The Monster at the End of His Book: Monstrosity as Theological Strategy and Cultural Critique in Tatian’s <i>Against the Greeks</i>Journal of Early Christian StudiesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/DKSAZPJG/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Allan T.GeorgiaThe Monster at the End of His Book: Monstrosity as Theological Strategy and Cultural Critique in Tatian’s <i>Against the Greeks</i>http://syriaca.org/cbss/DKSAZPJGhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/DKSAZPJGhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/DKSAZPJGJournal of Early Christian Studies26:22018191-219In Against the Greeks, Tatian develops a cultural critique by placing himself, his Greek education, and his "barbarian" ethnicity within the scope of the text's argument. I argue that this constitutes a deliberate strategy in which Tatian embodied a cultural monster—a hybrid creature that reflected both the mainstream of Greek paideutic values and the barbarian cultures that were antithetical to them—in order to secure a self-identity for himself and the early Christian communities for whom he presumed to speak. By performing his monstrosity in this way, he makes the case that Greek paideia is not a pure inheritance from a monolithic cultural tradition. Instead, Tatian posits a cultural theory that reflects his own hybrid self.
Georgia, Allan T. “The Monster at the End of His Book: Monstrosity as Theological Strategy and Cultural Critique in Tatian’s Against the Greeks.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 26:2 (2018): 191–219.
Allan T. Georgia, The Monster at the End of His Book: Monstrosity as Theological Strategy and Cultural Critique in Tatian’s Against the Greeks,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 26:2 (2018): 191–219.Greek cultureI-III CEII CETatianapologeticsethnicitypostcolonialism