Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity explores the
transformation of classical culture in late antiquity by studying
cultures at the borders - the borders of empires, of social
classes, of public and private spaces, of literary genres, of
linguistic communities, and of the modern disciplines that study
antiquity. Although such canonical figures of late ancient studies
as Augustine and Ammianus Marcellinus appear in its pages, this
book shifts our perspective from the center to the side or the
margins. The essays consider, for example, the ordinary Christians
whom Augustine addressed, the border regions of Mesopotamia and
Vandal Africa, 'popular' or 'legendary' literature, and athletes.
Although traditional philology rightly underlies the work that
these essays do, the authors, several among the most prominent in
the field of late ancient studies, draw from and combine a range of
disciplines and perspectives, including art history, religion, and
social history. Despite their various subject matters and scholarly
approaches, the essays in Shifting Cultural Frontiers coalesce
around a small number of key themes in the study of late antiquity:
the ambiguous effects of 'Christianization,' the creation of new
literary and visual forms from earlier models, the interaction and
spread of ideals between social classes, and the negotiation of
ethnic and imperial identities in the contact between 'Romans' and
'barbarians.' By looking away from the core and toward the
periphery, whether spatially or intellectually, the volume offers
fresh insights into how ancient patterns of thinking and creating
became reconfigured into the diverse cultures of the 'medieval.'
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