{"id":10249,"date":"2017-07-30T16:45:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T20:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=10249"},"modified":"2017-07-30T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T21:12:26","slug":"byzantium-in-speculative-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=10249","title":{"rendered":"Byzantium in Speculative Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Science fiction and fantasy have borrowed liberally from just about every mythology and history — but among the most conspicuous elisions is Byzantium (a lacuna that reflects a similar erasure in first-world history, though for somewhat different reasons).\u00a0 The attempts to portray Byzantium in SFF can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and most are best passed over in silence.<\/p>\n

On August 4-6, there will be a conference<\/a> at Uppsala University titled “Reception Histories of the Future: Byzantinisms, Speculative Fiction and the Literary Heritage of Medieval Empire” organized by Dr. AnnaLinden Weller that will attempt to address this wrinkle (you can see the program here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Dr. Weller invited me to contribute, so I’ll be giving a talk by proxy that is a variation on my thoughts of the Akr\u00edtai and their unsung songs — with a brief sidebar about the millennia-long (and also fashionably erased) history of Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Black Sea.\u00a0 I’ll leave this entry open for comments, questions, etc. from anyone who attends my talk (or is interested in aspects of this matter).\u00a0 After the conference is over, I will mount the Powerpoint presentation here if it’s feasible, or post a download link.<\/p>\n

Relevant related posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being Part of One\u2019s Furniture; or, Appropriate Away!<\/a><\/p>\n

Who Will Be Companions to Female Kings?<\/a><\/p>\n

Caesars and Caesar Salads<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia, Romio\u00ed are Eastern European<\/a><\/p>\n

If I Forget Thee, O My Grandmother\u2019s Lost Home<\/a><\/p>\n

Mediterranean Diasporans: D\u00farin\u2019s Folk<\/a><\/p>\n

Image:<\/strong> A Byzantine wandering singer, the equivalent of a troubadour (6th century mosaic, Constantinople).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science fiction and fantasy have borrowed liberally from just about every mythology and history — but among the most conspicuous elisions is Byzantium (a lacuna that reflects a similar erasure in first-world history, though for somewhat different reasons).\u00a0 The attempts to portray Byzantium in SFF can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,12,13,7],"tags":[131,129,37,112,39,130,45],"class_list":["post-10249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-biology-and-culture","category-history","category-science-fiction","category-writing-and-literature","tag-akritai","tag-byzantium","tag-diaspora","tag-fantasy","tag-greeks","tag-history","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}