Byzantine literature

Curated Books

Michael Psellos. On Symeon the Metaphrast and On the Miracle at Blachernae: Annotated Translations with Introductions

The reader of this slender volume will encounter a figure of immense intellectual stature. Michael Psellos (1018–after 1077) combined the roles of scholar and court dignitary in Byzantium at the time of the Byzantine empire’s greatest territorial extent and political influence in the eastern Mediterranean world. The two essays presented here in translation have each attracted close scholarly attention because of their relevance to particular topics. The Discourse on the Miracle That… Read more

Curated Books

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ: ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΑΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΔΥΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΥΣ ΑΙΩΝΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΑΒΟΚΡΑΤΙΑΣ (Ζ’ & Η’)

This thesis covers Greek literature (“Letters”) in the eastern provinces of Byzantium during the first two centuries of Arab rule (the 7th and 8th centuries). In it, the author aims to project the true value of this literary production, which he sees as underestimated, through its comparison to that of the ancient Greeks. The author attempts to provide evidence that Greek literature and opportunities for its study were still prevalent,… Read more

Hellenic Studies Series

Amphoteroglossia: A Poetics of the Twelfth-Century Medieval Greek Novel

This work offers the first systematic and interdisciplinary study of the poetics of the twelfth-century medieval Greek novel. This book investigates the complex ways in which rhetorical theory and practice constructed the overarching cultural aesthetics that conditioned the production and reception of the genre of the novel in twelfth-century Byzantine society. By examining the indigenous rhetorical concept of amphoteroglossia, this book probes unexplored aspects of the re-inscription of inherited allegorical,… Read more