June 3 – 28, 2024
History of the Italian Mediterranean: “Una Faccia, Una Razza”
Elizabeth H. Shlala
Associate Dean for the Core
Associate Professor of the Practice
Course summary
For most of history, Mediterranean identities were fluid and hybrid. For centuries, Venetians, Genoans,
Pisans, Florentines, and Livornese, travelled and traded around the Mediterranean. Christian “Levantines,” Jews, and Muslims lived relatively harmoniously in the sea’s port cities and beyond.
Merchants sought to get rich, cities grew, and culture was shared. “Una faccia, una razza” or “one face, one race” is a oft-repeated saying around the Levant that underscores the belief that despite the slight outward or nominal differences, there is a fundamental shared heritage and way of life in the region.
The violent end of empires, coupled with the emergence of the nation-state, led to a geographic shift in the region as borders became less permeable and identities became codified, documented, and monitored in new ways. With the “quarta sponda” or “fourth shore” Mussolini violently attempted to add most of North Africa to his rule and reclaim the past glory of Rome (as Napoleon had attempted in Egypt more than a century earlier). The end of the Ottoman Empire, and the rise in European legal, military, political, and financial influence irrevocably altered the dynamics of the Italian Mediterranean.
Today, the Mediterranean Sea, which once appeared to be the cradle of cosmopolitan civilizations, has become the twenty-first century’s “largest mass grave.” The Mediterranean Sea, which served as the heart of a world system for centuries, is now a heavily policed crossroads that divides more than it unites. “Levantine” has become a derogatory word. Venice is under water, losing her cultural heritage inch by watery inch due to climate change. In this course, we will use primary historical sources to analyze the continuities and changes of the Italian Mediterranean with Venice as our geographical, historical, and architectural center. It is an opportunity for first-hand intellectual exploration that we will not have for much longer.
Syllabus
Week 1: The “Italian” Mediterranean
Geography and Environment
Cities around the Mediterranean:
Venice, Italy
Alexandria, the Bride of the Mediterranean
Istanbul is Constantinople
Week 2: Mediterranean Crossings in the Age of Revolution
Napoleon in Egypt
British and Italians in the Ottoman Mediterranean
Legal Pluralism and Gender
Week 3: The End of Empires and Rise of Nationalism
Debt and Diplomacy in Egypt
Genocide and Nationalism in the late Ottoman Empire
The Sponda Quarta and Italian Fascism
Week 4: Whose History? Whose Mediterranean? Whose Lives Matter?
Who owns History?
Museums and Tourism
Heritage Industry
The Syrian War: Mediterranean as Mass Grave
Site visits and field trips
Venice Art Biennale (contemporary art exhibition)
Islands of Burano and Torcello
Ghetto area and museum
Tour of Venice graffiti
Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo
Day trip to Padua (Giotto’s fresco cycles)
The Doge's Palace
Ca’ Rezzonico Museum – art from the XVIII century
Correr Museum
Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Armenian monastery)