The two poles of ancient biography and hagiography

Keywords:

biography, hagiography, Bakhtin, Leo, genres

Abstract

Greek biography can be associated to two main poles: on one of them the syntagmatic axis, with succession, predominates; on the other, the paradigmatic axis, without succession. The first pole is related to historiography and has a method closer to ἱστορία; its best-known ideal type is the energetic or Peripatetic hagiography (Plutarch). The second pole is related to demonstrative rhetoric, its method is closer to antiquarianism and it appears in the analytic or Alexandrian biography (Suetonius). This contribution will suggest that in the usual hagiography this opposition is visible in a separated treatment of “life” and “deeds”, often summarized in the titles by Βίος καὶ πολιτεíα: the succession of facts, situated in time and space, as opposed to a timeless character, which reveals itself rather than becomes. To this aim, I will discuss the basic features of biography; describe F. Leo’s theory about classical biography; examine M. Bakhtin’s biographical chronotope, and his indebtedness with authors such as Leo or G. Misch; analyse some crucial features of hagiographical discourse and of its peculiar chronotope; and offer a brief conclusion.

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Author Biography

Tomás Fernández, Conicet - Universidad de Buenos Aires

Profesor y licenciado en Letras Clásicas (UBA 2006 y 2007), doctor en Estudios Clásicos (KU Leuven 2010),  profesor adjunto de Lengua y Cultura Griegas (UBA), investigador adjunto de Conicet. Ha realizado la edición crítica del primer libro de una antología bizantina, el Florilegio Coisliniano (Brepols, 2018) así como diversas ediciones bilingües de obras hagiográficas bizantinas. Dicta un seminario de posgrado sobre crítica textual y edición de textos grecolatinos. Participa en un proyecto PICT y un proyecto UBACyT sobre narrativa bizantina. Ha publicado una cuarentena de artículos y capítulos en temas de su especialidad. Actualmente estudia la relación entre la hagiografía cristiana, la novela griega y la novela bizantina (s. XII).

Published

2020-12-09

How to Cite

Fernández, T. (2020). The two poles of ancient biography and hagiography. Circe De clásicos Y Modernos, 24(2), 69–90. Retrieved from https://cerac.unlpam.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/circe/article/view/5478