The limits of identity: early modern Venice, Dalmatia, and the representation of difference

Abstract

"This book considers the production of collective identity in Venice (Christian, civic-minded, anti-tyrannical), which turned on distinctions drawn in various fields of representation from painting, sculpture, print, and performance to classified correspondence. Dismemberment and decapitation bore a heavy burden in this regard, given as indices of an arbitrary violence ascribed to Venice's long-time adversary, 'the infidel Turk.' The book also addresses the recuperation of violence in Venetian discourse about maintaining civic order and waging crusade. Finally, it examines mobile populations operating in the porous limits between Venetian Dalmatia and Ottoman Bosnia and the distinctions they disrupted between 'Venetian' and 'Turk' until their settlement on state-owned land. This occurred in the eighteenth century with the closing of the borderlands, thresholds of difference against which early modern 'Venetian-ness' was repeatedly measured and affirmed"--Provided by publisher.

Contents

"A diabolical violence" and "authority above the law" : Ottoman rule in Venetian public discourse -- Justice and iniquity : decapitation's double valence in early modern Venice -- Judith triumphant : severed heads on public monuments and in celebrations of Venetian victory -- Severed heads and bodies in pieces : Venetian reception of Jerusalem liberated -- Provincial subjectivity and the troubling of difference : the Morlacchi in Venetian text and image.