The Sound of Sense: Orality/Aurality in Byzantine Texts and Contexts, Princeton University, May 16–17, 2015

Byzantium, a culture of the book, was also the society of the theatron, the refectory, the church and palace hall. If few read privately, many more heard texts read to them as an audience, such as sermons, panegyrics, saints’ lives, hymns, histories, and letters. This conference will seek a re-definition of medieval Greek literacy commensurate with the aural experience of Byzantine literature. Among the topics we will broach are the inscribe orality/aurality in diverse genres; the “pragmatic competence” of Byzantine authors; intersubjectivity and performance; oral poetics and the emergences of vernacular literature; and the sensory dimension of rhetoric.

Participants:
John Duffy
Antonia Giannouli
Michael Grünbart
Elizabeth Jeffreys
Stratis Papaioannou
Amy Papalexandrou
Diether R. Reinsch
Alexander Riehle
Teresa Shawcross
Vessela Valiavitcharska
Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis