The Epistolographic Self

Chapter 12 The Epistolographic Self Stratis Papaioannou τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ὡς ἀπ᾽ ἄλλου1 ∵ 1 The Premises 1.1 Rhetoric and the Self Due to the available evidence, letter-writing in Byzantium has been studied, primarily and justifiably so, as a genre that belonged to the wider rhetorical tradition and thus to the literary discourse of the learned, cultural, and often social elite.2 In approaching the question of the epistolographic self, we must thus begin with an understanding of what rhetoric was in Byzantium and what kinds of “self” – understood here as discursive subjectivity – it promoted.3 From linguistic and anthropological perspectives, rhetoric – to put it here as briefly as possible – was a distinct mode of communication, based on a codified and markedly learned register of language; as such, it defined writing as well as oral performance for specific private and public settings, included a set of expectations pertaining to form, and promoted a series of charactertypes / literary personae pertaining to content. Training in these types of style and model “selves” was inculcated through the study and imitation of ancient, early Byzantine, and a few middle Byzantine exemplary authors – from Demosthenes to Gregory of Nazianzos and, in later centuries, from Symeon Metaphrastes to Michael Psellos. Simultaneously, competence in rhetoric was judged by one’s ability not only to imitate these models, but also to establish 1 Gregory of Cyprus, Letters, no. 48, ed. Eustratiades, p. 197. 2 See, e.g., the list of letter-writers reviewed in Grünbart, Formen der Anrede, pp. 15–27. Most of these authors’ letters usually survive in manuscripts that either contain each individual writer’s rhetorical production or join together letter-collections and other similarly learned works by a variety of writers for the purposes of (primarily) rhetorical education. 3 For discursive subjectivity, namely the web of personal emotions, experiences, relations, and views as expressed and constructed through language, see, e.g., Schrag, The Self, pp. 11–41. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004424616_014 A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography Edited by Alexander Riehle LEIDEN | BOSTON Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Notes on Contributors x Introduction: Byzantine Epistolography: a Historical and Historiographical Sketch 1 Alexander Riehle Part 1 Contexts for Byzantine Epistolography 1 Letter Writing in Antiquity and Early Christianity Thomas Johann Bauer 2 Syriac Epistolography Jack Tannous 3 Letter Collections in the Latin West Lena Wahlgren-Smith 33 68 92 Part 2 Byzantine Letter-Writers in Context 4 Michael Psellos 125 Floris Bernard 5 The Letters of Demetrios Kydones Florin Leonte 146 Part 3 Forms and Functions of Byzantine Epistolography 6 Epistolography and Rhetoric Sofia Kotzabassi 177 7 Epistolography and Diplomatics Alexander Beihammer 200 vi Contents 8 Didacticism in Byzantine Epistolography Florin Leonte 227 9 Epistolography and Philosophy Divna Manolova 10 Epistolary Culture and Friendship Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis 11 Epistolary Communication: Rituals and Codes Floris Bernard 12 The Epistolographic Self Stratis Papaioannou 13 The Letter in the Theatron: Epistolary Voice, Character, and Soul (and Their Audience) 353 Niels Gaul 14 Letters and Letter Exchange in Byzantine Art Cecily J. Hilsdale 15 Letters in Narrative Literature Carolina Cupane 255 279 307 333 374 403 Part 4 Byzantine Epistolography and (Post-)Modern Theory 16 Letters and Network Analysis Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 17 Letters and New Philology Alexander Riehle General Bibliography 503 General Index 512 Index of Greek Terms 527 Index of Manuscripts 530 Index of Papyri 531 431 466