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Full-Text Articles in Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity
The Speech Act Of Swearing: Gregory Of Nazianzus’S Oath In Poema 2.1.2 In Context, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard
The Speech Act Of Swearing: Gregory Of Nazianzus’S Oath In Poema 2.1.2 In Context, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard
School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship
Gregory of Nazianzus’s Poemata de seipso as a group are labeled “autobiography” erroneously. 2.1.2 provides a strong case study: it is formally structured as an oath, to be sworn by a bishop but with no definitive identification of speaker. As an oath it is well suited to the application of speech act theory, which allows for interpretations with Gregory and/or any orthodox bishop as speaker. When further considered in light of other oaths as compositional models—professional (e.g. Hippocratic), magisterial, imperial loyalty, biblical— the poem’s scope expands beyond the “autobiographer” to encompass the episcopate and fourth-century culture more broadly.
Historiography As Devotion, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard
Historiography As Devotion, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard
School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship
This article locates Gregory of Nazianzus's Poemata de seipso in the Classical historiographical tradition by comparing their historical meta-narrative to Herodotus' and Thucydides'. It then embarks on a case study of Poem 34, On Silence During Lent, closely analyzing the poem in light of recent narratological work on Herodotus' project. Like the Herodotean text, Gregory's piece reveals a variety of hermeneutical possibilities while simultaneously making the audience aware of the histor's compositional processes. The histor who emerges is a salvific and cosmological presence that focalizes the divine, thereby serving as an example of proper human/ divine relations. The poem would …