Strangeness and the Sea Literary Views of the Adriatic Sea

Abstract

Topic of the essay is the Adriatic Sea, the middle part of the Mediterranean
Sea as a common in-between-‘space’. For a long time ruled
by imperial powers, it can be characterised by heterogeneity, changing
powers and identities. The text is framed by two overlapping frames,
firstly it refers to the discussion on strangeness and alterity, and secondly
it deals with post-imperial and/or post-colonial perspectives. In
the second part, the author presents a close reading of two relevant
texts about the Adriatic Sea, on the one hand Hermann Bahr’s feuilleton
Dalmatinische Reise (Dalmatian Journey), on the other Jules
Verne’s novel Matthias Sandorf. In both texts, the Adriatic Sea is seen
as a dynamic element, a “Chronotopos” (Bakhtin), in which imperial
and national claims play a central role, to ‘occupy’ it symbolically.