1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910155001603321

Titolo

History as literature in Byzantium : papers from the Fortieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, April 2007 / / edited by Ruth Macrides

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Routledge, , 2016

ISBN

1-351-93064-8

1-138-25238-7

1-315-25330-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (351 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications ; ; 15

Altri autori (Persone)

MacridesR. J

Disciplina

949.502072

Soggetti

Historiography - Byzantine Empire

Byzantine literature - History and criticism

Byzantine Empire Historiography Congresses

Byzantine Empire History Sources Congresses

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

section I. Aesthetics -- section II. Audience -- section III. Narrator -- section IV. Story-telling -- section V. The classical tradition reinterpreted -- section VI. Sources reconfigured -- section VII. Structure and themes.

Sommario/riassunto

Although perceived since the sixteenth century as the most impressive literary achievement of Byzantine culture, historical writing nevertheless remains little studied as literature. Historical texts are still read first and foremost for nuggets of information, as main sources for the reconstruction of the events of Byzantine history. Whatever can be called literary in these works has been considered as external and detachable from the facts. The 'classical tradition' inherited by Byzantine writers, the features that Byzantine authors imitated and absorbed, are regarded as standing in the way of understanding the true meaning of the text and, furthermore, of contaminating the reliability of the history. Chronicles, whose language and style are anything but classicizing, have been held in low esteem, for they are seen as providing a mere chronological exposition of events. This book



presents a set of articles by an international cast of contributors, deriving from papers delivered at the 40th annual Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. They are concerned with historical and visual narratives that date from the sixth to the fourteenth century, and aim to show that literary analyses and the study of pictorial devices, far from being tangential to the study of historical texts, are preliminary to their further study, exposing the deeper structures and purposes of these texts.