Article ID: CBB001421599

The King's Coral Body: A Natural History of Coral and the Post-Tragic Ecology of The Tempest (2014)

unapi

This essay presents a natural history of coral, an animal that was once thought to be a plant that transformed into stone upon exposure to air. According to Ovid, Perseus propagated the first coral when he rested the Medusa's severed head on a bed of freshly harvested seaweed. When the seaweed petrified, nymphs gathered its seeds and filled the ocean with forests of coral (gorgonia). According to the lyrics of Ariel's second song ("of his bones are coral made") in The Tempest, Alonso's corpse offers this stunning alternative to decay: a wondrous constancy whose ontological status is unclear. After considering coral's taxonomic indeterminacy in Aristotle, Pliny, and Linnaeus, this essay historicizes coral in a wide variety of Renaissance contexts, including lapidaries, the global trade of Mediterranean coral to southern India, portraits of Christ as a child, and the garden sea grotto. Drawing upon these various contexts, the essay argues that King Alonso survives the post-tragic ecology of The Tempest due to a dehumanizing, yet elevating bond with coral.

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Authors & Contributors
Guichard, Luis Arturo
García Alonso, Juan Luis
Miguélez-Cavero, Laura
Laurenza, Domenico
Santamaría, Marco Antonio
Shick, John Malcolm
Concepts
Science and literature
Poetry and poetics
Natural history
Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
Roman Empire
Systematics (biology)
Time Periods
Ancient
18th century
17th century
Early modern
19th century
Renaissance
Places
Mediterranean region
Hellenistic world
Egypt
Alexandria (Egypt)
Greece
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
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