This course takes a place-based, diachronic approach to the study of Mediterranean interconnectedness, from the perspective of the main Sicilianisland and indeed the very notion of islandness. As Godfrey Baldacchino has written in the introduction to his seminal A World of Islands: “islands suggest themselves as terrae nullius, empty spaces, waiting, wanting, to be possessed: potential laboratories for any conceivable and uninhibited human project, in thought or in action...But: the small, remote and insular also suggests marginality, being on the edge, being out of sight and so out of mind, situations which can expose the weakness of mainstream ideas, orthodoxies, and received wisdoms, while fomenting alternatives to the status quo. Any dominant paradigm is supposedly weakest at its periphery.” Reflecting on Mediterranean islandness and the multicultural history of Sicily permits us to scrutinize the processes of transregional interconnectedness, mobility, and exchange that are hallmarks of historical globalization. Islands connect, but also divide; they are sites where identities are not only forged, but also blended and challenged; they offer a microcosm in which global issues may be observed and studied.
Introductory readings, screenings, and discussions (Week 1) introduce students to the interpretive possibilities of islands, their inherent polyvalence and multiplicity of perspectives, as well as to the theme of the outsider’s approach and landing on the Sicilian island, in particular. In Week 2, texts and discussions focus on the island’s eastern coast, and shift to themes of colonialism and imperialism, both in the classical world and in the post-Italian unification era: readings depict the Mediterranean both as a place of adventure and as a path for escape, with emphasis on Sicily’s history of colonial occupation and performances of imperial power. Sicily’s connections to broad transregional institutions and networks (ancient economies and social networks, the Persian Empire, the Catholic Church, and Jesuit missions to the Americas) shape Week 3 readings, discussions, and field trips to the Baroque environments of the Val di Noto. The last week of the course is conducted on site through an extended tour of the interior and Western part of the island: readings and discussions emphasize the Mediterranean and its islands, especially Sicily, as nodes in long-running systems of cross-border movement and exchange.
Cross listed with CLASS 1154