Projet
ERC débutant le 1er février 2014 pour 60 mois et porté par le
professeur Koen De Temmerman, Université de Gand.
Novelsaints
Ancient novelistic heroism in the hagiography of Late Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages
The
novel is today the most popular literary genre worldwide. Its early history has
not been written yet. In order to enhance our understanding of this history
(both conceptually and cross-culturally), this project offers the first
comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of the persistence of ancient
novelistic material in hagiographical narrative traditions in the Mediterranean
in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (4th-12th cent.). This period
constitutes a blind spot on the radar of scholars working on the history of the
novel, who conceptualize it, much to the detriment of the study of narrative in
subsequent periods, as an ‘empty’ interim period between the latest ancient
representatives of the genre (ca. 3rd-4th cent.) and its re-emergence in
11th/12th-century Byzantium and 11th-century Persia.This project, on the other
hand, advances the hypothesis that different hagiographical traditions
throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages were impacted (directly or
indirectly) by ancient novelistic influences of different kinds and adopted,
rehearsed, re-used and adapted them to various degrees as tools for the
representation of saints as heroes/heroines. In this sense, constructions of
heroism in these traditions should be understood to varying degrees as
‘novelistic’ and raise crucial issues about fictionalization and the texts’ own
implicit conceptualizations of fiction.Three stages of the project will test
different aspects of this hypothesis. Firstly, the project will chart for the first
time all novelistic influences in the hagiographical corpus texts. Secondly, it
will analyze the impact of these influences on constructions of heroism in
specific hagiographical traditions (mainly Latin, Greek and Syriac Martyr Acts,
hagiographical romances and saints’ Lives) and examine implications for notions
of fictionalization and/or strategies for enhancing verisimilitude and
authenticity. Finally, diachronic and cross-cultural dimensions of the research
hypothesis will be articulated through the study of continuity of
hagiographical traditions (and their constructions of heroism) in narrative
genres from the 11th and 12th centuries in the West (medieval romance),
Byzantium (novels) and the East (Persian romance).By generating an improved
understanding of the impact of ancient novelistic material in different
hagiographical traditions throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages,
this project aims to contribute not just to the history of the idea of fiction
but also to the study of hagiography, the early history of the novel and to all
disciplines that study these literary genres.
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