CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Leonte, Florin |
|---|---|
| Title | Rhetoric in Purple: the Renewal of Imperial Ideology in the Texts of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos |
| Summary | This dissertation examines the forms and the ideological contents of the political messages embedded in the texts of a late Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391-1425). I focus on four of his writings: The Dialog with the Empress-Mother on Marriage (1396), The Foundations of Imperial Education (1406), The Seven Ethico-Political Orations (1408), and The Funeral Oration for His Brother Theodore, Despot of Morea (1411). At a time of deep political and social transformations the emperor tried to maintain his position of authority not only by direct political agency, but also by advertising his ideas about the imperial office and about the issues at stake in late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Throughout his reign, confronted with numerous challenges to his authority, Manuel II created a parallel literary court where he presided over a group of peer literati without his position being contested. It was from within this group that several of his texts were produced and subsequently disseminated in order to promote a renewed version of the idea of imperial authority. His ideological commitments valued education and the use of rhetorical skills as instruments of social and political change. Since my investigation involves the study of the underlying ideological assumptions of the emperor's political discourse, the present study takes into consideration two main areas of research: on the one hand, the political and social contexts in which the emperor's political messages appeared, and, on the other hand, the rhetorical forms and strategies used in the construction of his ideological stance. |
| Supervisor | Professor Niels H. Gaul |
| Department | Medieval Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/leonte_florin.pdf |
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