Published: March 1, 2011

davide stimilli Course: Shipwrecks, Mutinies and Other Catastrophes at Sea

College: Humanities department in Arts & Sciences

Professor: Davide Stimilli

Course description: The sea is the natural theater of human history. It is the stage for mutinies, discoveries, acts of piracy, ecological disasters and deadly confrontations. This course questions the theatrical analogy that frames our understanding of the catastrophes at sea and both their literary and visual representation.

Resources: Aristotle’s Poetics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo and many more

Stimilli says: “In teaching this course over the years, I have come to realize, along with my students, that issues of gender, race and sexuality, which are intentionally banned from such narratives and representations, turn out to be instead their secret focus.”

More information: See all courses here.