Publisher's Synopsis
There has never been a full study in any language of the contribution to medieval fiction of entertainment by writers in Greek. This book fills that gap and provides basic information for the non-specialist about Greek fiction during the period 1071-1453, as well as proposing new solutions to problems that have vexed previous generations of scholars. The most important advances made by the book are the application for the first time of sophisticated methods of literary analysis to the material, and the bridging of the artificial gap that in the past has separated 'Byzantine' literature, in a form of ancient Greek, from 'Modern Greek' writing, in the vernacular. As a result, it is argued that the long tradition of romance writing in Greek is both much more homogeneous, and of far greater literary sophistication, than has previously been realised. Throughout, consideration is given to relations and interconnections with similar literature in western Europe. There is a substantial, up-to-date bibliography.
