HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

juliano.multiculturas.com
from juliano.multiculturas.com More from this publisher
21.07.2015 Views

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL HISTORY CA. 500‒1000 55an important role in the defense of Gaul that they could not haveplayed, 41 and his biased characterization of Chilperic I, which ignoresthe king’s remarkable cultural dynamism and originality. 42Contemporary interpretations of the Historiae have tended to centeron two problems generated by Gregory’s narrative practice. Thefirst is a matter of technique, namely the extreme discontinuity ofthe text, which shifts constantly from political episodes to reports ofmiracles to stories of violent crimes and descriptions of portents. Ithas been suggested that the apparent chaos of his narratives reflectsthe moral and political disorder of his age and the inability of writersat that time to provide a coherent and organized account. 43 A newreading, however, places Gregory’s narrative style in line with theChristian critique of the rhetorical organization of late-antique historiographyand the advocacy of a simple language that would giveaccess to the events themselves. In juxtaposing dramatic incidents ofvery different sorts, Gregory is reaching for a rhetoric of events asopposed to words. 44 The setting side by side, mixte confusaeque, of miraclesand slaughter by a narrator who does not editorialize but maintainsan honest, detached, and possibly ironic tone proves Gregory’schosen genre to be prescriptive satire. 45 In identifying the genre ofthe Historiae, this argument addresses the second major interpretiveissue, namely Gregory’s ideological aim and its translation into anarrative scheme. The deliberate alternation of crimes and miraclescreates a picture of life in the world, morally uncertain and incoherentand the proper subject of satire. A weakness of this solutionis that evidence for the cultivation of satire in sixth-century Gaul isscanty. In addition, satire in the form of a prose history in ten bookswould have been so unprecedented in Gregory’s time (as in anyother) that it would have obscured and blunted the moral messageassociated with the genre.The literary form of Gregory’s narrative has been identified moreconvincingly by K. F. Werner, who characterizes historia as a lateantique/early medieval kind of Christian historiography that takesits inspiration from Orosius and the historical books of the Old41Banniard (1978).42James (1988), 165–68.43Auerbach (1946).44Goffart (1988), 162–83.45Goffart (1988), 197–203.

56 JOAQUÍN MARTÍNEZ PIZARROTestament, especially the Books of Kings. Historia is not national orethnic in subject, but centers instead on the functioning of a Christiansociety and very particularly on the duties of its rulers, who—in associationwith the priests of God—lead the people towards salvation. 46Drawing on Werner’s definition of historia, a recent study of Gregorysolves the problem of narrative discontinuity by tracing throughoutthe Historiae a non-chronological pattern of antitheses combined witha typological interpretation of history. 47 The work as a whole, butalso each individual book, must be read with these paradigmaticsymmetries in mind and particular attention must be paid to thefirst and last chapters of each book, which represent the terms ofthe antithesis, and to the thematic middle chapters, which ofteninvolve a mediation between those terms. This complex structurewould explain Gregory’s passionate opposition to any abbreviationor “improvement” of his text. The elaborate pattern would conveya definition of ecclesia as Christian society in its entirety and a pleafor full collaboration in its government between rulers and bishops,a collaboration that Chilperic I rejected and that his antithesis, thebonus rex Guntram, apparently was willing to practice. 48Of the historians of the early Middle Ages, Gregory always hasbeen considered the only one to give his readers a sense of the actuallife of the period, its daily realities and its emotional climate. Thisability of Gregory often has been presented as a function of his literarynaivety: the realism of his narrative was wholly unstudied, aneffect of his chaotic and spontaneous reproduction of what he witnessed.With the rise in appreciation of Gregory’s literary originalityand artfulness, pioneered by Auerbach in 1946, 49 it also has becomeapparent that Gregory’s fascinating ‘reality’, his world of dramaticcontrasts of sanctity and violence, is largely a product of his art andnot to be taken at face value by critical historians.46Werner (1987).47Heinzelmann (1994), esp. 84–135.48Heinzelmann (1994), 158–67. Ian Wood has proposed external (i.e., nonliterary)reasons for some of the discontinuities in the Historiae and particularly inthe moral characterization of the leading figures (Wood [1994] and, more generally,[1994b]). He identifies numerous erasures, delays, and diplomatic suppressions(e.g., in the portrayal of Chilperic before and after his murder) dictated by thecourse of events and political expediency.49Pp. 81–97, English edition 77–95. See also Auerbach (1958), 78–83 [Englishedition (1965), 103–12]; Thürlemann (1974); and Pizarro (1989).

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL HISTORY CA. 500‒1000 55an important role in the defense of Gaul that they could not haveplayed, 41 and his biased characterization of Chilperic I, which ignoresthe king’s remarkable cultural dynamism and originality. 42Contemporary interpretations of the Historiae have tended to centeron two problems generated by Gregory’s narrative practice. Thefirst is a matter of technique, namely the extreme discontinuity ofthe text, which shifts constantly from political episodes to reports ofmiracles to stories of violent crimes and descriptions of portents. Ithas been suggested that the apparent chaos of his narratives reflectsthe moral and political disorder of his age and the inability of writersat that time to provide a coherent and organized account. 43 A newreading, however, places Gregory’s narrative style in line with theChristian critique of the rhetorical organization of late-antique historiographyand the advocacy of a simple language that would giveaccess to the events themselves. In juxtaposing dramatic incidents ofvery different sorts, Gregory is reaching for a rhetoric of events asopposed to words. 44 The setting side by side, mixte confusaeque, of miraclesand slaughter by a narrator who does not editorialize but maintainsan honest, detached, and possibly ironic tone proves Gregory’schosen genre to be prescriptive satire. 45 In identifying the genre ofthe Historiae, this argument addresses the second major interpretiveissue, namely Gregory’s ideological aim and its translation into anarrative scheme. The deliberate alternation of crimes and miraclescreates a picture of life in the world, morally uncertain and incoherentand the proper subject of satire. A weakness of this solutionis that evidence for the cultivation of satire in sixth-century Gaul isscanty. In addition, satire in the form of a prose history in ten bookswould have been so unprecedented in Gregory’s time (as in anyother) that it would have obscured and blunted the moral messageassociated with the genre.The literary form of Gregory’s narrative has been identified moreconvincingly by K. F. Werner, who characterizes historia as a lateantique/early medieval kind of Christian historiography that takesits inspiration from Orosius and the historical books of the Old41Banniard (1978).42James (1988), 165–68.43Auerbach (1946).44Goffart (1988), 162–83.45Goffart (1988), 197–203.

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!