Chronicles as Literature at the Crossroad of Past and Present, University of Munich, April 29–30, 2016

So-called “Byzantine World Chronicles” have always presented a challenge to historians of Byzantine literature. While clearly understanding the flaws of past approaches to these texts, which variously viewed them as products of a monkish mentality, written by and for poorly educated monks thirsting for religious instruction (Krumbacher), or as pieces of “trivial literature” with an “admixture of sex and crime” (Hunger), Byzantinists are now facing the challenge of re-evaluating these texts in the light of our understanding of the processes of literary and rhetorical production and its reception in Byzantium.

The present conference aims at elaborating a variety of approaches to the so-called Byzantine World Chronicles as literary texts. The “literary identity” of a particular chronicle could be defined in terms of its relationship with those literary antecedents that were known or deliberately chosen as positive or negative models by its author and with other works of literature available or read at the time of its composition, with which it was meant to compete. Our understanding of chronicles as literature might be significantly deepened by comparing chronicles with works of history, novels, hagiographical literature and many other kinds of texts known to Byzantine readers. Attention could be paid to rhetorical aspects of these texts or to the presence of “learned” vs. “popular” elements in them.

We seek contributions that focus on single texts traditionally known as Byzantine World Chronicles (such as Julius Africanus, Eusebios, John of Antioch, John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale, Nikephoros, Georgios Synkellos, Theophanes, Georgios Monachos, the “Logothete” chronicle, Georgios Kedrenos, John Zonaras, Constantine Manasses, Theodore Skoutariotes, Ephraim of Ainos and others) and investigate the wide variety of literary and rhetorical links that connect these individual texts with both their literary antecedents and contemporary texts of different genres or, on the contrary, distinguish chronicles from them.

We expect to publish the papers presented at the conference in a volume of collected essays.  

The conference is organized by the Institute of the Byzantine Studies of the University of Munich and  the Section for Greek and Byzantine Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Contacts: Sergei Mariev, University of Munich, and Ingela Nilsson, Uppsala University