The Bathetic Battle and interpreting place in Cervantes' Don Quixote and Coogan and Winterbottom's The Trip.

Free. Book tickets here.

Miguel de Cervantes was twenty four years old when he was wounded in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) - 'the greatest and most memorable event that past centuries have ever seen or those to come may hope to see’. Before being made captive in Algiers at twenty eight, he spent the autumn of 1572 in the strategic enclave of Navarino, expecting to take part in another victorious battle against the Turks... which never happened.

Four hundred and fifty years later, Esther Gómez-Sierra commemorates this gap in history, and considers its cultural connexions: the geopolitical tension between the Ottomans, the Russians, and an alliance of European countries which was replicated in the 19th century and has kept on resurfacing ever since, up until today. The bathos of the battle and Don Quixote will be put in dialogue with Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom's The Trip to Spain and The Trip to Greece. The Portico holds several books directly related to Cervantes and Navarino which will be displayed and become part of this conversation.

W e are trialling doing this as a hybrid event for a limited number of people. Please register for an online ticket if you cannot make it in person.

Esther Gómez-Sierra is a Late Medievalist and Early Modern Specialist with a focus on Cervantes, Spanish Golden Age drama, translation, performance, and poetry, and and all-encompassing background of dialogue studies together with theory and analysis of argumentation.