Medieval Greek Storytelling: Fictionality and Narrative in Byzantium (Mainzer Veroffentlichungen Zur Byzantinistik)

Written by eminent scholars in the field of Byzantine studies, the majority of the chapters included in Medieval Greek Storytelling: Fictionality and Narrative in Byzantium are revised versions of the papers that were presented at an international conference that Panagiotis Roilos organized at Harvard University in December 2009. The topics explored in the book cover an extensive chronological range of postclassical Greek culture(s) and literature, from early Christianity to early modern Greek literature, with a pronounced focus on the Byzantine period, as well as a variety of genres: hagiography, historiography, chronicles, ""patriographic literature"", the novel, the epic, and philological commentary. One of the main aims of the book is to shift the focus of current scholarship on fictionality from those genres that are traditionally identified as ""fictional"", such as the novel and the epic, to other literary discourses that lay claim to historical objectivity and veracity. By doing so, this volume as a whole sheds new light on the interpenetration of different, often apparently antithetical discursive categories and strategies and on the ensuing problematization of established demarcations between ""historicity"" and fictionality, as well as ""objectivity"" and imaginary arbitrariness, in diverse Byzantine literary and broader cultural contexts. Contents Preface 7 Panagiotis Roilos Phantasia and the Ethics of Fictionality in Byzantium: A Cognitive Anthropological Perspective 9 Tomas Hägg t Fiction and Factography in the Life of St Antony 31 Saskia Dirkse Τελωνεία: The Tollgates of the Air as an Egyptian Motif in Patristic Sources and Early Byzantine Hagiography 41 Sarah Insley Dressing up the Past: Fictional Narrative in the Life of Matrona of Perge 55 Paul Magdalino Apocryphal Narrative: Patterns of Fiction in Byzantine Prophetic and Patriographic Literature 87 loli Kalavrezou The Marvelous Flight of Alexander 103 Anthony Kaldellis The Emergence of Literary Fiction in Byzantium and the Paradox of Plausibility 115 Paolo Cesaretti The Exegete as a Storyteller: The Dawn of Humanity according to Eustathios of Thessalonike 131 Elizabeth Jeffreys The Afterlife of Digenes Akrites 141 Ulrich Moennig Literary Genres and Mixture of Generic Features in Late Byzantine Fictional Writing .... 163 Carolina Cupane Other Worlds, Other Voices: Form and Function of the Marvelous in Late Byzantine Fiction 183 Michael Jeffreys Written Dekapentasyllables and Their Oral Provenance: A Skeleton History and a Suggested New Line of Research 203 Massimo Peri The Four-color Tradition in Early Vernacular Greek Poetry 231 Roderick Beaton Hopeful Monsters or Living Fossils? The Comnenian Novels and Their Medieval and Modern Reception 245 List of contributors 253 Index of names 256 Index of subjects 258 Index of literary works 260 Phantasia and the ethics of fictionality in Byzantium : a cognitive anthropological perspective / Panagiotis Roilos -- Fiction and factography in the Life of St Antony / Tomas Hagg -- Telōneia : the tollgates of the air as an Egyptian motif in patristic sources and early Byzantine hagiography / Saskia Dirske -- Dressing up the past : fictional narrative in the Life of matrona of Perge / Sarah Insley -- Apocryphal narrative : patterns of fiction in Byzantine prophetic and patriographic literature / Paul Magdalino -- The marvelous flight of Alexander / Ioli Kalavrezou -- The emergence of literary fiction in Byzantium and the paradox of plausibility / Anthony Kaldellis -- The exegete as a storyteller : the dawn of humanity according to Eustatihios of Thessalonike / Paolo Cesaretti -- The afterlife of Digenes Akrites / Elizabeth Jeffreys -- Literary genres and mixture of generic features in late Byzantine fictional writing / Ulrich Moennig -- Other worlds, other voices : form and function of the marvelous in Late Byzantine fiction / Carolina Cupane -- Written dekapentasyllables and their oral provenance : a skeleton history and a suggested new line of research / Michael Jeffreys -- The four-color tradition in early vernacular Greek poetry / Massimo Peri -- Hopeful monsters of living fossils? : the Comnenian novels and their medieval and modern reception