[Book review] Literature and society in Renaissance Crete

Abstract

Crete has always occupied a special place both in western and in Greek history. For four centuries under the domination of Venice, it became a centre of Venetian, and by extension western culture, long after its surrounding lands came under Ottoman control. This book concentrating on literature during the Venetian period tackles an issue which is problematic not only from a literary perspective, but also from a politico-historical one- viz, how can Cretan society and literature during this period be characterised? Was it regional Greek, provincial Venetian, or a genuinely indigenous development, a genuinely Rinascimente Crete? An answering of these questions is important not only to fully understand the evolution of Greek literature as mainland Greece was isolated from the West and never experienced a renaissance similar to that experienced in the western Mediterranean; it is also important for Greek historiography. As Herzfeld (1982) and others have pointed out modem Greek nationhood consequently had to hark back to the distant glories of ancient Greece in order to incorporate Greece within the ‘European’ heritage, often not without a great deal of ambiguity, rather than to the Renaissance as Italian state unification did. The contributors to this volume perhaps wisely do not attempt to answer this question outright (with the notable exception of Margaret Alexiou), but attempt to tackle it from a variety of angles. Their conclusions are that Crete certainly did experience a flowering of humanistic literature and culture which was genuine, locally grounded in distinct ways, and in many cases innovative. Yet its contact with western culture was, not surprisingly, heavily dependent upon on Venice and any evaluation must be foregrounded against this reality.