Research
Specialising in Greek literature from the imperial period and late antiquity as well as the interpretative traditions of these eras, I am currently finishing a book on Heliodorus’s Aethiopica, a virtuosic novel from the fourth century C.E. Bridging the gap between formal analysis and discursive approaches to literature, my study seeks to understand the Aethiopica’s responsivity to contrasting interpretative strategies in relation to the methods of contemporary reading communities such as Platonists, ‘sophists,’ and Christians.
My next project investigates how the literary production of late antiquity responds to the increasing popularity of allegorical interpretation in this transformative era. Moreover, I am preparing a conference on the role of allegory in the visual, religious, and literary cultures of late antiquity. Finally, I am working on a collaborative commentary on the forgotten Christian sequel to a ‘pagan’ Greek novel and the Byzantine afterlife of this innovative hagiographical work.
