Writer and Occasion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium
eBook - PDF

Writer and Occasion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium

The Authorial Voice of Constantine Manasses

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Writer and Occasion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium

The Authorial Voice of Constantine Manasses

About this book

In twelfth-century Constantinople, writers worked on commission for the imperial family or aristocratic patrons. Texts were occasioned by specific events, representing both a link between writer and patron and between literary imagination and empirical reality. This is a study of how one such writer, Constantine Manasses, achieved that aim. Manasses depicted and praised the present by drawing from the rich sources of the Graeco-Roman and Biblical tradition, thus earning commissions from wealthy 'friends' during a career that spanned more than three decades. While the occasional literature of writers like Manasses has sometimes been seen as 'empty rhetoric', devoid of literary ambition, this study assumes that writing on command privileges originality and encourages the challenging of conventions. A society like twelfth-century Byzantium, in which occasional writing was central, called for a strong and individual authorial presence, since voice was the primary instrument for a successful career.

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Yes, you can access Writer and Occasion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium by Ingela Nilsson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title
  3. Frontispiece
  4. Title page
  5. Copyright information
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. A Note on Texts and Translations
  9. List of Abbreviations
  10. Chapter 1 The Authorial Voice of Occasional Literature
  11. Chapter 2 Praising the Emperor, Visualizing His City
  12. Chapter 3 The Occasion of Death: Patronage and the Writer on Command
  13. Chapter 4 In Times of Trouble: Networks and Friendships
  14. Chapter 5 On an Educational Note: The Writer as Grammatikos
  15. Chapter 6 Life, Love and the Past: Self-Quotation and Recycling
  16. Chapter 7 Occasional Writing as a Creative Craft
  17. Bibliography
  18. Index locorum
  19. General Index