{"product_id":"death-in-babylon-vincent-barletta-9780226037363","title":"Death in Babylon: Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient","description":"\u003cp\u003eThough Alexander the Great lived more than seventeen centuries before the onset of Iberian expansion into Muslim Africa and Asia, he loomed large in the literature of late medieval and early modern Portugal and Spain. Exploring little-studied chronicles, chivalric romances, novels, travelogues, and crypto-Muslim texts, Vincent Barletta shows that the story of Alexander not only sowed the seeds of Iberian empire but foreshadowed the decline of Portuguese and Spanish influence in the centuries to come. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeath in Babylon \u003c\/i\u003edepicts Alexander as a complex symbol of Western domination, immortality, dissolution, heroism, villainy, and death. But Barletta also shows that texts ostensibly celebrating the conqueror were haunted by failure. Examining literary and historical works in Aljamiado, Castilian, Catalan, Greek, Latin, and Portuguese, \u003ci\u003eDeath in Babylon\u003c\/i\u003e develops a view of empire and modernity informed by the ethical metaphysics of French phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas. A novel contribution to the literature of empire building, \u003ci\u003eDeath in Babylon\u003c\/i\u003e provides a frame for the deep mortal anxiety that has infused and given shape to the spread of imperial Europe from its very beginning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Vincent Barletta\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226037363\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226037363\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/15\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.60w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2010","brand":"Vincent Barletta","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086389195007,"sku":"9780226037363","price":62.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f88816a3-0c2b-466f-aed1-f893bb55e6dc.jpg?v=1769094398","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/death-in-babylon-vincent-barletta-9780226037363","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}