Fellow Seminar

Dr. Vesselina Vatchkova will make a presentation on the topic "The Byzantine Memories of Sofia" on 12 January 2012 (Tuesday) at 16.30h at CAS Conference Room.

Short summary:

The Byzantine Memories of Sofia
The construction and functions of memory are central topics in all studies concerning identity, whether it is national, regional, collective, cultural etc. In the context of globalization the theme of urban identity becomes particularly popular. Some aspects of memory have also been developed within the framework of mediaeval studies, in the researches on the construction of identity in the Medieval Latin world. The tendency to work on similar topics in the context of the so-called Eastern Orthodox world is observed in some, comparatively recently published, collections of papers from thematic conferences. But there is only one article dedicated to the Byzantine ‘art of memory' (Amy Papalexandrou, ‘The Memory Culture of Byzantium', in: A companion to Byzantium, ed. L. James. Blackwell companions to the ancient world. 2010, 108-122), not counting the volume Memory and Oblivion in Byzantium which was released a few months ago.
In short, the theme of the Eastern Christian and, more specifically, Balkan identities, remains not only marginalized but also reserved for the field of studies of Modern time - that is, the time of the Balkan nationalisms whose motives and expressions have nothing to do with the identity of the peoples from the so-called "Byzantine oecoumene". The medieval sense of belonging to the oecumene had little to do with the "imagined Byzantines by soul and spirit" of Julia Kristeva and even with the "real, hors-texte Balkan peoples" of Maria Todorova.
In this context, it is obvious that the first difficulty in developing the theme of Byzantine memories of Sofia stems from the extremely low level of research issues related to the Byzantine memory as such. The second problem is closely related to the first: as far as each memory is part of specific identity, it is very important to clarify not only what is meant by "Byzantine memories" but also by "memories of the Byzantine city". In terms of studying urban memory, it is safe to say that the investigations of the Middle Ages have not yet started. It could also be said that all researches on medieval memory overlook one very important fact which is otherwise well-known to scientists involved in early European historiography: medieval history, at least up to the 10th century, was written exclusively drawing on Byzantine memories. Byzantine recollection of history, first, presents church history as a common framework for all chronology. Second, since the mid-4th century, Byzantium began to conceive of the ecclesiastical history as the history of Oecumenical Councils convened by the emperors of Constantinople. This specific Byzantine view inevitably turned Constantinople in the absolute center of Memory of all events. According to this logic, all other places associated with other memories of the events were marginalized, and over time were forgotten or turned into legends. This process (whose impact was stronger and longer, the closer- geographically and ideologically - a given place was to Constantinople) made the oral history, closely linked with monuments and landscapes, а central source of local historical information for communities that otherwise had a rich literary tradition. It was not by chance that in the languages of the peoples of the inner circle of the so-called Byzantine oеcumene, the same verb ‘chuvam' means ‘hear' and ‘keep' (children, wealth, as well as memories).
The bibliographical and methodological trends in the direction and nature of research on Byzantine memory, suggest carrying out a comprehensive study on ‘Byzantine memories of Sofia' at three different levels:

- Byzantine memories as remembering and forgetting certain facts and figures from the past of Serdica-Triaditza-Sredetc-Sofia, imposed by Byzantine historiography, iconography and liturgy governed by short-term goals and long-term strategies of their own.

- Byzantine memories as legacy of the Byzantine past of the city preserved despite the effects of Byzantine historiography and propaganda - toponymy, monuments, stories, church and civic traditions.

- Еvents, personages and phenomena rejected by modern Bulgarian memory as Byzantine (i.e. pre- and post-Ottoman) memories.

The duration of these different levels of remembering, their interplay and interaction with external factors, will be presented through the prism of a now completely forgotten, but once one of the brightest and most persistent Sofian memories, the memory of St. Helena of Sofia.