Narrative, Imagination and Concepts of Fiction in Late Antique Hagiography (Mnemosyne Supplements: Late Antique Literature, 478)

This volume explores concepts of fiction, invention, and imagination in late antique hagiographical narrative in diverse cultural and literary traditions. The chapters present innovative explorations of this material by approaching narrative itself as an inherent element of the genre of hagiography that deserves attention in its own right. ‎Contents 6 ‎Acknowledgements 8 ‎Note on Editorial Choices and Abbreviations 9 ‎Part 1. Concepts and Contexts 12 ‎Chapter 1. Narratives of Imagination and Fiction in Late Antique Hagiography: Scholarship and Ways Forward (De Temmerman and Van Pelt) 14 ‎Chapter 2. The Cultural Politics of Imagination (Roilos) 38 ‎Chapter 3. From Cyclops to Unicorn: Fiction and the New Communitas of Middle Byzantine Hagiography (Høgel) 62 ‎Part 2. Reality and Representation 78 ‎Chapter 4. The Fictionality of Literary History in Syriac: Thomas of Marga and Abdisho Bar Brikha (Johnson) 80 ‎Chapter 5. At the Margins of the World (Binggeli) 105 ‎Chapter 6. The Literary Construction of a Post-Iconoclast Saint: Gregorios Dekapolites between Biography and Fictionalization (Prieto Domínguez) 119 ‎Part 3. Invention and Truth 138 ‎Chapter 7. Thinking Characters: Fictionalization and Claims of Truth in Syriac Hagiography (Ruani) 140 ‎Chapter 8. Focalization, Immersion and Fictionality: Shifts between Female and Male Pronouns in Greek Lives of Cross-Dressers (Van Pelt) 162 ‎Chapter 9. Truth, Authentication and History-Writing in the History of the Armenians by Agathangelos (Calzolari) 192 ‎Part 4. Models and Intertexts 218 ‎Chapter 10. Malchus, the Not So Good Shepherd: Biblical Stylization, Generic and Moral Ambiguity in Jerome’s Vita Malchi (Praet) 220 ‎Chapter 11. Ritual Fictions, Liturgical Truths in the Hymns of Romanos the Melodist (Krueger) 245 ‎Chapter 12. Modelling Prophets: Alexander the Great as a Proto-Sufi Saint-King in Thaʿlabi’s Lives of the Prophets (Dabiri) 264 ‎Chapter 13. A Scene Played Out Again: Ardashir and Constantine, Sargon and Cyrus (O’Farrell) 294 ‎Index 318 This volume explores concepts of fiction in late antique hagiographical narrative in different cultural and literary traditions. It includes Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Persian and Arabic material. Whereas scholarship in these texts has traditionally focussed on historical questions, this book approaches imaginative narrative as an inherent element of the genre of hagiography that deserves to be studied in its own right. The chapters explore narrative complexities related to fiction, such as invention, authentication, intertextuality, imagination and fictionality. Together, they represent an innovative exploration of how these concepts relate to hagiographical discourses of truth and the religious notion of belief, while paying due attention to the various factors and contexts that impact readers'responses.