Beyond Famagusta: Cultural Memory and Historical Imagination - (Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe) by Michael J K Walsh

About the Book

The city of Famagusta has fuelled the imagination on the island of Cyprus, and far beyond its shores, for close to a millennium. This book explores Famagusta's cultural memory, still unfolding, through literature, theatre, opera, art, photography, film and the digital humanities.

Book Synopsis

Famagusta has witnessed the rise and fall of both empires and dynasties which have left in their wake a rich storytelling legacy. This was a city of extremes, and so while there was political influence, artistic creativity, wealth and piety, there was simultaneously fear, corruption, treachery and war. After the great siege of 1571, Shakespeare strategically situated Othello in this 'seaport in Cyprus' while operas and ballets about the triumph and tragedy of Medieval, Renaissance and Ottoman Cyprus created a European fantasy of an imagined past. Centuries later, while exiles languished in the open prison of Famagusta and photographers revelled in a desolate yet romantic present, French and British scholars got to work re-creating sympathetic national histories and imperialists planned alternative futures. This book examines the complex cultural memory and historical imagination associated with the ever-enigmatic Famagusta.

About the Author

Michael J. K. Walsh, D. Phil. (2001) University of York, is Professor of Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. This is his sixth book on Famagusta, including Famagusta Maritima: Mariners, Merchants and Mercenaries (Brill, 2019).