Mediterranean - A Cultural Landscape
A seminal text that explores the history and culture of the Mediterranean region. The book has been translated into over 20 languages and remains a significant contribution to cultural studies. Predrag Matvejevic’s writing glints and eddies as if subject to the same winds and currents that stir his Mediterranean. "Crickets often crop up in accounts of Mediterranean moods," we read. "The sound or possibly song of the cricket does not disturb insomnia – I know from experience – on summer nights when waking is easier than sleeping and the spirits keep watch and almost seem to merge over the Mediterranean."In the space of a few pages we encounter knots, ballast, voyages, swimming, diving, shipwrecks, burial at sea, sponge and coral gathering, rivers, and the distribution of olive, fig, and agave. The author has stories to tell about each topic and freely mingles the observations and discoveries of fellow travelers, ancient and contemporary, with his own, creating a powerful narrative tide.The book is divided into three sections: Breviary, Maps, and Glossary. Breviary catalogs the sights, smells, sounds, and features common to the many peoples who share the Mediterranean--Jews, Arabs, Copts, Berbers, Turks, Syrians, Greeks, Romans (and Italians), Spaniards (and Catalonians), the French, Dalmatians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Romanians, even Russians. Maps retraces the same itinerary through documents up to the seventeenth century that represent the Mediterranean; Glossary deals with linguistic diversity and history. The brilliant variety of details and the verve with which they are conveyed will appeal to active and armchair travelers alike.With this portrait of a place and its civilizations, Matvejevic joins a cohort of writers that includes Claudio Magris (Danube), Angelo Maria Ripellino (Magic Prague), and Neal Ascherson (Black Sea)--authors who have created a literary genre all their own, at once personal and objective, imaginative and erudite.Predrag MatvejevićPredrag Matvejević (1932–2017) was a Bosnian-Croatian writer, scholar, and political activist, renowned for his contributions to literature and his advocacy for human rights. He studied Roman and Classical Philosophy at the universities of Sarajevo and Zagreb. He took his PhD in Comparative Aesthetics at the University of Paris III. His works, written in Croat and in French, are a denouncement of the fratricidal war and ethnic cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia; the best-known include: Ces moulins à vent (1977), Lettres ouvertes-exercices de morale (1985), La Yougoslavité d'aujourd'hui (1982), Mediterranean: A Cultural Landscape (1987) -French edition in 1993, and winner of the Prize for Best Foreign Book 1999 (France), Ch. Veillon European Prize (Switzerland), Malaparte Prize (Italy)-, Entre asile et exil (1995), Le miroir de la mer Méditerranéenne (2002) and L'autre Venise (2003), European Strega Prize (Italy). He has been awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government.
