Studies on Byzantine Literature of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
(Byzantine literature is often regarded as little more tha...)
Byzantine literature is often regarded as little more than an agglomeration of stereotyped forms and generic conventions which allows no scope for individual thought or expression. Accordingly, histories of Byzantine literature tend to focus on the history of genres. The essays in this book challenge the traditional view. They attempt to show the coherence and individuality not of the genre but of author. By careful analysis of all the works of a given author, regardless of genre, these studies aim to reach behind the facade of convention, to discover not only biographical facts but also the writer's own likes and dislikes, his social views, his political sympathies and antipathies, his ethical and aesthetic standards.
Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
(Byzantium, that dark sphere on the periphery of medieval ...)
Byzantium, that dark sphere on the periphery of medieval Europe, is commonly regarded as the immutable residue of Rome's decline. In this highly original and provocative work, Alexander Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein revise this traditional image by documenting the dynamic social changes, that occurred during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Alexander Kazhdan was a Soviet-American historian, educator and writer, who specialized in Byzantine and Armenian studies. Also, he edited Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.
Background
Alexander Kazhdan was born on September 3, 1922, in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (present-day Moscow, Russian Federation) to a merchant family. He was a son of Petr Izrailevich Kazhdan, who was one of the leading experts in the technology of producing of lubricating oils in the Soviet tank industry.
Education
In 1939, Alexander entered the Faculty of History at Moscow State University, but because of his "bourgeois origin", he wasn't allowed to study there. He then entered the Extramural Department of M. Akmullah Bashkortostan State Pedagogical University, graduating in 1942.
In 1943, Alexander became a post-graduate student of Moscow State University. Later, he studied at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where Evgeny Alekseevich Kosminsky was his academic adviser. After defending of his dissertation, he again wasn't allowed neither to study not to work at Moscow scientific institutes, this time because of his "cosmopolitan" nationality.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Alexander held teaching positions in different cities, such as Tula, Velikie Luki and Ivanovo, before getting a teaching position at Moscow’s Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a post he held from 1956 to 1978. During this time, Kazhdan wrote almost seven hundred book reviews and articles for historical journals, as well as twenty books, all in Russian.
In 1975, Kazhdan's son, the mathematician David Kazhdan, emigrated to the United States, where he accepted a position at Harvard University. This produced an immediate change in Kazhdan's situation in the Soviet Union. His wife, Rimma, was fired from her position at a Moscow publishing house and censorship of Alexander's work by his superiors in the Soviet academic establishment increased.
In 1978, the historian and his wife left for Vienna. Later, in 1979, after some time of residence in Paris and Birmingham, the couple settled down in the United States, where Kazhdan accepted a position in Washington, D.C., at Dumbarton Oak’s Center for Byzantine Studies. While at Dumbarton Oaks, Kazhdan also wrote several books. He spent the remainder of his life at Dumbarton Oaks, where he held the position of senior research associate.
During his later years, the historian also edited Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.