Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T01:49:07.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 13 - Literary Landscapes in the Palaiologan Romances

An Ecocritical Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

By
Kirsty Stewart
Edited by
Adam J. Goldwyn  and
Ingela Nilsson
Adam J. Goldwyn
Affiliation:
North Dakota State University
Ingela Nilsson
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

This chapter applies an ecocritical approach to the Palaiologan romances, examining the use and interpretation of a variety of natural landscapes in four works; Velthandros and Chrysantza, Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, Livistros and Rodamne and the Tale of Achilles. It focuses primarily on the connections between individual landscapes and the development of plot and character, drawing attention to their narrative roles and gender associations. The traditional link between the heroine and the garden in particular will be reassessed in relation to other characters and settings. In doing so connections and differences between these romances and texts of a similar genre in earlier Greek, as well as some from the Western courtly milieu and the Perso-Arabic tradition will be highlighted. Through this it aims to suggest ways in which Byzantine authors and audiences thought about the natural world and used it to present specific associations and ideas.
Type
Chapter
Information
Reading the Late Byzantine Romance
A Handbook
 , pp. 272 - 298
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Egea, J. (ed.), Historia extraordinaria de Beltandro y Crisanza (Granada Athos-Pérgamo 1998).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Benson, L. D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn (Boston 1987).Google Scholar
Conca, F. (ed.), Il romanzo bizantino del XII secolo: Teodoro Prodromo, Niceta Eugeniano, Eustazio Macrembolita, Constantino Manasse (Turin 1994).Google Scholar
Jeffreys, E. (trans.), Four Byzantine Novels: Theodore Prodromos, Rhodanthe and Dosikles; Eumathios Makrembolites, Hysmine and Hysminias; Constantine Manasses, Aristandros and Kallithea; Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles (Liverpool 2012).Google Scholar
Pichard, M. (ed.), Le Roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé (Paris 1956).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A.(ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης. Κριτική ἔκδοση τῆς διασκευῆς α (Athens 2006).Google Scholar
Lendari, T. (ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης (Livistros and Rhodamne). The Vatican Version (Athens 2007).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Lacy, N. J. (ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, vol. ii (New York 1993).Google Scholar
Ortolá Salas, F. J. (ed.), Florio y Platzia Flora: Una novela bizantina de época paleólogica (Madrid 1998).Google Scholar
Smith, O. L. (ed.), The Byzantine Achilleid: The Naples Version. Introduction, critical edition and commentary by Ole L. Smith; edited and prepared for publication by P. A. Agapitos and K. Hult (Vienna 1999) 13–74.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Egea, J. (ed.), Historia extraordinaria de Beltandro y Crisanza (Granada Athos-Pérgamo 1998).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Benson, L. D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn (Boston 1987).Google Scholar
Conca, F. (ed.), Il romanzo bizantino del XII secolo: Teodoro Prodromo, Niceta Eugeniano, Eustazio Macrembolita, Constantino Manasse (Turin 1994).Google Scholar
Jeffreys, E. (trans.), Four Byzantine Novels: Theodore Prodromos, Rhodanthe and Dosikles; Eumathios Makrembolites, Hysmine and Hysminias; Constantine Manasses, Aristandros and Kallithea; Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles (Liverpool 2012).Google Scholar
Pichard, M. (ed.), Le Roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé (Paris 1956).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A.(ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης. Κριτική ἔκδοση τῆς διασκευῆς α (Athens 2006).Google Scholar
Lendari, T. (ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης (Livistros and Rhodamne). The Vatican Version (Athens 2007).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Lacy, N. J. (ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, vol. ii (New York 1993).Google Scholar
Ortolá Salas, F. J. (ed.), Florio y Platzia Flora: Una novela bizantina de época paleólogica (Madrid 1998).Google Scholar
Smith, O. L. (ed.), The Byzantine Achilleid: The Naples Version. Introduction, critical edition and commentary by Ole L. Smith; edited and prepared for publication by P. A. Agapitos and K. Hult (Vienna 1999) 13–74.Google Scholar
Abram, D. 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. New York.Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A. 1990. ‘The Erotic Bath in in the Byzantine Vernacular Romance Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe’, Classica et Mediaevalia 41: 257–73.Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A. 2012. ‘In Rhomaian, Frankish and Persian Lands: Fiction and Fictionality in Byzantium and Beyond’, in Medieval Narratives between History & Fiction: From the Centre to the Periphery of Europe, c. 1100–1400, ed. Agapitos, P. A. and Mortensen, L. B.. Copenhagen, 235–367.Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A. 2010. ‘From Persia to the Provence: Tales of Love in Byzantium and Beyond’, Acme 63(2): 153–69.Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A. and Smith, O. L. 1992. The Study of Medieval Greek Romance: A Reassessment of Recent Work. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Alexiou, M. 1977. ‘A Critical Reappraisal of Eustathios Makrembolites’ Hysmine and Hysminias’, BMGS 3: 23–43.Google Scholar
Augspach, E. A. 2004. The Garden as Woman’s Space in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Literature. Lewiston, NY.Google Scholar
Barber, C. 1992. ‘Reading the Garden in Byzantium: Nature and Sexuality’, BMGS 16: 1–19.Google Scholar
Beck, H.-G. 1984. Byzantinisches Erotikon: Orthodoxie, Literatur, Gesellschaft. Munich.Google Scholar
Blair, A. 2002. ‘Landscape in Drag; the Paradox of Feminine Space in Susan Warner’s “The Wide, Wide World”’, in The Greening of Literary Scholarship: Literature, Theory, and the Environment, ed. Rosendale, S.. Iowa City, IA, 111–30.Google Scholar
Cataldi Palau, A. 1980. ‘La tradition manuscrite d’Eustathe Makrembolitès’, Revue d’histoire des textes 10: 75–113.Google Scholar
Cupane, C. 1983. ‘Il motivo del castello nella narrativa tardo-bizantine: evoluzione di un’allegoria’, JÖB 33: 229–67.Google Scholar
Cupane, C. 1986. ‘Topica romanesca in Oriente e in Occidente: “avanture” e “amore”’, in Il romanzo tra cultura latina e cultura bizantina: Testi della iii settimana residenziale di studi medievali, Carini, Villa Belvedere, 17–21 ottobre 1983, ed. Beck, H.-G. et al. Palermo, 66–72.Google Scholar
Cupane, C. 1992. ‘Concezione e rappresentazione dell’amore nella narrativa tardo-bizantina. Un tentative di analisi comparata’, in Medioevo romanzo e orientale: Testi e prospettive storiografiche colloquio internazionale (Verona, 4–6 aprile 1990), ed. Babbi, A. M. et al. Soveria Mannelli, 283–305.Google Scholar
Dolezal, M-L. and Mavroudi, M.. 2002. ‘Theodore Hyrtakenos’ Description of the Garden of St Anna and the Ekphrasis of Gardens’, in Byzantine Garden Culture, ed Littlewood, A. R. et al. Washington, DC, 105–58.Google Scholar
Douglass, R. 1998. ‘Ecocriticism and Middle English Literature’, Studies in Medievalism 10: 136–63.Google Scholar
Ergin, N. O. and Johnson, W. (trans.), 2006. The Forbidden Rumi: The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy and Intoxication. Rochester, VT.Google Scholar
Estok, S. C. 2011. Ecocriticism and Shakespeare: Reading Ecophobia. New York.Google Scholar
Ganjavi, N. 1995. The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance, trans. Meisami, J. S.. Oxford.Google Scholar
Garrard, G. 2012. Ecocriticism, 2nd edn. London.Google Scholar
Garrard, G. (ed.) 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism. Oxford.Google Scholar
Dalby, A., ed. 2011. Farm Work: A Modern Translation of the Roman and Byzantine Farming Book. Totnes.Google Scholar
Gersdorf, C. 2000. ‘Ecocritical Uses of the Erotic’ in New Essays in Ecofeminist Literary Criticism, ed Carr, G.. London, 175–91.Google Scholar
Glotfelty, C. and Fromm, H. (eds.) 1996. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens, GA.Google Scholar
Goldwyn, A. 2015. ‘Towards a Byzantine Ecocriticism: Witches and Nature Control in the Medieval Greek Romance’, BMGS 39(1:): 66–84.Google Scholar
Goldwyn, A. 2017. Byzantine Ecocriticism: Women, Nature, and Power in the Medieval Greek Romance. New York.Google Scholar
Hess, E. E. 2013. Literary Hybrids: Cross-dressing, Shapeshifting, and Indeterminacy in Medieval and Modern French Narrative. New York.Google Scholar
Knös, B. 1962. ‘Qui est l’auteur du roman de Callimaque et Chrysorrhoé?’, Hellenika 17: 274–95.Google Scholar
Littlewood, A. R. 1979. ‘Romantic Paradises: The Role of the Garden in the Byzantine Romance’, BMGS 5(1): 95–114.Google Scholar
Littlewood, A. R. and von Stradelberg, K. T., 2013. ‘Verbal Representations’, in A Cultural History of Gardens in Antiquity, ed. Gleason, K.. London, 135–50.Google Scholar
Magdalino, P. 1992. ‘Eros the King and the King of “Amours”: Some Observations on Hysmine and Hysminias’, DOP 46: 197–204.Google Scholar
Meisami, J. S. 1985, ‘Allegorical Gardens in the Persian Poetic Tradition: Nezami, Rumi, Hafez,’ International Journal of Middle East Studies 17(2): 229–60.Google Scholar
Merchant, C. 1996. Earthcare: Women and the Environment. New York.Google Scholar
Nilsson, I. 2001. Erotic Pathos, Rhetorical Pleasure: Narrative Technique and Mimesis in Eumathios Makrembolites’ Hysmine & Hysminias. Uppsala.Google Scholar
Nilsson, I. 2013. ‘Nature Controlled by Artistry’, in Byzantine Gardens and Beyond, ed. Bodin, H. and Hedlund, R.. Uppsala, 15–29.Google Scholar
Ortner, S. B. 1972. ‘Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?’, Feminist Studies 1(2): 5–31.Google Scholar
Rodgers, R. 2002. ‘Κηποπιΐα: Garden Making and Garden Culture in the Geoponika’, in Byzantine Garden Culture, ed. Littlewood, A. et al. Washington, DC, 159–75.Google Scholar
Rose, E. C. 1994. ‘The Good Mother: From Gaia to Gilead’, in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed. Adams, C. J.. New York, 149–67.Google Scholar
Rudd, G. 2007. Greenery: Ecocritical Readings of Late Medieval English Literature. Manchester.Google Scholar
Ruether, R. R. 1992. Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. London.Google Scholar
Vakoch, D. A. 2012. ‘Introduction: A Different Story’, in Feminist Ecocriticism; Environment, Women and Literature, ed. Vakoch, D. A.. Lanham, 1–12.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, F. 1990. ‘The Poetics of Eros’, in Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World, ed. Halperin, D., Winkler, J. J. and Zeitlin, F. I.. Princeton, NJ, 417–64.Google Scholar
Egea, J. (ed.), Historia extraordinaria de Beltandro y Crisanza (Granada Athos-Pérgamo 1998).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Benson, L. D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn (Boston 1987).Google Scholar
Conca, F. (ed.), Il romanzo bizantino del XII secolo: Teodoro Prodromo, Niceta Eugeniano, Eustazio Macrembolita, Constantino Manasse (Turin 1994).Google Scholar
Jeffreys, E. (trans.), Four Byzantine Novels: Theodore Prodromos, Rhodanthe and Dosikles; Eumathios Makrembolites, Hysmine and Hysminias; Constantine Manasses, Aristandros and Kallithea; Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles (Liverpool 2012).Google Scholar
Pichard, M. (ed.), Le Roman de Callimaque et de Chrysorrhoé (Paris 1956).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Agapitos, P. A.(ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης. Κριτική ἔκδοση τῆς διασκευῆς α (Athens 2006).Google Scholar
Lendari, T. (ed.), Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης (Livistros and Rhodamne). The Vatican Version (Athens 2007).Google Scholar
Betts, G. (trans.), Three Medieval Greek Romances (New York 1995).Google Scholar
Lacy, N. J. (ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, vol. ii (New York 1993).Google Scholar
Ortolá Salas, F. J. (ed.), Florio y Platzia Flora: Una novela bizantina de época paleólogica (Madrid 1998).Google Scholar
Smith, O. L. (ed.), The Byzantine Achilleid: The Naples Version. Introduction, critical edition and commentary by Ole L. Smith; edited and prepared for publication by P. A. Agapitos and K. Hult (Vienna 1999) 13–74.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×