Faculty ForumNovember 20, 2001 at 5:30–7 p.m.

"Is Isocola the Real Thing? The Case from the Medieval Croatian Monks." A persistent but haunting feature of medieval Slavic literature is the obvious but undefined rhythmical cadence that pervades the texts. One theory states that the rhythmical structures of medieval Slavic prose are isocolic, that is, composed of lines containing equal numbers of stresses though not equal numbers of syllables. This controversial proposal seems be to supported by the graphic evidence found in the so-called Glagolitic manuscripts of medieval Croatia. The talk illustrates how these manuscripts reflect the possible isocolic rhythms of the prose and how these structural features place medieval Croatian literature in the transitional cultural and confessional arena between the Orthodox Slavic and Roman Slavic traditions.