Chapter 12 The Epistolographic Self
In: A Companion to Byzantine EpistolographySearch for other papers by Stratis Papaioannou in
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Epistolography in Byzantium was considered to be a distinctly self-referential type of rhetorical writing. This chapter examines a series of horizons that circumscribed the construction as well as the expression of the self in Byzantine rhetorical letters, by looking at: (a) other types of epistolography that were read widely, such as biblical letters, literary letters, and letters embedded in narrative genres; (b) rhetorical theory; (c) the realities of publication and manuscript transmission of letter-collections; and (d) the Byzantine epistolary canon and its typology.