Erasure in Late Antiquity

This volume, edited by Kay Boers, Becca Grose (University of St Andrews), Rebecca Usherwood (Trinity College Dublin) and Guy Walker (Trinity College Dublin), brings together eight essays by eminent scholars and early career researchers, reflecting on the phenomenon of erasure in Late Antiquity (c. 150 - 750 CE) and the various theoretical frameworks that can be used in studying this phenomenon.

Cancel culture

Cancel culture avant la lettre? Not only today but also in the past, discussions on erasure practices had an important place in debates on shaping the ideal society. Whether erasing grave inscriptions of conquered opponents, or deliberately ‘forgetting’ certain individuals or events, such erasure practices were a crucial means of societal ordering.

Erasure

The Late Antique period was marked by profound transformations in social, religious, and political life. Transformation, however, was not merely a process of change but also of erasure. What should remain part of the ideal society and what should not? Consider the various ways late antique legislation tried to erase certain religious groups (pagans, Jews, heretics), or the destruction of inscriptions, statues, and religious spaces by devout monks and bishops.

A multidisciplinary perspective

While the theme of erasure is gaining interest across various disciplines, there have been few attempts to consider erasure as a general phenomenon and explore it from a multidisciplinary perspective. One of the questions raised by this volume is what makes erasure in Late Antiquity unique compared to other periods. For instance, how do late antique erasure practices differ from other transformative events like the Beeldenstorm, and is there such a thing as a late antique cancel culture?

From a broad theoretical, chronological, and thematic focus, the contributions in this volume reflect on the processes of erasure and the strategies, actors and authorities behind them. The contributions to this volume seek to understand erasure as a flexible and diverse phenomenon, visible in different late antique media and material cultures.

Research meetings

This volume is the result of a number of workshops and research meetings organised by the Postgraduate and Early Career Late Antiquity Network between 2020 and 2022. These meetings aimed to support PhD students and young researchers during the COVID-19 crisis and provide them with an international context in which they could present their research.

The production of this volume also provided an opportunity for Utrecht students of the Research Master Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies to familiarise themselves with the basics of editing scholarly contributions.