Peregrinazioni lagunari: from a XVII-century folk song to a contemporary exploration of the Venice lagoon

Abstract

Peregrinazioni lagunari (“Lagoon wanderings”), is a XVII century folk song, that charts a watery itinerary through the Venice lagoon and represents the route of a boatman through the marshes. By taking this archetypical journey as a starting point for a new cartography, the Master’s thesis explores the complexity of the Venice lagoon, here conceived as an aquapelagic assemblage. The concept, coming from Island Studies, enables me to investigate the criticalities and potentialities of this unique urban socio-ecological system in the Anthropocene epoch. Nine chapters constitute the main core of the thesis, corresponding to the nine stops of Peregrinazioni lagunari. As in the folk song, these locations are narrated in first person, being an exploration conducted by me myself through different means of transport (kayak, waterbus, by foot). The encounter with humans, non-humans, historical sites but also social and political trajectories, allows me to examine disparate yet entangled issues that compose the intricate plot of the Venice lagoon. In the last section, the narration is complemented by a theoretical understanding of what has been addressed before. In particular, the aquapelagic essence of the Venice lagoon is brought to light through an investigation of the role of boat mobility as a form of connectivity. In this way, the archipelago narrated in the first part turns into an aquapelago, thus proposing a comprehensive view of the amphibious nature of the Venice lagoon.