Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2182
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Papaioannou , Eustratios N.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Michael Psellos' Rhetorical Gender
  • Source: Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 24, ( 2000): Pages 133 - 146.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Byzantium Femininity in Literature Gender in Literature Greek Literature Psellos, Michael, Historian- Letters Rhetoric Sources Synesios of Cirene, Bishop of Ptolemais and Author
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Eastern Mediterranean
  • Century: 5, 11
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: The following article discusses the rhetoric of Michael Psellos in light of his construction of a rhetorical gender. Focusing on one of his letters (to Ioannes Doukas, Sathas 72) where Psellos declares that he is female, the article proceeds to identify his textual source as Synesios of Kyrene (ca. 370-413). The comparison of text and intertext shows that, while Synesios uses femininity as a rhetorical motif, Psellos elevates it to a tool of a rhetorical self-identification defined by the specific social context of the eleventh century. [Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Catholic University of America
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2000.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 03070131