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Narrative, Imagination and Concepts of Fiction in Late Antique Hagiography
Series: - Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume: 478
- Mnemosyne, Supplements, Late Antique Literature, Volume: 478
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.
Julie Van Pelt, Ph.D. (2019), Ghent University, is a postdoctoral fellow of the Flemish Research Council (F.W.O.). She has published various articles on Greek hagiography. Her monograph Saints in Disguise. Performance, Illusion and Truth in Early Byzantine Hagiography is forthcoming.
Koen De Temmerman (PhD 2006) is Professor of Classics at Ghent University.
Koen De Temmerman (PhD 2006) is Professor of Classics at Ghent University.
Acknowledgements
Note on Editorial Choices and Abbreviations
1 Narratives of Imagination and Fiction in Late Antique Hagiography: Scholarship and Ways Forward
Koen De Temmerman and Julie Van Pelt
2 The Cultural Politics of Imagination
On Fictionality in Late Antique and Early Byzantine Christian Contexts (Origen, the Apocryphal Acts, Hagiography)
Panagiotis Roilos
3 From Cyclops to Unicorn: Fiction and the New Communitas of Middle Byzantine Hagiography
Christian Høgel
4 The Fictionality of Literary History in Syriac: Thomas of Marga and Abdisho Bar Brikha
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
5 At the Margins of the World
The Desert as a Fictionalized Space in Pseudo-Neilos’ Narrations and the History of the Great Deeds of Bishop Paul of Qentos and Priest John of Edessa
André Binggeli
6 The Literary Construction of a Post-Iconoclast Saint: Gregorios Dekapolites between Biography and Fictionalization
Oscar Prieto Domínguez
7 Thinking Characters: Fictionalization and Claims of Truth in Syriac Hagiography
Flavia Ruani
8 Focalization, Immersion and Fictionality: Shifts between Female and Male Pronouns in Greek Lives of Cross-Dressers
Julie Van Pelt
9 Truth, Authentication and History-Writing in the History of the Armenians by Agathangelos
Valentina Calzolari
10 Malchus, the Not So Good Shepherd: Biblical Stylization, Generic and Moral Ambiguity in Jerome’s Vita Malchi
Danny Praet
11 Ritual Fictions, Liturgical Truths in the Hymns of Romanos the Melodist
Derek Krueger
12 Modelling Prophets: Alexander the Great as a Proto-Sufi Saint-King in Thaʿlabi’s Lives of the Prophets
Ghazzal Dabiri
13 A Scene Played Out Again: Ardashir and Constantine, Sargon and Cyrus
Matthew O’Farrell
Index
Note on Editorial Choices and Abbreviations
Part 1 Concepts and Contexts
1 Narratives of Imagination and Fiction in Late Antique Hagiography: Scholarship and Ways Forward
Koen De Temmerman and Julie Van Pelt
2 The Cultural Politics of Imagination
On Fictionality in Late Antique and Early Byzantine Christian Contexts (Origen, the Apocryphal Acts, Hagiography)
Panagiotis Roilos
3 From Cyclops to Unicorn: Fiction and the New Communitas of Middle Byzantine Hagiography
Christian Høgel
Part 2 Reality and Representation
4 The Fictionality of Literary History in Syriac: Thomas of Marga and Abdisho Bar Brikha
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
5 At the Margins of the World
The Desert as a Fictionalized Space in Pseudo-Neilos’ Narrations and the History of the Great Deeds of Bishop Paul of Qentos and Priest John of Edessa
André Binggeli
6 The Literary Construction of a Post-Iconoclast Saint: Gregorios Dekapolites between Biography and Fictionalization
Oscar Prieto Domínguez
Part 3 Invention and Truth
7 Thinking Characters: Fictionalization and Claims of Truth in Syriac Hagiography
Flavia Ruani
8 Focalization, Immersion and Fictionality: Shifts between Female and Male Pronouns in Greek Lives of Cross-Dressers
Julie Van Pelt
9 Truth, Authentication and History-Writing in the History of the Armenians by Agathangelos
Valentina Calzolari
Part 4 Models and Intertexts
10 Malchus, the Not So Good Shepherd: Biblical Stylization, Generic and Moral Ambiguity in Jerome’s Vita Malchi
Danny Praet
11 Ritual Fictions, Liturgical Truths in the Hymns of Romanos the Melodist
Derek Krueger
12 Modelling Prophets: Alexander the Great as a Proto-Sufi Saint-King in Thaʿlabi’s Lives of the Prophets
Ghazzal Dabiri
13 A Scene Played Out Again: Ardashir and Constantine, Sargon and Cyrus
Matthew O’Farrell
Index
This book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including undergraduates and scholars in a variety of fields such as Classics, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, Oriental Studies, Cultural History, and Literary Studies.