Spatial Paths to Holiness / Myrto Veikou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Veikou, Myrto, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian hagiography--History--To 1500.

Christian hagiography.

Christian literature, Byzantine--History and criticism.

Christian literature, Byzantine.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Uppsala : Uppsala Universitet, 2023.

Summary:

"The Byzantine world was made up of a set and sequence of spaces formed and transformed by people according to their cultural agenda and the political aléas. It is a challenge to reconstruct the experience of these spaces towards a better comprehension of Byzantine society and culture. The main intention of this book is a grasp of literary spaces in such a way as to allow the discerning of how authors' real-life spatial experiences have determined their use of spaces as part of consistent narrative devices and narrative strategies--whether intentional or reflexive. Eleventh-century hagiographical narratives are analysed and interpreted so as to reconstruct the ways in which the spatial experiences, shared by the authors and their audiences as a result of their cultural experience of Byzantine spaces, are used as a medium for communicating the story. In brief, this study explores how Byzantine authors write about space in order to communicate culture."-- Page 1.

Contents:

'Lived spaces' in Byzantine literature

Literary expressions of spatial practices

'Lived space' as text Commonplace-Places or (yet another) conception of topoi

Narrative space in the Lives: Vertical versus horizontal perceptions and respective narrative strategies

Vertical perceptions of space: height with the meaning of spiritual value (or The Power of Place)

Horizontal perceptions of space

Vertical-and-horizontal perceptions of space

Negotiations of identity and otherness, spatially narrated

From space to place: Appropriation of space and place-making as narrative devices

Bodies in the Arena of Holiness: Space Performativity and Embodiment as Agents of Holification

Space as a vehicle for reception.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.