Book Chapter

Marco Polo tra Orientalismo e Occidentalismo: viaggio, rappresentazione e mediazione culturale nelle mostre contemporanee

  • Ornella De Nigris

Seven hundred years after his death, Marco Polo re-emerges as a medial figure activating new narratives between East and West. Drawing on Orientalism and Occidentalism, this paper explores how his image functions today as a device of representation and cultural mediation. Two 2024 exhibitions—I mondi di Marco Polo (Venice) and Wonders of the World (Shanghai)—offer mirrored readings: the former still Eurocentric, the latter shaped by a Chinese counter-discourse. Marco Polo thus becomes a site of intersecting projections, a symbolic bridge, and a field of global negotiation.

  • Keywords:
  • Marco Polo,
  • Orientalism,
  • Occidentalism,
  • cultural mediation,
  • exhibition narratives,
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Ornella De Nigris

University of Siena, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-7283-3907

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  3. D’Ascenzo, Annalisa. 2024. “Mostre, convegni, eventi: i mondi di Marco Polo. Il viaggio di un mercante veneziano del Duecento.” Geostorie 32, 1: 72-3.
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  9. Sandell, Richard. 2007. Museums, Prejudice and the Reframing of Difference. London: Routledge.
  10. Shanghai Museum 上海博物馆. 2024. “Shanghai Bowuguan juban ‘Huanyu Dongxi: Make Boluo yanzhong de Zhongguo he Shijie’ tezhan 上海博物馆举办 《寰宇东西: 马可•波罗眼中的中国和世界》 特展 [At the Shanghai Museum the special exhibition ‘Wonders of the World: China and Beyond in the Eyes of Marco Polo’].” <https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/mu/frontend/pg/m/article/id/I00004700> (2025-05-27).
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  14. Chen, Xiaomei. 20022 (1995). Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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  16. Yule, Henry, and Henri Cordier. 19213 (1871). The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East [with] Supplementary Volume: Ser Marco Polo: Notes and Addenda… Containing the Results of Recent Research and Discovery. London: John Murray.
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  • Publication Year: 2025
  • Pages: 97-106

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  • Publication Year: 2025

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Marco Polo tra Orientalismo e Occidentalismo: viaggio, rappresentazione e mediazione culturale nelle mostre contemporanee

Authors

Ornella De Nigris

Language

Italian

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0883-3.13

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Il Milione nel tempo tra Asia ed Europa: Marco Polo nelle letterature medievali e contemporanee

Book Subtitle

Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Siena, 7–8 novembre 2024) e del Seminario “700 anni di Marco Polo” (Firenze, 11 dicembre 2024)

Editors

Paola Mocella

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

178

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0883-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0882-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0883-3

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0884-0

Series Title

ConTesti medievali. Studi, ricerche e fonti

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