Pauli principium et finis. Narrative Discontinuity in Jerome’s Vita Pauli primi eremitae
Pauli principium et finis. Narrative Discontinuity in Jerome’s Vita Pauli primi eremitae

Summary/Abstract: Jerome’s Vita Pauli primi eremitae (Life of Paul the First Hermit) distinguishes itself by special disparity still provoking debates among scholars. The legend has two parts, one longer and one shorter, in which different heroes dominate and which are told in a different manner. This article aims to explain these peculiarities as a consequence of the change of the narrative arrangement of a hypothetical model the author drew upon. Jerome transformed the original two-level narrative structure with two homodiegetic narrators into a one-level chronological narrative told by a single heterodiegetic narrator. This transformation, however, had not been carried out consistently, which led to the above mentioned disparity and unclearness about the real protagonist of the legend.

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