International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Joan Davison
Rollins College, Winter Park FL, United States; 
[e-mail]
Jesenko Tešan
University College Cork, Cork, Republic of Ireland; 
[e-mail]
Byzantine Spirit of the ‘Undead’ and Its Legacy in the Sick Man of Europe
This paper examines the source and consequences of permanent liminality in the Byzantine 
Empire. The paper argues that the ambiguous and incomplete identities of individuals, groups, 
and society associated with the arrested liminal period(s) contributed to the decline of the Empire. 
Further, and significantly, the unresolved situation of disaggregated identity, or spirited away 
demos, persisted in the Ottoman Era and continues to infect contemporary socio-political affairs 
in regions in the Balkans. The paper analyses the role of pseudo-intellectuals and sophists who 
derail the democratic and philosophical Hellenist traditions of the Roman Empire. The research 
compares and links the institutional attempts of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires to manage 
and manipulate differences and distinctions through mechanisms such as theatricalisation and the 
millets. The argument concludes that these strategies created the basis for the perpetualisation of 
the sick man of Europe to the extent they focused on juggling the distinctions and identities of the 
empires rather than pursuing the development of the democratic self. Thus in liminality is revealed 
and contained “undead” and viral spirits, sometimes manifested in populist or extremist leaders, 
which trick the demos.

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WEDNESDAY, 24
TH
AUGUST
BYZANTINE LITERARY MODELS AND PATTERNS OF 
RECEPTION: TRANSLATION AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE 
SLAVONIC AND MIDDLE EASTERN TRADITIONS
Conveners:
 Anissava
Miltenova
,