Issue No. 6 is the second open issue of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures. I... more Issue No. 6 is the second open issue of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures. It contains contributions by Shazia Jagot (Averroes, Islam, and Heterodoxy in the Spanish Chapel 'Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas'), Julia Verkholantsev ('Et nata ex etymo fabula:' Cosmas of Prague, the Medieval Practice of 'Etymologia,' and the Writing of History), Jan Rüdiger (Orchards of Power: The Importance of Words Well Spoken in Twelfth-Century Occitania), Andria Andreou and Panagiotis A. Agapitos (Of Masters and Servants: Hybrid Power in Theodore Laskaris' 'Response to Mouzalon' and in the 'Tale of Livistros and Rodamne'), and Francis Ingledew (Whose Troy? Whose Rome? Whose Europe? Three Medieval Londons and the London of Derek Walcott's 'Omeros').
Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, 2019
The present paper examines two Byzantine texts from the middle of the thirteenth century, ostensi... more The present paper examines two Byzantine texts from the middle of the thirteenth century, ostensibly unrelated to each other: a political essay written by a young emperor and an anonymous love romance. The analysis is conducted through the concept of hybrid power, a notion initially developed by postcolonial criticism. It is shown that in the two texts authority (that of the Byzantine emperor and that of Eros as emperor) is constructed as hybrid and thus as an impossibility, though in the case of the political essay this impossibility remains unresolved, while in the romance it is actually resolved. The pronounced similarities between the two texts on the level of political ideology (e.g. the notion of friendship between master and servant, the performance of power relations, shared key concepts) informing the hybrid form of authority and its relation to its servants is a clear indication that they belong to the same socio-cultural and intellectual environment, namely the Laskarid i...
This article is a first attempt to approach the figure of the storyteller in three types of early... more This article is a first attempt to approach the figure of the storyteller in three types of early Byzantine tale collections (fourth-seventh centuries): collective biography, miracle collection, and collection of edifying tales. Our approach draws significantly on Walter Benjamin's discussion of the storyteller and Monica Fludernik's work on conversational storytelling. Our analysis has a twofold purpose: first, to revise the impression that the storyteller is a canonical force that possesses the same characteristics in every single tale; second, to suggest that the storyteller is an inherent feature of short hagiographical narratives.
The holy double : identity, desire and holiness in Byzantine passions and lives of couples
‘Emotioning’ Gender: Plotting the Male and the Female in Byzantine Greek Passions and Lives of Holy Couples
Andreou’s study focuses on two Byzantine hagiographic texts, each of which relates the story of a... more Andreou’s study focuses on two Byzantine hagiographic texts, each of which relates the story of a married couple: the Life of Andronikos and Athanasia and the Passion of Adrianos and Natalia. The texts’ protagonists evidence certain emotions, which are, on the one hand, rarely represented in hagiographic literature (e.g., affection for one’s child or husband) and, on the other, gender-specific. Andreou dwells on the emotional manifestations of these characters and argues that through specific emotional performances, they transgress their gender. She also demonstrates how the protagonists’ emotions are the driving force that unravels the texts’ plots and constructs saintly identity.
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Papers by Andria Andreou