Taking Arkadi Monastery as its point of departure, this talk explores nineteenth-century Crete’s transformation from a complex Ottoman society into a landscape increasingly shaped by national and religious divisions. Moving beyond retrospective distinctions between Greeks and Turks, it examines a world where religion, locality, empire, language, and emerging national identities overlapped. Rhea Galanaki’s, The Life of Ismail Ferik Pasha, inspired by the remarkable life of a Cretan-born Ottoman-Egyptian commander, offers a lens through which to explore divided belongings and the tensions between lived experience and national narratives. Tracing the transition from coexistence to conflict, the talk returns to Arkadi as a site of memory, examining how imperial conflict became foundational to Cretan and Greek national history.
Dr. Sofos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Humanities at SFU.
This event is generously co-sponsored by The Cretan Association of BC.