Medieval History
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Medieval History
Call for papers: late antique hagiography as literature
Colloquium at the University of Edinburgh, 20th-21st May 2015
Texts about ?holy¹ women and men grew to be a defining feature of the
culture of Late Antiquity. There is currently an increasing interest
among
scholars from different disciplines (history, theology, languages, and
literature) in these hagiographical writings. But more can be done to
find
ways to systematise our understanding of the literary affiliations,
strategies and goals of these extraordinarily varied texts, which range
from
the prosaic and anonymous narrations of the martyr passions to the
Classicising poems of Paulinus of Nola and the rhetorically accomplished
sermons of John Chrysostom.
This colloquium is designed to bring together students and scholars
working
on a range of aspects of literary hagiography, to share insights, and to
consider approaches for the future. We hope to situate late antique
biographical production in relation to Classical literary sensibilities,
as
well as considering non-classical influences, and thus to identify areas
of
continuity and gradual development as well as areas of abrupt change in
the
form and function of such literature. While our emphasis is deliberately
literary, historical and theological questions which feed into the
significance of these works should not be ignored.
We understand ?hagiography¹ in the non-technical sense of ?writings
about
(the lives of) saints¹. The concept of ?saints¹, likewise, is here taken
in
a broad way to mean remarkable and exemplary Christian figures (whether
real
or fictional); the field is not restricted to those who at some point
were
officially canonised by the Church. This colloquium is seeking to
explore
issues like the following:
* The definition of sainthood, e.g. through comparisons with texts about
non-Christian saint-like figures (the ?pagan martyrs¹, Apollonius of
Tyana).
* The portrayal of a saint in different texts; how are saints portrayed
in
their own writings compared to those of other authors about them?
* Characterisation, e.g. individuality and stereotyping: to what extent
can
a reader empathise or identify with a saint?
* Life imitating hagiography and resulting problems.
* What can hagiography tell us about non-elite ?popular¹ literary
culture?
* How have different genres given shape to hagiographical texts (from
Damasus¹ epigrams to the epic poems of Fortunatus and Paulinus of
Périgeux),
as well as texts resisting generic categorisation? E.g. is the so called
Life of Malchus a vita or a diegesis?
* Intertextuality as an aesthetic and ideological strategy.
* The emergence of stable hagiographical conventions, whose influence
grew
so powerful that it is often difficult to distinguish one saint from
another.
* What, if anything, can hagiography learn from panegyric?
* Literary approaches to un-saintly behaviour (trickery, committing
suicide,
etc.) of saints.
* To what extent does a text¹s rhetorical purpose undermine the author¹s
credibility as an honest record-keeper?
* Assessing the historicity of hagiographical texts.
* Transmission and textual problems of hagiographical texts.
* Reception and changes in the perception of authority (e.g. saints who
wrote about saints, such as John Chrysostom and Augustine).
Proposals for 25-minute papers, in the form of abstracts between 200 and
400
words in length, should be submitted to Thomas Tsartsidis
([email protected]) or Christa Gray ([email protected]) by
15th
January 2015.
Postgraduate students are particularly encouraged to contribute to this
event.
- Research Examines The ?abortionist Saints? Of Medieval Ireland
A recent article on sexuality and childbirth in early medieval Ireland reveals some surprising attitudes towards abortion held among the Christians during this period, and that hagiographical texts recount four Irish saints performing abortions. 'Of...
- Universal Saints Located In Anglo-saxon England
Universal Saints Located in Anglo-Saxon England Within the growing field of Anglo-Saxon hagiographical studies, much academic emphasis has been placed on peculiarly English saints such as Oswald, Swithun, Cuthbert and Guthlac.While the study of these...
- Call For Papers: Historiography And Space In Late Antiquity
The research group Late Antique historiography (http://www.late-antique-historiography.ugent.be/home) at Ghent University is organising two workshops on historiography and space in Late Antiquity (300-800 AD), a first one on 24-25 October 2014 and a second...
- Teaching Off The Grid: The Promise And Perils Of Using Non-canonical Texts In The Classroom
Teaching off the Grid: The Promise and Perils of Using Non-Canonical Texts in the Classroom (Roundtable discussion) The ?canon wars? of the 1980s and 90s may seem a distant memory, yet literary canonicity continues to be a vexed and embattled concept....
- Explicit Content: Ends And Endings In Medieval Texts
Explicit Content: Ends and Endings in Medieval Texts The manuscript context of medieval literature often means that we are uncertain where one text ends and another begins. The Old English poems in the Exeter Book are a classic example of this phenomenon....