From the Pagan Novels to Early Jewish and Christian Narratives: Refashioning Recognition

This chapter begins with a treatment of recognitions in Apollonius of Tyre, a narrative written in Latin but in many important ways, including its use of recognition, closer to the Greek novels. Recognitions again respond to the requirements of poetic justice. This novel is, however, original in pushing personal narratives as the only means to recognition. This feature connects Apollonius to the Christian Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, which likewise bans artificial tokens and reunites family members through their truthful stories. But at the same time in the Christian narrative, recognition of family members is not the end of the story but leads to conversion and is in a tension with it. The same holds true, though in a different manner, for the Jewish novel Joseph and Aseneth, in which conversion makes the heroine unrecognizable.