Byzantium in the Popular Imagination: The Modern Reception of the Byzantine Empire (New Directions in Byzantine Studies)

What is the contemporary cultural legacy of Byzantium or The Eastern Roman Empire? This book explores the varied reception history of the Byzantine Empire across a range of cultural production. Split into four sections: the origins of 'Byzantomania' in France, modern media, literature, and politics, it provides case studies which show the numerous ways in which the empire's legacy can be felt today. Covering television, video games and contemporary political discourse, contributors also consider a wide range of national and geographical perspectives including Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek and Hungarian. It will be essential reading for scholars and students of the reception and cultural history of the Byzantine Empire. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 List of Contributors 10 Introduction: The Many Faces of the Reception of Byzantium Przemysław Marciniak 14 Part 1 Byzantium on Display: Scholarly Debates, Political Uses, Modern Reconstructionism 22 1 Popularizing Byzantine Architecture: The 1900 Paris World Exhibition, Balkan Nationalisms and the Byzantine Revival Fani Gargova 24 2 East or West? Byzantine Architecture and the Origins of French Medieval Architecture in the Scholarly Debate, Nineteenth Century Francesco Lovino 46 3 Byzantium as a Political Tool (1657–1952): Nations, Colonialism and Globalism Ivan Foletti and Adrien Palladino 58 4 The Prince and the Greeks: The Byzantine Baptizers of Prince Vladimir in Modern Russian Sculpture, Mosaic and Church Architecture  Roman Shliakhtin 80 5 Museum Interpretations of Byzantium Sofia Mali 94 Part 2 Byzantium and Modern Media 120 6 Byzantium in Comics Lilia Diamantopoulou 122 7 Games of Byzantium: The Image of the Empire in Three Strategy Videogames Marco Fasolio 136 8 From History to Propaganda and Back: Byzantium in the Romanian Historical Cinema Florin Leonte 160 9 Imagination of Byzantium and the Byzantines in Modern Turkish Popular Literature and Cinema Buket Kitapçı Bayrı 172 10 Byzantium in Greek Cinema and Television Konstantinos Chryssogelos 190 Part 3 Byzantium and Literature 204 11 ‘Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts’: Byzantium in Czech Historical Fiction  Markéta Kulhánková 206 12 Imagining Action: Explanation in Twentieth-Century Historiographical and Fictional Rewritings of the Chronicle of Morea Matthew Kinloch 220 13 The Barbarians Will Always Stay: Rose Macaulay and the Futility of Empire Olof Heilo 238 14 M. Karagatsis’s Byzantinism in his Sergios and Bacchos (1959)  Katerina Liasi 252 15 Fantastic(al) Byzantium: The Imagery of Byzantium in Speculative Fiction Przemysław Marciniak 262 Conclusion: No Longer a Forgotten Empire? Przemysław Marciniak 274 Afterword: Forging Textual Realities, or How to Write a ‘Byzantine Mystery Story’ Panagiotis Agapitos 277 Index 285