
Death in Babylon
Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient
Vincent Barletta(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 15. May 2010
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-226-03736-3 (ISBN)
Description
Though Alexander the Great lived more than seventeen centuries before the onset of Iberian expansion into Muslim Africa and Asia, he loomed large in the literature of late medieval and early modern Portugal and Spain. Exploring little-studied chronicles, chivalric romances, novels, travelogues, and crypto-Muslim texts, Vincent Barletta shows that the story of Alexander not only sowed the seeds of Iberian empire but foreshadowed the decline of Portuguese and Spanish influence in the centuries to come. "Death in Babylon" depicts Alexander as a complex symbol of Western domination, immortality, dissolution, heroism, villainy, and death. But Barletta also shows that texts ostensibly celebrating the conqueror were haunted by failure. Examining literary and historical works in Aljamiado, Castilian, Catalan, Greek, Latin, and Portuguese, "Death in Babylon" develops a view of empire and modernity informed by the ethical metaphysics of French phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas. A novel contribution to the literature of empire building, "Death in Babylon" provides a frame for the deep mortal anxiety that has infused and given shape to the spread of imperial Europe from its very beginning.
Reviews / Votes
"A work of sound scholarship and striking erudition, broad in scope and of remarkable depth and originality, Death in Babylon is a beautifully written book, clear yet complex, subtle yet convincing." - E. Michael Gerli, University of Virginia"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 23 mm
Width: 17 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-03736-3 (9780226037363)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2010
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
€70.49
Available for download
Person
Vincent Barletta is associate professor of Iberian studies in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University.