BYZANTINE AND POST-BYZANTINE MODELS AND THEIR ADAPTATION, INTERPRETATION AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE SOUTH SLAVIC LITERATURE TRADITION AND ART

Scientific project, jointly with the Institute of Byzantine Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Bulgaria

The aim of the project is to cover various areas of medieval studies – history, source studies, literary and cultural heritage, art history, etc., with the issue being concentrated on the study of Byzantine literature and its reception by Serbs and Bulgarians; to outline the issue of the Orthodox Christian community and to identify the Byzantine model, to see how it was used as a dogma, worship and organization of monastic life, to emphasize the essential role of the Orthodox monasteries of Athos (the Bulgarian Zograf and the Serbian Hilendar) and to pay attention to the functioning of non-liturgical and secular texts.

The activities under the project are missions of the members of the team to work with manuscripts and primary sources: on the Bulgarian side to the book repositories in Belgrade and on the Serbian side to work in the Sofia book repositories; holding workshops, participating in conferences, etc.

The emphasis in the work will be placed on the study of Byzantine civilization and its spiritual, cultural and ideological connection with Serbia and Bulgaria. Byzantine literary and pictorial models will be examined and how they were adapted, interpreted and transformed in a South Slavic environment during the Middle Ages and until the Renaissance. These models are transferred through Slavic translations, but also have a strong influence on the original work of Serbs and Bulgarians, such as poetics, stylistics and genres.