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Books by Ioulia Kolovou
Anna Komnene and the Alexiad: the Byzantine Princess and the First Crusade, 2020
Anna Komnene is one of the most curious figures in the history of an intriguing empire. A woman o... more Anna Komnene is one of the most curious figures in the history of an intriguing empire. A woman of extraordinary education and intellect, she was the only Byzantine female historian and one of the first and foremost historians in medieval Europe. Yet few people know of her and her extraordinary story. Subsequent historians and scholars have skewed the picture of Anna as an intellectual princess and powerful author. She has been largely viewed as an angry, bitter old woman, who greedily wanted a throne that did not belong to her. Accusations of conspiracy and attempted murder were hurled at her and as punishment for her ‘transgressions’ she was to live the last days of her life in exile. It was during her time in a convent, where she was not a nun, that she composed the Alexiad, the history of the First Crusade and the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), her father.
This book aims to present Anna Komnene - the fascinating woman, pioneer intellectual, and charismaticc author - to the general public. Drawing on the latest academic research to reconstruct Anna's life, personality and work, it moves away from the myth of Anna the conspirator and 'power-hungry woman' which has been unfairly built around her over centuries of misrepresentation. It places Anna Komnene in the context of her own time: the ancient Greek colony and medieval Eastern Roman empire, known as Byzantium, with the magnificent city of Constantinople at its heart. At the forefront of an epic clash between East and West, this was a world renowned for its dazzling wealth, mystery and power games. It was also known for a vigorous intellectual renaissance centuries before its western counterpart. This was a world with Anna Komnene directly at the centre.
Papers by Ioulia Kolovou
Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time
http://dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/04/20/anna-komnene/
Gender employed as a methodological lens in the analysis of historical fiction can help to reveal... more Gender employed as a methodological lens in the analysis of historical fiction can help to reveal implicit or explicit evaluative statements. It is deployed here to examine hierarchies in the military, political and cultural context of the encounter between 'virile' Westerners and 'effeminate' Greeks in Sir Walter Scott's last novel, Count Robert of Paris (1831), which is set in Constan-tinople at the start of the First Crusade (1096-7). Scott's depiction of Western-ers and Orientalized Greeks is set against the geopolitical concerns of the au-thor's own time. The gendered perspective through which Scott constructs relationships in Count Robert makes it clear that the ancestors of modern Britain and France must control the East, represented here by the Byzantine Greeks. On the other hand, Scott's ambivalent and fluctuating portrayal of the twelfth-century historiographer Anna Comnena as a fictional character in the novel reveals his own uncertain stance between rejection and admiration of the female historian, as well as a more complex approach to gender dynamics in times of change.
Shortlisted for the Conrad-Nabokov Prize of Shipwrights Review, University of Malmoe, Sweden, the... more Shortlisted for the Conrad-Nabokov Prize of Shipwrights Review, University of Malmoe, Sweden, these are two short stories written by Ioulia Kolovou under the name J.K. Mabin
Book Chapters by Ioulia Kolovou
Daniel Altamiranda, Esther Smith (eds.), Perspectivas de la ficcionalidad, Tomo II, Docencia, Buenos Aires , 2005
Book Reviews by Ioulia Kolovou
Journal of Greek Media & Culture, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 October 2017, pp. 287-293(7), Oct 2017
Book Review
Conference Presentations by Ioulia Kolovou
51st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2018
What connects Sir Walter Scott and Byzantium? It is a little-known fact that the father of histor... more What connects Sir Walter Scott and Byzantium? It is a little-known fact that the father of historical fiction chose Komnenian Constantinople as the setting of his penultimate novel, Count Robert of Paris (1832). Inspired by an episode narrated in Anna Komnene’s Alexiad (11.18) and retold by Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Count Robert is an intriguing work of fiction whose historical inaccuracies and anachronisms, all of them results of conscious artistic choice, reveal much about the close if contested and problematic connections between historiography and historical fiction. Scott’s take on Byzantium and the ‘Greeks’ predictably echoes Gibbon’s disparaging stance, which still seems to dominate popular perceptions of Byzantium, in spite of all the progress made in Byzantine studies.
But in a surprising twist, the one Byzantine who is presented in more positive terms is the historian Anna Komnene, one of the main female characters in Count Robert. Scott’s almost proto-feminist Anna Komnene is not the ambitious conspirator or the bitter old woman who despises her brother and mourns for her lost dreams, as the historical canon has represented her (a canon that Leonora Neville’s recent biography of Anna Komnene attempts to dismantle), but a gifted and powerful writer and even a warrior in single combat against the Amazonian Norman Countess Brenhilda. Thus Scott anticipates insights of recent scholarship by two centuries. Using this novel as a starting point, it would be interesting to find a space within Byzantine studies to explore the outreach and impact of academic developments in the field on the public consciousness via historical fiction.
Women and the Canon, University of Oxford TORCH, 2015
In this paper, I will discuss Maro Douka (b. 1947), one of the ‘canonical’ living authors in Gree... more In this paper, I will discuss Maro Douka (b. 1947), one of the ‘canonical’ living authors in Greece today, focussing mainly on her historical novel Enas Skoufos Apo Porfyra (1995), translated into English by David Connoly as Come Forth, King (2003). I will discuss how a writer’s entry in the literary canon in Modern Greece is connected to her or his engagement with history and is attested by approval from established agencies in the academe and through translation. I will then discuss Douka’s canonical status and its particularities, especially how she engages with history in her own terms via a highly subjective and gendered approach, bringing women and historically marginalised characters to the fore of the narrative and to interpretation of history.
Historical Perspectives, University of St Andrews, 2015
In this paper, I will argue that the vilification of the Greeks, of which we have seen – and stil... more In this paper, I will argue that the vilification of the Greeks, of which we have seen – and still witness – quite a few examples in the international press recently, largely motivated by the Eurozone crisis, is an old textual tradition in Western literature, following an idiosyncratic itinerary from epic poetry to historiography to historical fiction. From Vergil’s Aeneid to the chronicles of the Crusades, then on to Torquato Tasso, great canonical epic poet of the sixteenth century, down to Walter Scott, an admirer of Tasso, via Edward Gibbon, arguably the most influential historian of the eighteenth century, there is a genealogy of pronounced portrayal of Greeks as treacherous villains and deceitful cowards.
Talks by Ioulia Kolovou
Research Seminar CESMA University of Birmingham, 2018
Anna Komnene and the Alexiad: the Byzantine Princess and the First Crusade, 2020
Anna Komnene is one of the most curious figures in the history of an intriguing empire. A woman o... more Anna Komnene is one of the most curious figures in the history of an intriguing empire. A woman of extraordinary education and intellect, she was the only Byzantine female historian and one of the first and foremost historians in medieval Europe. Yet few people know of her and her extraordinary story. Subsequent historians and scholars have skewed the picture of Anna as an intellectual princess and powerful author. She has been largely viewed as an angry, bitter old woman, who greedily wanted a throne that did not belong to her. Accusations of conspiracy and attempted murder were hurled at her and as punishment for her ‘transgressions’ she was to live the last days of her life in exile. It was during her time in a convent, where she was not a nun, that she composed the Alexiad, the history of the First Crusade and the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), her father.
This book aims to present Anna Komnene - the fascinating woman, pioneer intellectual, and charismaticc author - to the general public. Drawing on the latest academic research to reconstruct Anna's life, personality and work, it moves away from the myth of Anna the conspirator and 'power-hungry woman' which has been unfairly built around her over centuries of misrepresentation. It places Anna Komnene in the context of her own time: the ancient Greek colony and medieval Eastern Roman empire, known as Byzantium, with the magnificent city of Constantinople at its heart. At the forefront of an epic clash between East and West, this was a world renowned for its dazzling wealth, mystery and power games. It was also known for a vigorous intellectual renaissance centuries before its western counterpart. This was a world with Anna Komnene directly at the centre.
Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time
http://dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/04/20/anna-komnene/
Gender employed as a methodological lens in the analysis of historical fiction can help to reveal... more Gender employed as a methodological lens in the analysis of historical fiction can help to reveal implicit or explicit evaluative statements. It is deployed here to examine hierarchies in the military, political and cultural context of the encounter between 'virile' Westerners and 'effeminate' Greeks in Sir Walter Scott's last novel, Count Robert of Paris (1831), which is set in Constan-tinople at the start of the First Crusade (1096-7). Scott's depiction of Western-ers and Orientalized Greeks is set against the geopolitical concerns of the au-thor's own time. The gendered perspective through which Scott constructs relationships in Count Robert makes it clear that the ancestors of modern Britain and France must control the East, represented here by the Byzantine Greeks. On the other hand, Scott's ambivalent and fluctuating portrayal of the twelfth-century historiographer Anna Comnena as a fictional character in the novel reveals his own uncertain stance between rejection and admiration of the female historian, as well as a more complex approach to gender dynamics in times of change.
Shortlisted for the Conrad-Nabokov Prize of Shipwrights Review, University of Malmoe, Sweden, the... more Shortlisted for the Conrad-Nabokov Prize of Shipwrights Review, University of Malmoe, Sweden, these are two short stories written by Ioulia Kolovou under the name J.K. Mabin
Daniel Altamiranda, Esther Smith (eds.), Perspectivas de la ficcionalidad, Tomo II, Docencia, Buenos Aires , 2005
Journal of Greek Media & Culture, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 October 2017, pp. 287-293(7), Oct 2017
Book Review
51st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2018
What connects Sir Walter Scott and Byzantium? It is a little-known fact that the father of histor... more What connects Sir Walter Scott and Byzantium? It is a little-known fact that the father of historical fiction chose Komnenian Constantinople as the setting of his penultimate novel, Count Robert of Paris (1832). Inspired by an episode narrated in Anna Komnene’s Alexiad (11.18) and retold by Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Count Robert is an intriguing work of fiction whose historical inaccuracies and anachronisms, all of them results of conscious artistic choice, reveal much about the close if contested and problematic connections between historiography and historical fiction. Scott’s take on Byzantium and the ‘Greeks’ predictably echoes Gibbon’s disparaging stance, which still seems to dominate popular perceptions of Byzantium, in spite of all the progress made in Byzantine studies.
But in a surprising twist, the one Byzantine who is presented in more positive terms is the historian Anna Komnene, one of the main female characters in Count Robert. Scott’s almost proto-feminist Anna Komnene is not the ambitious conspirator or the bitter old woman who despises her brother and mourns for her lost dreams, as the historical canon has represented her (a canon that Leonora Neville’s recent biography of Anna Komnene attempts to dismantle), but a gifted and powerful writer and even a warrior in single combat against the Amazonian Norman Countess Brenhilda. Thus Scott anticipates insights of recent scholarship by two centuries. Using this novel as a starting point, it would be interesting to find a space within Byzantine studies to explore the outreach and impact of academic developments in the field on the public consciousness via historical fiction.
Women and the Canon, University of Oxford TORCH, 2015
In this paper, I will discuss Maro Douka (b. 1947), one of the ‘canonical’ living authors in Gree... more In this paper, I will discuss Maro Douka (b. 1947), one of the ‘canonical’ living authors in Greece today, focussing mainly on her historical novel Enas Skoufos Apo Porfyra (1995), translated into English by David Connoly as Come Forth, King (2003). I will discuss how a writer’s entry in the literary canon in Modern Greece is connected to her or his engagement with history and is attested by approval from established agencies in the academe and through translation. I will then discuss Douka’s canonical status and its particularities, especially how she engages with history in her own terms via a highly subjective and gendered approach, bringing women and historically marginalised characters to the fore of the narrative and to interpretation of history.
Historical Perspectives, University of St Andrews, 2015
In this paper, I will argue that the vilification of the Greeks, of which we have seen – and stil... more In this paper, I will argue that the vilification of the Greeks, of which we have seen – and still witness – quite a few examples in the international press recently, largely motivated by the Eurozone crisis, is an old textual tradition in Western literature, following an idiosyncratic itinerary from epic poetry to historiography to historical fiction. From Vergil’s Aeneid to the chronicles of the Crusades, then on to Torquato Tasso, great canonical epic poet of the sixteenth century, down to Walter Scott, an admirer of Tasso, via Edward Gibbon, arguably the most influential historian of the eighteenth century, there is a genealogy of pronounced portrayal of Greeks as treacherous villains and deceitful cowards.
Research Seminar CESMA University of Birmingham, 2018