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This comprehensive study of Michael Psellos unravels the rich history of authorship, literature and self-representation in Byzantium.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. The Professional Rhetor and Theory of Authorship: 1. The philosopher's rhetoric; 2. The rhetor as creator: Psellos on Gregory of Nazianzos; 3. The return of the poet: mimesis and the aesthetics of variation; Part II. Self-Representation: 4. Aesthetic charm and urbane ethos; 5. The statue's smile: discourses of Hellenism; 6. Female voice: gender and emotion; Conclusion: from rhetoric to literature; Appendix: books and readers in the reception of Psellos.
About the author
Stratis Papaioannou is Associate Professor of Classics at Brown University, Rhode Island. He has published extensively on Byzantine literature, especially on the history of rhetoric and literary subjectivity. He has co-edited Byzantine Religious Culture: Studies in Honor of Alice-Mary Talbot (2011). Recent articles include: Fragile Literature: Byzantine Letter-Collections and the Case of Michael Psellos (2012), 'Michael Psellos on Friendship and Love: Erotic Discourse in Eleventh-Century Constantinople' (in Early Medieval Europe, 2011), 'Byzantine Enargeia and Theories of Representation' (in Byzantinoslavica, 2011) and 'Byzantine Mirrors: Self-Reflection in Medieval Greek Writing' (in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 2010).
Summary
This comprehensive study of Michael Psellos, one of the greatest intellectual figures of Byzantine history, offers a survey of Greek rhetoric and autobiography for an audience focused on Greek culture and medieval literatures as well as a wider audience interested in the history of the self, gender and emotion.
