranean were exposed to close encounters with peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds that were based on the exchange of materialities and the mobility of people and goods. These intense cross-cultural contacts set in motion long-lasting processes of transculturation and hybridization that shaped insular cultural identities and are reflected the art and architecture of the Mediterranean islands.
- Kursleiter/in: Margarita Voulgaropoulou