1.) ORGANIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP on 5/12/2019 entitled «New Approaches to Medieval Romance from the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond» at the partnering University of Birmingham.
Organization: Zissis Ainalis, Stephanie Novasio and Curtis Lisle.
The program of the workshop:
New Approaches to Medieval Romance from the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond
Thursday 5th December, University of Birmingham
715 Muirhead Tower, Ring Road North, Birmingham B15 2TN
10.30-11.00: Registration and coffee
11.00: Welcome
11.10: Opening remarks
11.20-12.40: Panel 1: Perceptions, Reflections and Authority / Chair: Laura Clarke
1.) “The male gaze in Drosilla and Charikles (c.1150)” – Ewan Short (University of Cardiff) and Emma Huig (University of Amsterdam)
2.) “Locating the schism in medieval Greek and Western romances” – Katherine Kelaidis (Loyola University Chicago/ National Hellenic Museum)
3.) “Narrating Medea: The narrator’s judgement on adultery and infanticide in Middle High German and Byzantine adaptations of the Roman de Troie” – Lilli Hölzlhammer (Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich)
4.) “Identity and inversion in Byzantine romance: a Life Course approach” – Stephanie Novasio (University of Birmingham)
12.40-13.40: Lunch
13.40-14.40: Panel 2: Relationships and Hierarchy / Chair: Curtis Lisle
5.) “The representation of the Other in the Palaeologan romance: rivals, opponents and competitors” – Zissis Ainalis (University of the Aegean)
6.) “Ethnic identities and political terminology in the Byzantine texts of the 13th century: historiography vs romance?” – Nafsika Vassilopoulou (University of the Aegean)
7.) “Marriage in Metochites’ Περὶ Παιδείας and in Βέλθανδρος και Χρυσάντζα. A means of social stability or one of social mobility?” – Konstantinos Karatolios (University of Crete)
14.40-15.00.: coffee
15.00-16.00: Panel 3: (De)constructing the “Other” / Chair: Stephanie Novasio
8.) ““Is he alive, the one who was killed by the magic art?”: an episode of magic in Livistros and Rodamni” – Laura Clarke (University of Birmingham)
9.) “Reimagining East in Byzantine romance” – Zoi Kokka (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
10.) ““He who makes a beast out of himself gets ride of the pain of being a man”: Environmental agency and identity in Digenes Akritas” – Curtis Lisle (University of Birmingham)
16.00: Closing Remarks
Break
11.) 17.15: Keynote lecture: “Approaches to the Byzantine novel” – Professor Elizabeth Jeffreys (University of Oxford)
18.30: Wine reception
19.30: Conference dinner
2) ORGANIZATION OF TWO DAYS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (by zoom because of the pandemic of covid-19) on 4 and 5 June of 2020 entitled «The world of the late Byzantine romance in context: Storytelling across Europe (13th–15th c.)» with the partnering University of Uppsala.
Organization: Zissis Ainalis, Ingela Nilsson.
The program of the conference:
The world of the late Byzantine romance in context: Storytelling across Europe (13th–15th c.)
Aegean University / Uppsala University, June 4-5, 2020 (by zoom)
June 4
14.00 Introduction and welcome (Zisis Ainalis and Ingela Nilsson)
Session 1: The War of Troy between East and West
14.15 Stavroula Constantinou (Nicosia): Anger in the War of Troy: The Physiology and Poetics of a Male Emotion
14.45 Adam Goldwyn (Fargo): Translating Beauty: Some Considerations of Ekphrastic Portraiture in the medieval tradition of Trojan War Romances
15.15 Lilli Hölzlhammer (Munich): The time-magic of female lovesickness: Medea’s monologue in Middle High German and Byzantine adaptations of the Roman de Troie
15.45 Discussion
16.00 Break
Session 2: From Constantinople to France and Wales
16.15 Ewen Short (Cardiff) and Emma Huig (Oxford): The writers of the twelfth-century novels and their audiences in the theatra
16.45 Ellen Söderblom Saarela (Gent): La Dame Dido and Artemis from the Greek Novel
17.15 Jonas Thungren Lindbärg (Stockholm): The Greek ”Others” in Medieval Welsh Tales and Poetry
17.45 Discussion
June 5
13.00 Ioannis Smarnakis (Aegean): Political Power, Space and identities in the State of Epirus (1205–1318)
Session 3: Women characters in the Palaiologan romance
13.30 Zisis Ainalis (HFRI / Aegean): Damsels in distress? Women’s representations in the Palaiologan romances
14.00 Nafsika Vassilopoulou (HFRI / Aegean): Sovereignty and female authority in the Palaiologan romances: Consistencies and inconsistencies with historiographical texts
14.30 Zuzana Mitrengová (Brno): Analysis of the characters of the romances Livistros and Rodamni and Velthandros and Chrysantza using Greimas’ actantial model
15.00 Discussion
15.30 Break
16.00 Session 4: The world of the Palaiologan romance
16.00 Konstantinos Karatolios (Crete): Velthandros and Chrysantza and On the Imperial Office on military issues. What do a romance and a rhetorical text have to tell as on the role of the emperor as a military man?
16.30 Theodora Konstantellou (HFRI / Aegean): The ‘World of Object’ in the Palaeologan Romances
17.00 Zoi Kokka (Thessaloniki), ‘He roamed over the countries of the East and of Turkey’: The construction of an Exotic Eastern Utopia in the Palaiologan romances
17.30 Discussion
18.00 Concluding remarks (Zisis Ainalis and Ingela Nilsson)
3) ORGANIZATION OF TWO DAYS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (by zoom because of the pandemic of covid-19) on 24 and 25 of June of 2021 entitled « The Palaiologan Romance in Context. Narrativity, Identities and Gender in the Mediterranean (12th -16th centuries)» at the University of the Aegean .
Organization: Zissis Ainalis, Yannis Smarnakis.
The program of the conference:
The Palaiologan Romance in Context. Narrativity, Identities and Gender in the Mediterranean (12th -16th centuries)
24-25 June 2021 (by zoom)
University of the Aegean
Department of Social Anthropology and History
Organization: Ainalis Zissis, Smarnakis Yannis
Thursday, June 24
10.15: Introduction and welcome [Kantsa Venetia (head of the department), Smarnakis Yannis, Ainalis Zissis]
1st Session: Gender and Narrativity
Chair: Smarnakis Yannis
10.30 Priki Eftymia (University of Nicosia): The Liminal Status of Abducted Women and of Witches in the Tale of Livistros and Rodamne and in Kallimachos and Chrysorroe
11.00 Karatolios Konstantinos (University of Crete): Fathers, sons and brothers. Family ties in Velthandros and Chrysantza and in Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe
11.30 Plakotos Giorgos (University of the Aegean): Conversion, Gender and “Cultural Encounters” in early modern romance and drama
12.00 Tzedopoulos Yorgos (Academy of Athens): The virgin and the soldier, the monk and the whore: Contextualizing stories of gender transgression and martyrdom in the post-Byzantine and early modern world
12.30 Break
2nd Session: Spatializing Identity and Otherness
Chair: Gara Eleni
13.00 Kokka Zoi (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): East and the Eastern Other in the imaginary of Byzantine Romance
13.30 Tounta Eleni (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): An “emperor” under the guise of a Moses: narrative representations of the east in the Songe du Vieux Pèlerin
14.00 Smarnakis Yannis (University of the Aegean): Narrative representations of space in the Tale of Imperios and Margarona: Obliterating otherness in a cross-cultural Mediterranean
Friday, June 25
3rd Session: Storyworlds, Reading Communities and Agency
Chair: Plakotos Giorgos
10.30 Nilsson Ingela (Uppsala University): From temples to castles: diachronic and transcultural storyworlds in the Palaiologan romance
11.00 Vassilopoulou Nafsika (HFRI / University of the Aegean): Worlds together, worlds apart: Palaiologan learned historiography and vernacular romance. Some overall remarks
11.30 Gara Eleni (University of the Aegean): The Emperor’s Sons and other tales: Advice literature in the form of short stories for an Ottoman audience
12.00 Ainalis Zissis (HFRI / University of the Aegean): The narrator’s voice: Narrative and representation of the self in the Palaiologan romances
12.30 Break
4th session: Material Culture, Ritual and Identities
Chair: Ainalis Zissis
13.00 Constantinou Stavroula (University of Nicosia): Arts and Rituals in Palaiologan Romances of the Troy Matter
13.30 Konstantellou Theodora (HFRI): The Small-Scale Objects in the Late Byzantine Romance of Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe. Raising Questions of Description and Functionality
14.00 Concluding Remarks: Ainalis Zisis – Smarnakis Yannis