75994 - Cultural History of Byzantium

Learning outcomes

The course aims at conveying to the student the political and religious conceptions of the East Roman empire, as well as its social values and economic organization. At the end of  the course the student is able to know the main historical features of the Byzantine civilization and the close interplays it  had  with the Medieval Occident, the Slavonic world and the Sasanian and Muslim Near East. Moreover, the student is able to assess the role played by Byzantium in the trasmission of ancient and medieval traditions to Modern Europe.

Course contents

Byzantium and the Turkic world: cultural representations, interplays, conflicts.

What we call Byzantine civilization – the medieval continuation of the Roman eastern Empire – has been exposed throughout its history with enduring contacts with Turkic-speaking peoples, owing to its peculiar geographical position, straddling Europe and Asia. The description of those peoples is done by Byzantine authors mostly through interpretative categories derived from classical and Hellenistic ethnography. A number of authors (Priscus of Panion, Maurice, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Nicephorus Bryennios) will be read and commented on an interpretative perspective that aims at highlighting both the stereotypes and the elements of historical differentiation between an author and the another.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography will be given during class.

Teaching methods

Lectures

Assessment methods

Paperwork (15-20 pages) on an aspect of the course and oral exam on the main notions of the discipline.

Teaching tools

Reading, translation and commentary by the teacher of several Byzantine authors, who handed down to us important memories on Turkic world. Written sources will be integrated with visual representations concerning the argument under question.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Cosentino