Wittgenstein-Prize Project
„Mobility, Microstructures and Personal Agency in Byzantium“
Forum Moving Byzantium VI
The Wittgenstein Project Team invites you to our sixth group discussion meeting. “Forum Moving Byzantium VI” will take place on Tuesday 2.5.2017, from 18:00 to 19:30, at the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (Postgasse 7, 1010 Vienna, 1. Stiege, 3. Stock, Seminarraum).
We will discuss the topic “From Cities to Countryside: ‘Byzantine Issues’ in Medieval Armenian Literature.” The presenter will be Dr. Emilio Bonfiglio, Member of the Wittgenstein Project Team. After a brief introduction in English, group discussion will follow both in English and in German.
Armenian early literature began and developed in the fifth century with the translation of the Bible and patristic literature from Greek and Syriac, followed by the creation of the first original works of Armenian historiography. Especially in the field of original homiletics, Armenian authors have often been considered as passively reproducing Greek themes for Armenian audiences. The readings for Forum VI are designed to propose alternative interpretations concerning the meaning and function of literary transfer between Byzantium and Armenia. We will ask a series of questions:
- Are Armenians merely reproducing Byzantine themes in Armenian language?
- What is the perception and the impact of urban Byzantine life in rural Armenia?
- How did travel between Byzantium and Armenia affect both the material and cultural life of the Armenians?
- Can political frontiers be overcome by cultural transfer?
These are the preparatory readings (to be read in sequence):
- Mayer, W., ‘Homiletics’, in Harvey S. A., and Hunter D. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (Oxford, 2008), 565–583.
- Rapp. C., ‘City and Citizenship as Christian Concepts of Community in Late Antiquity’, in Rapp. C., and Drake. H. A., The City in the Classical and Post-Classical World (Cambridge, 2014), 153–166.
- Leyerle, B., ‘The Late Antique Theater’, in Theatrical Shows and Ascetic Lives. John Chrysostom’s Attack on Spiritual Marriage (Berkeley, 2001), 13–41.
- Calzolari, V., ‘The Transmission and Reception of the Greek Cultural Heritage in late Antique Armenia: The Armenian Translations of the Greek Neoplatonic Works’, in Gazzano F., Pagani L, and Traina G. (eds.), Greek texts and Armenian Traditions (Berlin/Boston, 2016), 47–70.
- Thomson, R. W., ‘The Formation of the Armenian Literary Tradition’, in Garsoïan, N. G., Mathews, T. F., and Thomson, R. W., East of Byzantium: Syriac and Armenia in the Formative Period (Washington, DC, 1982), 135–150.
- Bonfiglio, E., ‘Byzantine Themes for Armenian Audiences’ (Forthcoming).
If you are interested in attending the event, please contact Ms. Paraskevi Sykopetritou (Project Coordinator) in order to receive further information and the relevant reading material: paraskevi.sykopetritou@univie.ac.at / s.sykopetritou@gmail.com.
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