Sofia 2024 Call for Papers
Miraculous and Paradoxical Time Periods
For the 2024 conference, the Miracles and Paradoxography in Literature of Biblical Reception Unit especially invites papers on paradoxical and miraculous time frames. Jewish and Christian writers often expected the strange and exotic phenomena that are described in ancient paradoxography to be more frequent in earlier stages of creation, or in the eschatological reality just before the end. Particular ‘moments’ to be studied may include tohu wa-bohu and other pre-creational time periods, the six days of creation and the world to come, but also special days, such as the eve of Shabbat and Shabbat itself, the observance of Friday or Sunday, or the remembrance of the final week of Christ's life.
Papers may investigate how Jewish and Christian texts choose and describe the defining factors of these periods, the things that happen, grow, or simply exist in them. What kind of paradoxes or miracles, for example, are more likely to occur outside the recurring lunar or lunisolar calendars or at their fringes? What eschatological monsters, portents and other miraculous phenomena are situated in earlier eras of the world? And which ones, maybe as signs of impending doom, are marking future eras or initiate or signal simply the beginning of a new era?
In addition to papers that explore the interaction between paradoxographical phenomena and time, contributions interacting with paradoxography in other ways are also welcome.
