Confined to Middle Byzantine literature, Pizzone and his contributors aim to pinpoint some historical and literary directions which may be used as a guiding thread and promote debate on the role of the author in Byzantine literary production beyond the dichotomies they describe as characterizing this field of studies. Sixteen essays are divided into three parts: modes, functions, identities. Essays include: voice, signature, mask: the Byzantine author; the ethics of authorship: some tensions in the 11th century; the poems of the late Gregory the Monk; authorial voice and self-presentation in a 9th-century hymn on the prodigal son; aristocracy and literary production in the 10th century; authorial identity and authorial intention in Michael Choniates’s work; anonymity, dispossession and reappropriation in the Prolog of Nikephoros Basilakes; authorship and gender (and) identity: women’s writing in the Middle Byzantine; the authorial voice of Anna Komnene. There are notes on citation and transliteration, notes on contributors, a list of abbreviations, and bibliography. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)