Fernand Braudel (1901-1985) hardly needs me to rhapsodize his
bona-fides. If you have never had the
pleasure of reading his work, delivered through the skill of his long time
translator Sian Reynolds, then Memory and
The Mediterranean would be a good starting point. Braudel was a French scholar primarily
concerned with markets, the rise of international capitalism and especially the
15th – 19th centuries.
References within the text of Memory
will make clear his connection to the Annales School. Braudel has a very conversational tone in his
writing. His insights are unfailingly
sharp, his openness to speculation (and identifying it as such) is
refreshing. If there was ever an area of
study with more labyrinthine
relationships than the historical confines of the Mediterranean, I cannot think
of it. His speculation provides a prism
for what did happen – making the reader consider if it was inevitable or not. He presents the Mediterranean as more than
the littoral zones. It is a whole and particulars, nodes of progress and backwardness,
an ellipsis that is at once sharply divided east and west - as well as
porous. He presents it as an entity,
physical and cultural that has its headwaters in the deep past, its roots to
the points of the compass and as a grand stage which successive cultures move
across, blending into or bleeding-out one another.
This is all quite remarkable when considering that Memory was originally intended as a part
of an entire series, his work along-side that of others. Seen in a vacuum, the quality of the work is
illuminated. When the project was
cancelled the manuscripts apparently sat around for a number of decades, only
being edited and published in French in 1998, the English translation coming in
2001.
The book is divided into 8 chapters. Chapter one is almost an extension of the
wonderful preamble in the form of a poem by Christopher Logue. It asks the reader to see the Mediterranean. On the scale of geologic time all the events
that the book covers take place in the last seconds of the clock. The narrative progresses from the physical
environs, the furtive first voyages; on the margins? Island hopping? Boldly
going? The Upper Sea washing the blood
from Sargon’s weapons. The bridge
between Egypt and Mesopotamia, with the Levant as middleman. The megalithic culture(s) that spread the voluptuous
female idols across the basin, into Central and Northern Europe. All of the great cultures are covered; the Minoans,
Phoenicians, Etruscans, the foundation of Carthage, the spread of Greek culture – that pushed
individuals and communities further apart physically, but created a cultural koine that would unite great swaths of
the Mediterranean for the next dozen centuries.
The coming of Rome is covered in a way I found very attractive. The end of the Republic is given a very brief
span, while the foundational struggles of the 3rd century BCE and
transformation after the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE are
given ample room to breathe (as much as a fast pased narrative of this type
will allow). The contrast between the
Greeks contributions to philosophy to those of Rome is striking. Braudel makes the case that Rome really only
differentiated itself in its material science and architecture, co-opting much
else from Etruscans, Latins and Magna Graecia .
His treatment of Roman law, which we in the west inherited, is brief but
satisfying. The text ends with a note by
the editor reminding the reader that this was meant to segue into another
authors work. They could have finished the
book in a less abrupt manner but I respect them for not doing so. They didn’t need to put any words in Braudel’s
mouth.
Memory And The Mediterranean
Fernand Braudel
Translated by Sian Reynolds
Edited by Roselyne De Ayala & Paule Braudel
365 pages
Published by Alfred A. Knopf 2001
ISBN: 0-375-40426-0
No comments:
Post a Comment