Epic traditions in the contemporary world : the poetics of community

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beissinger, Margaret H., 1954-

Contributor:

Tylus, Jane, 1956- Contributor.

Wofford, Susanne Lindgren, 1952- Contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epic literature--History and criticism.

Epic literature.

Literature and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (323 p.)

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] University of California Press 1999

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The epic tradition has been part of many different cultures throughout human history. This noteworthy collection of essays provides a comparative reassessment of epic and its role in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, as it explores the variety of contemporary approaches to the epic genre. Employing theoretical perspectives drawn from anthropology, literary studies, and gender studies, the authors examine familiar and less well known oral and literary traditions-ancient Greek and Latin, Arabic, South Slavic, Indian, Native American, Italian, English, and Caribbean-demonstrating the continuing vitality of the epic tradition.Juxtaposing work on the traditional canon of western epics with scholarship on contemporary epics from various parts of the world, these essays cross the divide between oral and literary forms that has long marked the approach to the genre. With its focus on the links among narrative, politics, and performance, the collection creates a new dialogue illustrating the sociopolitical significance of the epic tradition. Taken together, the essays raise compelling new issues for the study of epic, as they examine concerns such as national identity, gender, pedagogy, and the creation of the canon.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SECTION ONE On the Margins of the Scribal From Oral Epic to Text

1 Epic as Genre

2 Performing Interpretation: Early Allegorical Exegesis of Homer

3 The Arabic Epic Poet as Outcast, Trickster, and Con Man

4 Epic, Gender, and Nationalism: The Development of Nineteenth- Century Balkan Literature

SECTION TWO Epic and Authority

5 Metamorphosis, Metaphor, and Allegory in Latin Epic

6 Tasso's Trees Epic and Local Culture

7 Appropriating the Epic Gender, Caste, and Regional Identity in Middle India

SECTION THREE The Boundaries of Epic Performance

8 Problematic Performances: Overlapping Genres and Levels of Participation in Arabic Oral Epic-Singing

9 Worshiping Epic Villains: A Kaurava Cult in the Central Himalayas1

SECTION FOUR Epic and Lament

10 The Natural Tears of Epic

11 The Poetics of Loss in Greek Epic

12 The Role of Lament in the Growth and Eclipse of Roman Epic

SECTION FIVE Epic and Pedagogy

13 Epics and the Politics of the Origin Tale: Virgil, Ovid, Spenser, and Native American Aetiology

14 Walcott's Omeros The Classical Epic in a Postmodern World

CONTRIBUTORS

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-13964-4

0-520-91973-4

OCLC:

1414457535