Dr Benedek Kruchió
Research Fellow
SpecialisationImperial Greek and late antique literature and culture.
Research interestsBA Vienna, MA Berlin, PhD Cambridge.
Specialising in Greek literature from late antiquity and the interpretative traditions of this period, I am currently finishing a book on Heliodorus’s Aethiopica, a virtuosic novel from the fourth century C.E. Telling the adventures of an Ethiopian princess, this text testifies to the cultural complexities of its time: it is a story about race, unstable identities, sexual and religious purity. Bridging the gap between formal analysis and discursive approaches to literature, my study seeks to understand the Aethiopica’s responsivity to contrasting interpretative strategies in relation to the methods of contemporary reading communities such as Platonists, ‘sophists,’ and Christians.
In my new project I am investigating how the literary production of late antiquity responds to the increasing popularity of allegorical interpretation in this transformative era. In addition, I am currently preparing a conference on the visual, religious, and literary cultures of the imperial period – with a focus on allegory – and a collaborative commentary on the forgotten Christian sequel to a ‘pagan’ Greek novel.
Specialising in Greek literature from late antiquity and the interpretative traditions of this period, I am currently finishing a book on Heliodorus’s Aethiopica, a virtuosic novel from the fourth century C.E. Telling the adventures of an Ethiopian princess, this text testifies to the cultural complexities of its time: it is a story about race, unstable identities, sexual and religious purity. Bridging the gap between formal analysis and discursive approaches to literature, my study seeks to understand the Aethiopica’s responsivity to contrasting interpretative strategies in relation to the methods of contemporary reading communities such as Platonists, ‘sophists,’ and Christians.
In my new project I am investigating how the literary production of late antiquity responds to the increasing popularity of allegorical interpretation in this transformative era. In addition, I am currently preparing a conference on the visual, religious, and literary cultures of the imperial period – with a focus on allegory – and a collaborative commentary on the forgotten Christian sequel to a ‘pagan’ Greek novel.
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