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The genre of late Byzantine romance comprises a corpus of twelve narratives in verse. The device of repetition – commonly acknowledged as a means of coherence and emphasis – shapes both narrative and poetic elements in these narratives.
The present talk explores the repetition of the semantic units of varying lengths at the levels of texture and structure. It starts by examining how the figures of binary and triple parallelisms – the essential components of repetition in Greek fifteen-syllable verse – operate in terms of form and content in the genre. Then, it highlights the role of repetition in achieving imagery, as it emerges when a series of semantically interlinked images is employed in scenic discourse. Finally, it demonstrates how the repetition foregrounds the topic(s) of interest, contributing to character self-characterization in dialogic discourse.
The present talk seeks to illustrate the functions of repetition – the governing principle of any premodern narrative – as evident in the last representative of premodern Greek romance.
