The Souls of Venice - Softcover

Sethre, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786415738 ISBN 13: 9780786415731

Publisher: McFarland Publishing, 2003

Synopsis

How is a life defined by a city, and a city by the lives within? Where do an individual and a culture coincide? Perhaps more than any city in the world, Venice inspires these questions and suggests intriguing answers.

This book focuses on people who have been shaped by Venice and have shaped Venice in their turn. The author considers them in five groups: the "mutilated culture heroes" (e.g., the eunuch Narses), who despite or because of some great sacrifice helped the city define itself and its mission; the "fugitives from splendor" (e.g., St. Pietro Orseolo or El Greco), so overwhelmed by beauty that they fled the city; the "prisoners of Venice"—the convicts, the cloistered, the mad; the "symbiotics," who lived in close communion with the city for long periods of time (e.g., Titian) and the "fugitives from self" (e.g., Igor Stravinsky), who have come from elsewhere seeking a new identity, and who ended up helping to create a new identity for the city itself.

More than a collection of biographies, this richly textured and insightful work examines the roots of people’s "Venice-ness" as well as the city’s own humanity.

About this title

About the Author:

Janet Sethre has acted as an interpreter for local government organizations and for correspondents during the Kosovo conflict. She has conducted interviews for Italian national television and organized teacher exchange programs in Europe. A high school English teacher, she lives in Mira, Italy and is the translator of McFarland’s Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction (2001, $32) as well as Women and Self-Sacrifice in the Christian Church (2003, $39.95), both by Ida Magli.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0786415738
• ISBN 13: 9780786415731
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244