Blood/Lust: Staging the Early Modern Mediterranean

This course examines, in sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain and England (1580-1640), how the two countries staged the conflict between them, and with the Ottoman Empire; that is, how both countries represent national and imperial clashes, and the concepts of being “Spanish,” “English,” or “Turk,” often played out on the high seas of the Mediterranean with Islam and the Ottoman Empire. We will also consider how the Ottoman Empire depicted itself artistically through miniatures, book illustrations, and court poetry, and will include travel narratives from Spanish, English, and Ottoman voyagers.