"Literary reflections in hagiographical proems", en Literature Squared: Self-Reflexivity in Late Antique, pp. 111-129.

Abstract

This chapter examines the self-reflexive considerations included by the main late antique hagiographers in the preambles of their works. As a new genre, hagiography established a dialogue with all the previous literary tradition, resulting in a complex process of conscious re-writing. This compositional awareness can be found all throughout the Greco-Roman world in its different languages: Greek (Life of Antony, Apophthegmata patrum, Life of Alexander Akoimetos, Life of Hypatios of Rufinianae, Life and Miracles of Thekla, Lausiac History, Philotheos Historia, Life of Porphyry, Encomium of Theodoros Teron), Latin (Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium, Life of Martin of Tours), Syriac (Life of Peter the Iberian, Life of Severus), Armenian (Life of Gregory the Illuminator, Life of Maštoc') and Coptic (Panegyric on Apollo of Isaac, Life of apa Apollo ‘of Bawīṭ’). The comparative analysis conducted in these pages allows us to conclude that, among the classical genres, hagiographers preferred poetry and historiography as the literary basis for their new compositions.