Theme and aims

The first workshop:

New Themes, New Styles in the Eastern Mediterranean (5th–8th Centuries): Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Encounters,

was held in Oud Poelgeest Castle, Oegstgeest, the Netherlands (13-15 December 2012). (A map of Oud Poelgeest: click here.)

The workshop, as is reflected in its title, builds on and aims to revisit the following two seminal articles by Prof. Averil Cameron:

‘New Themes and Styles in Greek Literature: Seventh-Eights Centuries’, in A. Cameron and L. I. Conrad (eds.), The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Material (Princeton, 1992), 81-105;
‘New Themes and Styles in Later Greek Literature – A Title Revisited’, in Scott Fitzgerald Johnson (ed.), Greek Literature in Late Antiquity. Dynamism, Didacticism, Classicism (Aldershot, 2006), 11-28.

The main subject of New Themes, New Styles… was addressed by focussing on sub-themes such as apocalyptic literature, chronography, exegetica, and art/material culture. Some of these were due to be continued and expanded in the following workshops in Oxford, Berlin, and Budapest.

The said workshop hosted some 30 invited participants. Its programme included some 10 sessions in total.