Post-Byzantine Hagiography

In this course we examine and analyze a series of Hagiographical texts (martyria and Saints’ Lives) written between the 15th and 19th centuries, both in the vernacular and the learned language of the period. The texts belong to two main categories of Hagiohraphy: A) Collections of Martyria of Neo-martyrs, (that is Christians who suffered martyrdom under Ottoman rule in the areas of the Ottoman Empire), such as the collection of martyria known as “New Anthology of Martyria” by Nikodemos of Mount Athos and B) Lives of earlier Saints (mainly of the Byzantine period, 4th-15th centuries) translated either in the vernacular of the 16th-19th centuries or in the learned language of the Greek- speaking world not under the Ottoman rule, such as the translation of the Hagiographic Novel “Barlaam and Josaphat”, which was carried out in 17th century Crete, which was under Venetian rule. The analysis of the texts covers linguistic particularities owed to \turkish, Italian and Venetian influences, pragmatologic and historical commentary and an effort to place the texts within the tradition of use of early hagiographic topoi lurking back to the Early Christian period and the first martyria (4th century onwards).

Objectives

1) Get students acquainted with the relationship between postbyzantine Hagiography and its predecessor from the Early Christian and Byzantine periods. 2) Bring students into contact with the instrumenta studiorum in the field. 2) Learn to understand the dialectic and stylistic particularities of these texts and, if need be, translate them into Modern Greek. Become able to comment on hagiographic texts written between the 15th and 19th century. 3) Learn the differences between various genres of Hagiographic literary works (Martyrdom, Acta Martyrum, Saint’s Life, hagiographic Novels). 4) Understand the stylistic differences between the two registers of the Greek literary language of the period, (vernacular and learned).

Prerequisites

No specific requirements needed.

Syllabus

The texts belong to two main categories of Hagiohraphy: A) Collections of Martyria of Neo-martyrs, (that is Christians who suffered martyrdom under Ottoman rule in the areas of the Ottoman Empire), such as the collection of martyria known as “New Anthology of Martyria” by Nikodemos of Mount Athos and B) Lives of earlier Saints (mainly of the Byzantine period, 4th-15th centuries) translated either in the vernacular of the 16th-19th centuries or in the learned language of the Greek- speaking world not under the Ottoman rule, such as the translation of the Hagiographic Novel “Barlaam and Josaphat”, which was carried out in 17th century Crete, which was under Venetian rule.