Marco Benoît Carbone, Geographies of Myth and Places of Identity: The Strait of Scylla and Charybdis in the Modern Imagination (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). 9781350118201.
Reviewed by Patricia Y. Hatcher, CUNY Graduate Center, phatcher@gradcenter.cuny.edu.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciahatcher/
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Almost one hundred years ago, Mikhail Bakhtin developed the theory of chronotope, the idea that “…places [are] defined by ‘the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships’ expressed through their literary renown” (p. 15). This intriguing device helps to articulate the process by which a piece of literature can designate a “space-time” of its own that is different from the perceived reality of the reader. Marco Benoît Carbone’s book uses Bakhtin’s chronotope to explore his overall thesis concerning Homer and the Strait of Messina: “An interrogation of how historical and imaginative geographies impact on the sense of place and identity… [which] discusses the ‘projections’ of the past and interplay between literature, heritage, landscape and popular histories and archaeologies” (p. 4). Additionally, he incorporates anthropological methodology by using “ethnographic and empirical observation,” which creates a work that is both personal and academic, ethnographic and literary, local and international (p. 6). His research occurred from 2014–2016 as he gathered material for his dissertation, the origin of the current volume. The introductory chapter ends with a useful abstract of the chapters to follow.
His next chapter is entitled “The Strait of Homer and the Strait of Reality.” It is here that Carbone begins in earnest his discussion of how the myth of the Odyssey informs the location of the Strait, which in turn informs the myth. The chapter is more of an in-depth overview of the different factors that affect the recursive process and how these occur at home in the Strait and abroad (p. 18). Each factor will be discussed further by the author in subsequent chapters, but Carbone provides a necessary overview at the beginning in order to ground the theoretical framework he next elucidates.
The chronotope of Mikhail Bakhtin is fully explored in chapter 3, “Chronotopes of Hellas: The Strait During the Grand Tour.” Carbone focuses his use of chronotope on the 17th– to 19th–century Grand Tours of Europe. The period sees a renewed interest in the artifacts of antiquity in South Italy, and the relatively new (late 15th–century) format of print media helps develop this interest into a romanticized view of Magna Graecia, and thus the Strait. The books, letters, diaries, and maps of the tours offer not only a glimpse of past ideations for the remote and mythical area but also contribute to and reinforce contemporary perceptions of Magna Graecia.
Through researching the local archives and shops of Scilla, a small town in Calabria, Italy, Carbone gives a comprehensive catalog of the several-centuries-old literature and imagery related to these Grand Tours. Unfortunately, it seems that the rosy picture of the storied ancient past that emerges from these print pieces overshadows the stark political and social realities of the period in which they were published. The different print media were meant to advertise adventure to possible visitors. At once, South Italy is shown to contain a glorious Greek past, literary resonances and natural beauty, and “a sense of fear surrounding its underlying, threatening forces” (p. 50). Carbone posits that these different perceptions were embodied in the monstrous figures associated with the landscape.
Carbone finishes his discussion of chronotope and the Grand Tours with an analysis of their consequences—past and present. The tours aided in the process of “othering,” which in turn helped to create a sense of binary between Europe and South Italy (the other). New political definitions of borders, colonialization, changing trade routes, and remote location all contributed to the process of defining South Italy in opposition to the more urban northern parts of the country—and Europe more generally. According to the author, the desire to see European exceptionalism as rooted in Homer and the ancient world ensured that Magna Graecia was never fully relegated to the category of “other” (p. 54). But even still, contemporary tourists romanticize that which makes the land different, continuing the traditional Grand Tour visits and narratives of the past about the even more distant past.
The next three chapters build on the foundations of the first two. Chapter 4, “Mediterranean Place-Myths,” moves Carbone’s study into our current time. New forms of media have allowed past texts and images of South Italy to be further disseminated. At the same time, these have sparked new interest in a “faithful” replication of Odysseus’s path around the Mediterranean. Scholarly (and adventurous) attempts to build ancient ships, and subsequently to use them to follow the purported paths of Homer’s wayward hero, have moved the mixing of mythological past and present into the realm of film and television. A new generation of travelogs has emerged, allowing for almost anyone anywhere to participate vicariously in Odysseus’s travels from a first-person vantage-point. The wider Mediterranean region has experienced a similar phenomenon of fetishizing and primitivizing, with the South acting as a microcosm. Unfortunately, as Carbone notes, the new media continue “to selectively characterize the region in primitivist terms” (p. 65). Our modern view is not so different from the one created by the Grand Tours a few centuries prior.
Chapter 5, “Myths of Myths: Mapping the Odyssey,” examines the factual reality of the Strait in the Odyssey. The author looks at how people have tried to “find” the real places of the Odyssey; they believe that these locations were known by, and inspired, Homer himself. In many ways, the search for Homer in the Strait has created a self-fulfilling prophecy, since wishful thinking informs the search conducted by both locals and non-local academics and adventurers. Instead of dismissing such notions, Carbone finds use in examining the phenomena of the interplay between myth and geography. Instead of the tired question, “Where are the places of Homer?,” the author looks at what can be learned from the existence of the question in the first place and the tension that its various answers create (p. 88). The chapter goes on to discuss the three main approaches taken by those seeking such answers: traditionalist, enquirer, and revisionist (p. 90). Each receives a theoretical foundation by the author along with several examples of the type. Carbone argues that each of the approaches reinforces the Homeric canon while also creating its own variation to the myths contained therein. In the final pages of the chapter, Carbone allows for a fact- based consistency of the local geographic features with those described in the Odyssey. For the people who live near the Strait, the area-steeped-in-myth is their reality.
These people are given more room in the sixth chapter, “Materializing Heritage: Tourism in Scilla.” Some locals use the myth of Scylla to help draw in tourists through internationally recognized images and stories. The process entails the inhabitants of the Strait conforming to the preconceived notions of the area, which in turn help to reinforce how the locals view themselves and their relationship to their surroundings. Interestingly, most tourists do not come specifically to interact with the mythical part of the area. Rather, they come for a summer holiday or for a brief stop before continuing to Sicily. Carbone finds that there is a tension between local expectations of tourism’s transformative power and the socioeconomic reality of the region (p. 124). Unfortunately, tourism in the Strait relies heavily upon an ancient Greek past that traps the locals in its self-perpetuating and static image.
In “Denizens of the Odyssey: Greater Greece in the Strait” (chapter 7), Carbone is fully in his element. The chapter discusses the problems of emphasizing Hellas as the foundation upon which the heritage of the Strait is built. The locals accept such a prestigious claim because it creates a relevancy for the Strait that would otherwise be missing in the face of an harsh economic reality. In their effort to conform to national and international expectations, the inhabitants only reinforce the preconceived notions amplified by the tourist industry discussed in the previous chapter. Carbone goes on to analyze the sociopolitical ramifications created by a “Homer-and-Hellas as heritage” narrative: ethnocentrism, racism, toxic masculinity, exceptionalism, and Eurocentrism. The analysis is timely since classics as a discipline is grappling with the same issues resulting from a centuries-old white-European-male lens. The chapter ends with a caveat that not all locals buy into the idea of “myth-as-place-as-myth;” however, the various forces as described in the previous chapters perpetuate and solidify the concept.
The final chapter, “Conclusions: (Re-)Imagining the Strait,” emphasizes that the Strait embodies many different things at different times to different people as they interact with the geography and literature of the area. Ideas of a Greek past impact how those in the present see the world around them, which in turn influences how they view their relationship to the past. The results of this circular influence have been both benign and debilitating—locally and further afield.
Carbone ends with a discussion of what is missing from his work: a closer study of the people impacted by the ethnocentrism and racism of a Strait still embedded in its Greek past—a welcome addition to the scholarly subject. I was glad to read this confession, since I had begun to wonder halfway through his work why more ink was not spilled on this topic. Though he touches on the effects of local exceptionalism, broader nationalism, and Euro-and ethnocentrism throughout chapters 1–6, it is only in the seventh that he fully explains the implications of what we can learn from his study. This angle on the “place of identity” will be a welcome read in the future as Carbone expands his work begun in the present volume.
Overall, Carbone’s book is a novel and interdisciplinary perspective on a centuries-old topic. The anecdotes from his interviews with locals add to his “of-the-moment” research in what amounts to layers of reception (and reception of reception) of Homer’s Odyssey. His insights into the effects of the interplay between geography and mythology of the Strait coincide with the larger conversation happening now in classics concerning Eurocentrism and racism (to name a few). What is different, and exciting, about Carbone’s work is the movement beyond the text and museum to include local geography and modern culture. The book will be of interest to a wide scholarly audience, including those in classics, anthropology, history, or literary criticism. It is a fine addition to the series Imagines: Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction (1–10)
2. The Strait of Homer and the Strait of Reality (11–39)
3. Chronotopes of Hellas: The Strait During the Grand Tour (41–61)
4. Mediterranean Place-Myths (63–83)
5. Myths of Myths: Mapping the Odyssey (85–112)
6. Materializing Heritage: Tourism in Scilla (113–39)
7. Denizens of the Odyssey: Greater Greece in the Strait (141–66)
8. Conclusions: (Re-)Imagining the Strait (167–88)
Notes (189–219)
Bibliography (221–49)
Index (251–56)
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