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| CONTENTS |
The eleventh century in Byzantium is all about being
in between, whether this is between Basil II and Alexios Komnenos, between the
forces of the Normans, the Pechenegs and the Turks, or between different social
groupings, cultural identities and religious persuasions. It is a period of
fundamental changes and transformations, both internal and external, but also a
period rife with clichés and dominated by the towering presence of Michael
Psellos whose usually self-contradictory accounts continue to loom large in the
field of Byzantine studies. The essays collected here, which were delivered at
the 45th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, explore new avenues of research
and offer new perspectives on this transitional period. The book is divided
into four thematic clusters: 'The age of Psellos' studies this crucial figure
and seeks to situate him in his time; 'Social structures' is concerned with the
ways in which the deep structures of Byzantine society and economy responded to
change; 'State and Church' offers a set of studies of various political
developments in eleventh-century Byzantium; and 'The age of spirituality'
offers the voices of those for whom Psellos had little time and little use:
monks, religious thinkers and pious laymen.
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