Beyond Famagusta: Cultural Memory and Historical Imagination

Famagusta has witnessed the rise and fall of empires and dynasties which have left in their wake a rich storytelling legacy. This was a city of extremes, and so while there was certainly political influence, artistic creativity, wealth and piety, there was simultaneously fear, corruption, treachery and war. After the great siege of 1571, Shakespeare strategically situated Othello in this martyred ‘seaport in Cyprus’, while operas and ballets about the triumph and tragedy of Medieval, Renais...