Texts
about ‘holy’ women and men grew to be a defining feature of the culture
of Late Antiquity. There is currently an increasing interest among
scholars from different disciplines (history, theology, languages, and
literature) in these hagiographical writings. But more can be done to
find ways to systematise our understanding of the literary affiliations,
strategies and goals of these extraordinarily varied texts, which range
from the prosaic and anonymous narrations of the martyr passions to the
Classicising poems of Paulinus of Nola and the rhetorically
accomplished sermons of John Chrysostom.
This
colloquium is designed to bring together students and scholars working
on a range of aspects of literary hagiography, to share insights, and to
consider approaches for the future. We hope to situate late antique
biographical production in relation to Classical literary sensibilities,
as well as considering non-classical influences, and thus to identify
areas of continuity and gradual development as well as areas of abrupt
change in the form and function of such literature. While our emphasis
is deliberately literary, historical and theological questions which
feed into the significance of these works should not be ignored.
We
understand ‘hagiography’ in the non-technical sense of ‘writings about
(the lives of) saints’. The concept of ‘saints’, likewise, is here taken
in a broad way to mean remarkable and exemplary Christian figures
(whether real or fictional); the field is not restricted to those who at
some point were officially canonised by the Church. This colloquium is
seeking to explore issues like the following:
*
The definition of sainthood, e.g. through comparisons with texts about
non-Christian saint-like figures (the ‘pagan martyrs’, Apollonius of
Tyana).
*
The portrayal of a saint in different texts; how are saints portrayed
in their own writings compared to those of other authors about them?
* Characterisation, e.g. individuality and stereotyping: to what extent can a reader empathise or identify with a saint?
* Life imitating hagiography and resulting problems.
* What can hagiography tell us about non-elite ‘popular’ literary culture?
*
How have different genres given shape to hagiographical texts (from
Damasus’ epigrams to the epic poems of Fortunatus and Paulinus of
Périgeux), as well as texts resisting generic categorisation? E.g. is
the so called Life of Malchus a vita or a diegesis?
* Intertextuality as an aesthetic and ideological strategy.
*
The emergence of stable hagiographical conventions, whose influence
grew so powerful that it is often difficult to distinguish one saint
from another.
* What, if anything, can hagiography learn from panegyric?
* Literary approaches to un-saintly behaviour (trickery, committing suicide, etc.) of saints.
* To what extent does a text’s rhetorical purpose undermine the author’s credibility as an honest record-keeper?
* Assessing the historicity of hagiographical texts.
* Transmission and textual problems of hagiographical texts.
*
Reception and changes in the perception of authority (e.g. saints who
wrote about saints, such as John Chrysostom and Augustine).
Proposals
for 25-minute papers, in the form of abstracts between 200 and 400
words in length, should be submitted to Thomas Tsartsidis (T.Tsartsidis@sms.ed.ac.uk) or Christa Gray (christa.gray@gla.ac.uk) by 15th January 2015.
