An Intellectual History of Twelfth-Century Byzantium - Appropriation and Transformation of Ancient Literature

The main aim of this project is to study views on and uses of ancient literature in twelfth-century Byzantium. In order to do so, this project seeks to explore the following aspects of twelfth-century intellectual history:

twelfth-century educational system and practices;
Byzantine twelfth-century discussions on the use and abuse of ancient literature - metaliterary commentaries on the use of ancient literature;
'the poetics of appropriation', that is, the use and appropriation of ancient literary models in twelfth-century literature,
John Tzetzes - his commentaries and treatises on ancient literature;
additionally, this project aims at preparing Polish translations of the selected Byzantine texts, which illustrate the Byzantine "poetics of appropriation" (Theodore Prodromos' Katomyomachia, John Tzetzes' "Homeric Allegories", "On tragic poetry", "On various poets", "On comedy")

The approach will be wide-ranging- the analyses of the texts will be conducted with the help of close reading and in terms of intertextuality. In order to discuss the interrelationship between the ancient and Byzantine texts, the theory of Harold Bloom (the anxiety of influence) will be employed. Since this project will also analyse the imitation of ancient writings in twelfth-century Byzantine texts, the methodology is inspired by general works on a mimesis (Auerbach, Genette) as well as works relating specifically to mimesis of Antiquity in Byzantine literature (Hunger, Nilsson).

This project will contribute to our better understanding of the twelfth-century Byzantine intellectual life and the way of coping with ancient literary heritage, its findings will be of interest not only for Byzantinists but also Classicists and western medievalists.

The project is funded by the National Science Centre Poland within the scheme of the Programme 'Sonata - Bis 3'.

Research team

Principal Investigator - dr hab. prof. UŚ Przemysław Marciniak
see full bio
Investigator - Nikolaos Zagklas, PhD
I am particularly interested in the twelfth-century literature and Byzantine poetry of the middle and late Byzantine period. In my doctoral thesis, I combined these two interests by working on a group of poems by the most celebrated Komnenian poet, Theodore Prodromos. The purpose of this thesis was twofold: first, to provide the first critical edition of a substantial number of poems with a translation and commentary; and second to place them in their 12^th century literary and socio-cultural context. Moreover, I am currently preparing together with Wolfram Hörandner and Andreas Rhoby a handbook of Byzantine poetry for the Brill series as well as a volume (in collaboration with Andreas Rhoby) which will examine various issues of Byzantine poetry written in Middle and Late Byzantine period.

My research project in the University of Silesia is mainly concerned with the work of Theodore Prodromos, Komnenian poetry and Schedography. More particularly, I am revising my doctoral thesis for publication. I am also working on an edition and translation of a group of anonymous poems preserved in Vaticanus gr. 743 as well as on various Komnenian schede, especially schede dealing with ancient literature in an attempt to highlight its importance for didactic purposes. Another objective of the project is the investigation of the place of schedography in the Komnenian literary context.
Investigator - Tomasz Labuk, MA
I am a current year (2014) graduate of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Jagiellonian University (Institute of Classics) in Kraków, where, in 2010, I defended my BA thesis in Classical Philology. In October 2014, as a PhD student of Silesian University in Katowice I joined a research project under the direction of prof. P. Marciniak.

My MA thesis (Nationalist discourse and the political myth in two Memoranda written by Georgios Gemistos Plethon) was centered on the political writings of George Gemistos Plethon and it dealt with the areas of Plethon's purported "nationalism", Hellenism, paganism and his deliberate use of political myth in two speeches of his authorship. The areas of my interest in Byzantine studies span from political and social ideas of Byzantine authors, Byzantine identity, the status of laughter in Byzantium, Byzantine approaches to bodily pleasures and the inherent conflict between Orthodoxy and "Hellenism": the inner versus the outer learning.

Publications

P. Marciniak, K. Warcaba, 'Racing with Rhetoric. Byzantine Ekphrasis of a Chariot Race', Byzantinische Zeitschrift 107/1 (2014), 97-112.