On the Representations of Intercultural Unions in Wartime Medieval Greek Romantic Narratives

초록

Despite the recovery of Constantinople in 1261 by the Nicaean forces, a wide spectrum of the Byzantine world had already been heavily soaked with western cultural influences. This paper examines the three key post-1204 Byzantine crusade romances (Belthandros and Chrysantza, Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, and Libistros and Rodamne), which have traditionally been studied as early examples of modern Greek popular literature, as historical evidence that reflects the vital amalgamation of the classical Greco-Roman, Byzantine, and western Latin cultural identities rather than being mere literary allusion. The literary structure of these works is in accordance with the historical condition of Byzantium at the time; yet, they are evident aliens to its preexisting tradition of literary production and market system. Byzantium after 1204 has been traditionally understood as being predominantly anti-western by the scholarship. However, their authorial fashioning of the protagonists as chivalrous Latin heroes strongly suggests that Byzantium was not at all a culturally and politically monotonous society.

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