Miraculous chronotope in the spiritually beneficial tales of Anastasios Sinaites
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| Year of publication | 2014 |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Miracles and wonders play an important role in the Byzantine Collections of Spiritually Beneficial Tales from the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (end of the 4th century) to the later tales of the 10th century. It should be pointed out, however, that in the two collections of Anastasios Sinaites' tales (middle of 7th century) miracles and wonders have even a much greater importance. Many types of miracles are included in these two collections: healings, exorcisms, the lighting of divine fire, talking icons and divine signs taking place during the religious service; even theological disputations with unholy spirits. It is rather difficult to find a tale in Anastasios' collections, which does not contain a single miracle. In my presentation, I will first attempt to define the spatiotemporal elements of the genre of the spiritually beneficial tale by primarily drawing from the theoretical works of Mikhail Bakhtin and Michel Foucault. Thereafter I will focus on the particularities of Anastasios' tales and I will demonstrate the different types of miracles and wonders they include along with their narrative role (e.g. one of the special features of Anastasios' tales is related to the appearance, disappearance, and teleportation of people or even entire landscapes). In so doing, I will arrive at the definition of the specific chronotope of Anastasios' tales, which, as I will show, is primarily based on the dominance of miracles and wonders. The "miraculous" chronotope, however, is just one of the many characteristics of Anastasios' beneficial tales. Towards the end of my paper I would like to briefly mention some of their other features, such as the strong authorial presence. I hope to show not only the character and function of the miracles and wonders within the tales in question, but also to contribute to a better understanding of the genre of the Collection of Beneficial Tales and its evolution throughout time. |
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