ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes the significance of subversion in individual disciplines of Byzantine studies and raise questions of wider importance. In 1982 Alexander Kazhdan wrote, Under the flattering and coaxing surface of their writings the Byzantine intellectuals concealed an ability to express candid ideas and opinions, to defend their friends, and to criticize not only single representatives of the imperial power but also the very essence of Byzantine autocracy. This intellectual attitude situated by Kazhdan under the rubric of 'the ambivalence of reality' has come to be viewed since as a characteristic of subversion in Byzantium. In the year when Kazhdan steered Byzantinists toward uncharted territories, Margaret Alexiou pioneered the study of subversion in Byzantine literature. A little-known and attractive side of Byzantine political and literary culture has thus been uncovered: its capacities for critique and play with authority, rules and traditions.
