Moving Byzantine Historiography into Postmodernity: From Vanishing Ladies to Female Gendered Characters, discussion meeting Matthew Kinloch (Austrian Academy of Sciences), University of Vienna, November 23, 2018, 11:00 am–12:30 pm
The Wittgenstein Project Team announces “Forum Moving Byzantium XV". The discussion meeting will provide the unique opportunity to discuss with Dr. Matthew Kinloch (Austrian Academy of Sciences) his current work on “Moving Byzantine Historiography into Postmodernity: From Vanishing Ladies to Female Gendered Characters.”
Matthew Kinloch is currently a postdoctoral researcher on the Wittgenstein Award Project. His research relates to late Byzantine historiography, with a particular focus on narrative, agency, gender, and collective action. He recently gained his doctorate at the University of Oxford (2014-18) with a thesis entitled Rethinking Thirteenth-Century Byzantine Historiography: A Postmodern, Narrativist, and Narratological Approach. He previously studied at the universities of Uppsala (Gästdoktorand, 2016-17), Birmingham (MRes, 2013-14), and Durham (BA, 2010-13).
The study of Byzantine historiography has never had a postmodern phase. In Byzantine studies, postmodernism, or at least its caricatured nihilistic spectre, has either been rejected or (more often) simply ignored. Where engagement has occurred, scholars have utilised (albeit mostly rhetorically) only concepts or ‘theories’ that do not fundamentally disrupt traditional practise. Nevertheless, the linguistic and epistemological challenges posed by postmodernism (broadly conceived) to historical knowledge claims demand serious engagement. In thinking about discursively marginalised groups, such as women in Byzantium, the stakes in being able to make such claims are at their highest. In this forum, we will use the challenges posed by the study of female gendered characters in Byzantine narratives to discuss the broader challenges to traditional historiographical practice posed by postmodernism, as well as potential responses.
After a brief introduction by Dr. Kinloch, there will be extensive time for discussion based on a group of preparatory readings.