Project information
Narrative Hierarchies: Minor Characters in Byzantine Historiography (Narrative Hierarchies)

This project will transform the study of Byzantine history writing, gender, and power relations, by pioneering a new narratological mode of analysis, focused on how Byzantine histories distribute narrative space and importance between characters. Focusing on how different types of characters are produced in and across narratives, creates a new mode of analysing the non-male, non-elite, and other minor characters that have traditionally received little attention. The systematic analysis of the character systems of seven key late Byzantine histories (ca. 1200-1450), provides empirical foundations for this study. In addition, results will be tested through transhistorical comparison with three contemporary Florentine histories, which will both identify the idiosyncrasies of Byzantine historiography and to place that tradition in meaningful conversation with global traditions of history writing. It intervenes in the study of both narrative theory and Byzantine history. The main project result will be a peer-reviewed monograph.