Date: February 18-19, 2019

Place: Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin

Room: Seminarzentrum, L 116

Organisers: Anita Traninger (anita.traninger[at]fu-berlin.de) and Paolo Brusa (paolo.brusa[at]fu-berlin.de) (DFG Research Group "Discursivizations of the New. Tradition and Innovation in Medieval and Early Modern Texts", Subproject 07: El peregrino en su patria. Recoding ‚old‘ and ‚new‘ in the ‚novela de peregrinación‘ of the Spanish Golden Age)

 

The Greek novel has been more readily discussed in literary theory than in literary history. Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the ‘chronotopos’ has put generations of scholars in touch with the Greek novel, though most likely only a fraction ever engage with the texts themselves. In literary history, the novels are generally regarded as sources of motifs, patterns and inspiration for later literary production – in particular early modern prose fiction – but those discussions are often limited to references to codified elements and supposed borrowings.

The text that has been undeniably at the focus of attention is Heliodorus’ Aethiopica (The Ethiopian Story), a focus that is certainly in line with early modern preferences, voiced already in 1547 by Jacques Amyot. The reception of the Aethiopica has been framed in diametrically opposed ways: some scholars have decried it as a pattern for sentimental romances that was outdated more or less upon its rediscovery; others have described it as an important factor in the rise of the European novel.

The early modern history of the Greek novel has frequently and predominantly been framed as the reception of Heliodorus. In the last few decades, valuable efforts have been made at mapping the transformations and adaptations of the Heliodorian scheme. Still, there are two perspectives that have received comparatively little attention: First, beyond individual imitatio and aemulatio, there seem to be patterns of engagement with the ancient models that yield widely different results. While the Spanish novela bizantina, for example, tends to be set in contemporary Spain and presents melancholic, if not pessimistic scenarios of displacement and destitution, the French roman héroique features a heroic antiquity. What are the discourses, the networks, the poetological and literary contexts that inform these very different re-imaginations of the genre? In the transcultural and transnational networks of writers, readers, buyers, translators, printers and impresarios, how are these differences brought about and reflected on? How do the various European projects relate to each other? Following the Greek novel’s characteristic surprising turn of events, detours and wanderings, we hope to chart territories that are either hardly known or firmly anchored in specific national traditions. How do they relate to particular vernacular literary tradition? This is not to suggest a return to ‘national’ narratives, but rather to investigate patterns and constellations beyond individual appropriations of the classical model.

Second, the focus on Heliodorus privileges only one of the five known ancient authors of prose novels, thereby in particular neglecting one other significant work equally known to early modern Europe: Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon. With Tatius’ identity a mystery when his novel was first published in Latin translation (1544), his work was quickly – within a decade – attributed and recognized as a product of Sophistic rhetoric. What does this link to ancient rhetorical practice imply in the early modern period? What does it engender, both in literature and beyond? Which kinds of texts does Achiles Tatius inspire? And how do they differ from the Heliodorian tradition? What is, furthermore, the role other ancient or Byzantine texts play in early modern literary debate and production? Our aim is to consider the fate of the lesser known novels and subject matters as well as to chart uses and adaptions of the Greek novel beyond the mainstream, thus broadening the perspective including a richer spectrum of texts and approaches in reconstructing the development of prose fiction in early modernity.

The workshop is organised within the research group “Discursivisations of the New: Tradition and Innovation in Medieval and Early Modern Texts” (www.for2305.fu-berlin.de).

Attendants from all levels of study are most welcome. No registration required.

Programme

Monday, 18 February 2019

10:00 - 10:30	Welcome and introduction Anita Traninger - Paolo Brusa
Panel 1: Crossroads of Reception I
10:30 - 11:15	Laurence Plazenet (Université Clermont-Auvergne) What Did Jacques Amyot Do to the Greek Novel?
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee break
11:30 - 12:15	Stefan Seeber (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) 'The Older, the Better': Wolckenstern's Ismenius (1573) and the Sixteenth Century Poetics of the Novel
12:15 - 13:00	Massimo Fusillo (Università degli Studi dell'Aquila) Heliodorus on the Baroque Stage: Strategies of Dramatization
13:00 - 15:00	Lunch Break
Panel 2: How to Deal with Adversity
15:00 - 15:45	Susanne Gödde (Freie Universität Berlin) Divine Plotting: Suffering and Salvation in the Ancient Greek Novel
15:45 - 16:30	Anita Traninger (Freie Universität Berlin) The Archeology of Melancholy: Alonso Núñez de Reinoso and the Reimagination of the Greek Novel

Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Panel 3: Crossroads of Reception II
10:00 - 10:45	Jutta Eming (Freie Universität Berlin) Beyond Incest? Extensive Adventures in Heinrich von Neustadt's Version of Apollonius
10:45 - 11:30	Christian Rivoletti (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) Geography, History and Genre: The Reception of Heliodorus in Early Modern Italy (and in a European Context)
11:30 - 12:00	Coffee break
Panel 4: Precarious Routes
12:00 - 12:45	Nathalie Schuler (Freie Universität Berlin / Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Navigating Uncertainty: Sea Voyage and Storytelling in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius
12:45 - 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 - 14:45	Paolo Brusa (Freie Universität Berlin) To Heliodorus and 'Beyond': Lope de Vega's Iberian aemulatio of the Ethiopian Tale
Panel 5: Ancient Models, Modern Novel?
14:45 - 15:30	Ingrid Simson (Freie Universität Berlin) Cervantes' Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda: From imitatio of Ancient Role Models to a Critical Survey of Contemporary Spanish Imperial Politics
15:30 - 16:00	Coffee break
16:00 - 16:45	Isabel Lozano-Renieblas (Dartmouth College) Cervantes and the Prüfungsroman in First Modernity
16:45 - 17:00	Conclusion(s)