Ecologizing Late Ancient and Byzantine Worlds: : sera tela: Studies in Late Antique Literature and Its Reception Thomas Arentzen Bloomsbury Academic

Ecologizing Late Ancient and Byzantine Worlds

Description

How can we study the late ancient and Byzantine history from ecological perspectives? How might one grapple with the more-than-human in sources and media created by humans? Exploring the diverse ways in which pre-modern texts engaged with the broader natural world, this book presents scholarly ventures into the terrains of the past. From the ancient treatises on dreams to monastic tales from the Hexameron literature to the Byzantine romance, from the Exeter Book to a mysterious Byzantine icon, the chapters investigate a diverse range of literature and other sources, uncovering intricate ecosystems of relationships.

The team of leading international experts behind the volume focuses on encounters between human and more-than-human beings. They pay attention to the entanglement of multiple agencies that cut through texts and other meshes. With insights from such theoretical traditions as ecocriticism, new materialism and environmental humanities, they re-expose ancient media to the elements.

1. Weathering: Ancient Worlds Exposed, Thomas Arentzen (St Ignatios College, Sweden) & Laura Borghetti (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany)
2. Fieldwork: Following Saint Hilarion, Virginia Burrus (Syracuse University, USA)
3. Night: An Ancient Monastic Ecology of Darkness, Douglas E. Christie (Loyola Marymount University, USA)
4. Edges: Coasts, Riverbanks, and Waterscapes in Late Ancient Texts, Marco Formisano (Ghent University, Belgium)
5. Dream: The Cultural Ecology of Dreaming in Artemidorus' Oneirocritica, Christopher Schliephake (University of Augsburg, Germany)
6. Energies: Wind, Water and the Literary Ecosystem in a Twelfth-Century Byzantine Novel, Laura Borghetti (University of Mainz, Germany)
7. Behold!: The Equivocal Ecopoetics of Wonder in Late Ancient Homilies on Creation, Kate Rigby (University of Cologne, Germany)
8. Agency: A Core Concept in the Cultural History of Human-Animal Relations, Tristan Schmidt (University of Katowice, Poland)
9. Crocodiles: Frightening Reptiles and Monastic Imagination, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus (University of Bergen, Norway)
10. Physiologizing: The Meaning of Species Un/Ravelled, Thomas Arentzen (Uppsala University, Sweden)
11. Feast!: Venantius Fortunatus' Poetic Feasts, Leila Williamson (Ghent University, Belgium)
12. Thicket: Trees and Belief in Britain after Rome, Michael D. J. Bintley (University of Southampton, UK)
13. Medianature: Dirt, Stone, Water, and Sky as Representational Fields, Glenn Peers (Syracuse University, USA)

Notes
References
Index

Product details

Published	Aug 07 2025
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	240
ISBN	9781350505926
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations	7 bw illus
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Series	sera tela: Studies in Late Antique Literature and Its Reception
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

More than just a study of Byzantine environmental ideology and history, these scholarly meditations are also a reckoning with the Anthropocene, our own era of global warming and mass extinction, offering glimpses into other ways of being in the world from which we could perhaps learn.

Adam J. Goldwyn, Professor of English, North Dakota State University, USA