Letters, Literacy and Literature in Byzantium

The studies in this collection look at general problems of reading Byzantine literature, at literacy practices and the literary process, but also at individual texts. Of major focus is the genre of the letter. Epistolography is examined from the point of view of genre, originality and communication and as evidence for political history. Other genres examined include the novel, historiography, parainesis, panegyric, and hagiography. The section on literary process includes essays on genre, patronage and rhetoric, and the section on literacy practices deals with both writing and reading.