The Mediterranean Alternative

This paper is a critical review of Italian and French Mediterranean studies from a postcolonial and geographical perspective. It claims that the relationship between contemporary Mediterranean geographies and mainstream European modernities has been overlooked by the Mediterraneanist literature, a literature from which geography has been surprisingly absent. We hope to begin addressing this gap, rethinking the Mediterranean as a postcolonial sea. In its real and metaphorical ‘liquidity’, the Mediterranean represents a fertile ground for the exploration of ‘other spaces', capable of recovering the ambiguities and plurality of voices that make it a source of inspiration for experiencing ‘alternative modernities’.