New Reading Group: Critical theory and Byzantine studies?
The Byzantine Studies Research Center of Bogazici University is pleased to announce the organization of a new reading group entitled Critical theory and Byzantine studies? By examining the theoretical approaches used or that can be potentially used in Byzantine studies, the aim of the reading group is to establish a dialogue between Byzantine studies and the remaining disciplines in humanities and social sciences.
Students and scholars of all levels interested in Byzantine studies are welcome. The readings will be communicated in advance and will be discussed in biweekly sessions at the Byzantine Studies Research Center, moderated by Dr. Milan Vukašinović, GABAM-ANAMED postdoctoral fellow. The language of readings and discussions will be English.
The introductory session, Choosing sides: Blind caterpillars and visionary butterflies, will be held on Monday, 17 February 2020, at 16:00. Those who wish to participate in the reading group are kindly requested to send an e-mail to byzantinestudies@bogazici.edu.tr.
Please see below for detailed information.
Critical theory and Byzantine studies?
Boğaziçi University Byzantine Studies Research Center Reading Group
Normal historiography is based on the dream of theory-less knowledge –
which would mean a “blind” knowledge insofar as by the term “theory”
we might mean something like the Greek term meant, that is, “sight”, “prospectus”, and so on.
(Hayden White, Ideology and Counterideology in Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism, 1991)
Scholars of Byzantine culture take a uniquely long-lasting, complex, dynamic and multiple civilization as their object of study. Still, the alleged technical rigor of a single historiographic approach based on a tacit acceptance of historical empiricism reigns over the discipline, causing two major problems. On the one hand, Byzantinists tend to stay in isolation from other humanities and immune to the intellectual debates of their age. On the other hand, every attempt at questioning the dominant paradigm and setting out a theoretical alternative is regarded with suspicion, introducing the split between the ‘real historians’ and the ‘literary scholars’, the ‘fact tribe’ and the ‘jargon clan’, etc.
Since the dense theoretical texts can often seem obscure, and the constraints of academic schedules do not always allow us to venture into the unknown, we believe that the best option available is to dive into the matter together, over a cup of tea or coffee. The main idea behind the reading group Critical theory and Byzantine studies? is an attempt to open up a space for dialogue inside and beyond the discipline through parallel collective readings of theoretical considerations of key concepts used in the field today and selected Byzantine texts in translation for the interpretation of which those concepts could potentially be useful. When available, relevant articles or chapters engaging with a certain concept inside Byzantine studies will be suggested as additional readings. While the topics of interest will be agreed upon with the participants of the group, the suggested concepts to be tackled include ideology, nation, space, gender, narrative, and memory.
The readings will be communicated in advance and then discussed in biweekly sessions at the Byzantine Studies Research Center, Boğaziçi University. After elucidating and demystifying a specific theory, participants will be encouraged to debate on its usefulness for proposed or other Byzantine texts. Students and scholars of all levels interested in Byzantine studies are welcome. The sessions will be moderated by Milan Vukašinović, a GABAM-ANAMED postdoctoral fellow.
The introductory session, Choosing sides: Blind caterpillars and visionary butterflies, will be held on Monday, 17 February 2020, at 16:00.
The session will be consecrated to setting the framework of the group and discussing practical details. Still, some preparatory readings are warmly advised, in order to create a common ground for discussion.
Interested participants can browse from the list below,
1. Bal, Mieke. 2002. Traveling Concepts in the Humanities: A rough guide. Toronto – Buffalo – London, 22–55. – Proposes firm but flexible working principles for using theoretical concepts in the humanities.
2. Haldon, John. 1984. “‘Jargon’ vs. ‘the Facts’? Byzantine History-Writing and Contemporary Debates”. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 9/1, 95–132. – Gives a concise and digestible summary of the available theoretical approaches to history writing and their absence from the Byzantinist sphere.
3. Bourbouhakis, Emmanuel C. 2016. “To Flutter or to Crawl? Ihor Ševčenko and the “Two Varieties of Historical Writing”. Palaeoslavica XXIV/1, 232–244.
4. Mullett, Margaret. 1990. “Dancing With Deconstructionists in the Gardens of the Muses: New Literary History vs ?”. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 14/1, 258–275.
Moderator:
Milan Vukašinović is a Byzantinist and a GABAM-ANAMED postdoctoral fellow at Koç University. He holds a shared PhD in history from the EHESS in Paris and the University of Belgrade. His main interests are narrative, space, and ideology in the thirteenth century. He participated in activities of the research network “Text and narrative in Byzantium” between Paris and Uppsala. He has written and published on medieval historiography, hagiography, narrative, political agency, spatiality and gender. He has an associate degree in library studies and cultural mediation.
